Black Uhuru + Sly & Robbie - Taxi Trax
Tabou1 records, a French reggae label working with Sly & Robbie, was recommended to me by photographer Adrian Boot. They were seeking a designer for the collaborative project between Black Uhuru and Sly & Robbie titled "Taxi Trax". As I had previously worked with both Black Uhuru and Sly & Robbie, it was great to reunite with them and work on their music.
Unfortunately, shortly after starting the project, Robbie passed away, causing a delay of almost a year. The project's brief was to create a hard, gritty cover image, so I collaged several of Adrian's photos together and combined them with images of rusty old metal sheets to achieve the desired effect.
Black Uhuru - Live at Soledad Prison 1982
During discussions with Guillaume from Tabou1 about the project, it was discovered that he had film clips and stills from the actual performance at Soledad prison. I saw an opportunity to make the project unique and collectable by utilizing augmented reality.
Guillaume liked the idea, so I went ahead and created a sleeve with trigger images
inside the gatefold alongside a retro design for the cover image. The triggers images activate clips of the various live performances while the cover an animated promo clip for the whole album created by Ravi Swami.
Gregory Isaacs - IKON
This project came to me via Dave Robinson - my old MD at Island Records and the man behind Bob Marley's Legend campaign. We discussed many options but decided to model this compilation in the same vein as Legend cover. We got in touch with photographer Adrian Boot who had taken a perfect studio shot of Gregory and a wonderful panoramic shot of Kingston town JA lit up at night.
It seemed like a good idea to strip the two together and when doing so the overall image just naturally worked. The back cover again was compiled in photoshop from a series of shots that Adrian had taken of Gregory performing on stage. Again it was just something that worked. The album is still due for release at some stage but I couldn't wait to feature it on my site.
Island Reggae Greats
This was a compilation series of the greatest Reggae artists on Island. Originally this had been packaged in the states but the sleeves were very dull and cheap looking. So I decided to repackage and commissioned the very best illustrators and painters in the UK to create images based around each artist and their story. I also got the artists to create large canvas some of which were huge. We launched the series in an up market London gallery which was a huge success. The above image was created by Paul Wearing for the 'Strictly for Rockers' compilation. We printed it as a T shirts which became hugely popular. Celebs like Boy George were seen wearing it and we ended up selling them in top stores around the UK. A big Jamaican T shirt company also produced them and they became the best selling T shirt in the whole of the West Indies.
Illustrated by Cathie Felstead
Illustrated by Brian Grimwood
Illustrated by Christopher Brown
Illustrated by Ian Wright
Illustrated by Paul Leith
Illustrated by Paul Wearing
Illustrated by Donna Muir & Sue Huntley
Illustrated by Sue Curtis
Illustrated by Paul Leith
Illustrated by Ian Pollock
Illustrated by Ashley Cole
Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra - Minnie The Moocher
One of my favourite videos. I chose a small club in central London who allowed us to use it on condition it would all be clear when they opened that evening so the pressure was on. One huge advantage of choosing a small location is that you don't need a lot of people to fill it. The theme was to recreate the cotton club. It was a full on costume event featuring old time friends the IDJ's who worked their magic. The stunning Robin Grimes played 'Minnie' whose smile was worth a million bucks. Tracey Josephs produced. I always remember Chris Blackwell calling me from New York to say he'd just seen it and I nervously waited for his reaction...fortunately he was blown away.
The Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra - Debut album
The problem was there's a lot of them in the orchestra. So what we needed was space. I always loved photographer Richards Haughton's work particularly his landscape images. So we got together and chose Brighton beach and it's stoney beaches. The idea was to manipulate the colour to create to create arty look.
Dean Fraser - Redemption Song
I had a sketch of this idea pinned to the wall above my desk but my intention was to use it for the great sax player Manu Dabango. The problem was he never seemed to come into London. However one day I got a call to say Dean Fraser was going to be in town and that I should take some photographs of him that afternoon for his album cover.
AWARE.ZONE - Reggae T's
The Ska logo was in fact the first job I did for Island. I was blown away by the fact they printed up some T shirts and Bob Marley and the Island football team wore them. Unfortunately that was pre iphones so no photos were taken.
Sly & Robbie - Boops
Shot by top photographer Brian Griffin. Using a sheet of glass suspended in front of Sly & Robbie, water was poured on the glass creating natural distortions. Brian always had a way to create in camera magic in the simplest unexpected way.
Sly & Robbie - Boops
The video was shot in London. We flew in Jamaican actor Carl Bradshaw (The Harder they Come, Third World Cop) to play Boops.
Sly & Robbie - Fire
Shot under the Westway in London. Trouble Funk stepped in and
Beauty's only skin deep
Distant thunder
Set them free
54 46 What's my number?
Bonnie & Clyde
What is life?
Victims
Living legacy
Tear it up
Anthem
Make'em move
State of emergency
Reggae T's
The Ska logo was in fact the first job I did for Island. I was blown away by the fact they printed up some T shirts and Bob Marley and the Island football team wore them. Unfortunately that was pre iphones so no photos were taken.
Sly & Robbie - Boops
The video was shot in London. We flew in celebrated Jamaican actor Carl Bradshaw (The Harder they Come, Third World Cop) to play Boops. The Jamaican patios defines Boops as someone who thinks they are in an intimate/sexual relationship with another person that is based on love but in reality, he/she is used only for finical benefits.
Sly & Robbie - Boops
The video was shot in London. We flew in celebrated Jamaican actor Carl Bradshaw (The Harder they Come, Third World Cop) to play Boops. The Jamaican patios defines Boops as someone who thinks they are in an intimate/sexual relationship with another person that is based on love but in reality, he/she is used only for finical benefits.
Sly & Robbie - Boops
The video was shot in London. We flew in celebrated Jamaican actor Carl Bradshaw (The Harder they Come, Third World Cop) to play Boops. The Jamaican patios defines Boops as someone who thinks they are in an intimate/sexual relationship with another person that is based on love but in reality, he/she is used only for finical benefits.
Sly & Robbie - Boops
The video was shot in London. We flew in celebrated Jamaican actor Carl Bradshaw (The Harder they Come, Third World Cop) to play Boops. The Jamaican patios defines Boops as someone who thinks they are in an intimate/sexual relationship with another person that is based on love but in reality, he/she is used only for finical benefits.
