Graphic designer Simon Halfon recently released his book “Cover to Cover” showcasing the many iconic album covers he created, including several of George Michael’s.
Halfon has designed album covers for Oasis, The Who, Blue Note, Madness, Steve Winwood, David Bowie, among others. Of George’s albums, Halfon worked on the album covers of “Symphonica“, “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1“, “Freedom 90“, and “Five Live EP.”
In an interview with Halfon, he cited working with George as one of the memorable moments of his career so far:
“Working with George on Listen Without Prejudice – was a big moment for me. He was truly one of the good guys and a great friend. It’s still probably my personal favourite sleeve. Great record from a great artist.”
SOURCE: Cover to Cover: We Speak to The Man Behind Some of The Most Classic Record Covers – Simon Halfon, Plus, Win a Copy!
Here is Halfon’s description of how the album cover for “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1” came about:
“George had in mind that, with this record, he wanted to be judged solely on the music, with no image of himself on the cover. His initial thought was a completely plain sleeve – his preferences were blue or white, with silver lettering. I’d been down that particular road with The Style Council, and the orange cover for The Cost of Loving, so I needed no further encouragement. Management on the other hand were not quite so convinced… explaining, in no uncertain terms, that no one would even stock this record with this cover. He could be quite convincing so it was, quite literally, back to the drawing board.
“I’d bought George a coffee table book for his birthday in June. It was an anthology of 20th Century photography, and we started flicking through it for some kind of inspiration, now that the blue cover had been nixed. Immediately, Weegee’s 1940 image of (what was estimated to be) over a million sunbathers jumped off the page. We both looked at each other and said, ‘That’s the cover.’ No typography on the front, just letting the image speak for itself. We were both fans of Peter Saville’s work and I think there was a little bit of that influence on this sleeve. Rolling Stone Magazine in 1991 listed this as one of the LP covers of the year, which was pretty cool. Such a great LP; in my opinion it’s the definitive George Michael album.”
