Vaughan Oliver and my 4AD Records 

What a lovely man, so so talented… had a relationship with his sister for 5 years… we got on great. So very sad, a brilliant man.

This is a wonderful and informative overview. Thank you.

I love everything about the classic era from 4AD a very unique label, artistry community and a beautiful concept as a whole universe. 23 Envelope, and V23 were very innovative and creative, love their works.

I deeply love everything that the legendary 4AD was up to the year 1989 and I love everything that 23 Envelope created for the releases of those golden years. The visionary abstraction, the refined aestheticism and the symbolism that characterize the graphic contexts of the 23 Envelope record sleeves still today have no comparison. I admire every detail of all the sleeves released by this legendary graphic design partnership between Vaughan Oliver and Nigel Grierson; in my personal opinion, the best ones have been those of the 1985 album "Clan Of Xymox" and the subsequent single "A Day" by Clan Of Xymox. Since the year of their release I have always looked for information on how those great sleeves were created and now, thanks to this video, I have been able to know some more elements. As noted in the credits of the album, Vaughan Oliver created the design of the images, while from what I understand, his college teacher Terry Dowling was the creator of the screenprint and the one who took the photo of the dolls ( which are supposed to be typical Sicilian puppets from the Contradino Theater ... of which nothing is known ... ) . I love the burnt colors of these sleeves, especially the peculiarity of the letters of the tracklist, cropped, cut out one by one and glued in an elementary way on the backgrounds of the front, on the back, in the inner sleeve and on the record vinyl. Some of these letters are clear, others blurred by halos, others doubled and others made evanescent by misty effects. Extraordinary top art, work to say the least sublime, that by Vaughan. For me, these two masterpieces of record sleeves will always remain unique and immortal.

4AD was a massive influence on me in my 20s, musically they soundtracked so much of it, then later as I became interested in photography & design, opened up a whole new world. Vaughan Oliver, 23 Envelope, V23 were absolutely incredible, the perfect fit for 4AD, they elevated the music, and made 4AD records a desirable commodity, they blew my mind in my 20s, 30 years later, they still blow my mind!

The first pressing of Doolittle on vinyl came with a 16 page booklet. Which is the same as the CD booklet but around the size of an LP.

Great to see you back. Love that shirt. Enjoyed seeing your 4AD records. Hope you're doing well.

Insightful and very well presented. Great video tribute to Vaughan's work Jim and by extension to the time when 4ad was special.

Jim, great video. Super full of interesting info. I had no idea he was doing all of that for all of that time. I've been educated. I have to admit I am not a fan of much of his later work even though I had no idea he was doing any of that. I always thought of him as the early 80s 4AD guy and didn't realize he kept going. Cool.

This is why RU-vid is still relevant to me. Jim, this is perfect and exactly what I needed during the down time we are all living through.Thank You!

The combination of cocteau twins cover art with the music is fantastic. The Dead can Dance cover for Spleen and Ideal is nice to look at too.

Fabulous. I almost missed your return. You made the perfectly curated and designed profile of VO’s work. Obviously the designer in you aligns. Welcome home into your new house. I’m sure it’s fabulous and looking forward to more video showcases 🌸. Be well. M.

Jim! Was not expecting to see you back so soon, but the joy is ours :) The moment I saw the news about Vaughan Oliver I was thinking of you, and secretly hoping you might do a video like this. A fantastic wade through one of the most singularly recognisable bodies of design in music, and yet Oliver seemed to be as enigmatic as the covers he worked on. Thank you for all the background info, especially the work with Nigel Grierson - they had a very fruitful partnership, and I am pretty sure Oliver might not have started so strongly without Grierson. I really can't think of 4AD records without them having a certain type of photograph, design and typography - the house style was just so strong that I sometimes even wondered that by the mid 00's and on (beyond Oliver's time) if the art design drove the music! But in the early days it was clearly a unifying style when the music was across so many parts of the spectrum (like that bulgarian folk album, for example). A great video and one I absolutely relished - one that truly puts the 'designs' in your moniker :) Fantastic stuff, cheers- Dean

Great to see your collection of 4AD/23 Envelope work. I missed Spleen and Ideal though, one of my favorites. I always thought this was 23 Envelope. Wasn’t it?

!

The Sound - Heads And Hearts album on Statik Records from 1985

Hey Jim!