LogoLounge 2

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Job no:82185(CTP) Title : RP-Logolounge 2 Client : Pro-vision

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175 Size : 228.6(w)279.4(h)mm Co : M6 C0 O/P: CTP

Dept : DTP D/O : 27.08.04 (Job no:82185C1 D/O : 29.09.04 Co: CM6)

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No matter how acclaimed Elvis

Presley may be, there are few

people who would lend any praise

whatsoever to his album covers.

Designer Thomas Vasquez, cre-

ative director of cYclops, a design

and production firm, thinks he

knows why the designs were

so pedestrian.

“Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’s man-

ager, carried with him a toolbox

full of photos and other elements

that he called his ‘instant album

cover design kit.’ Parker would sit

down and literally in two minutes

design a cover. He’d say, ‘The type goes here, put some stripes

on here, use this photo, print

Elvis in big letters,’ and that would

be it,” Vasquez says.

Elvis fans, somehow, chose to embrace this poor design and hold

it almost sacred, as a crucial component of the Elvis mystique.

So Vasquez’s task in creating a cover design for a new RCA col-

lection of Elvis hits was made all the more difficult. Not only would

he have to please the client, he would also have to placate a fan

base that might not be all that receptive to the change.

When Vasquez, himself a long-time Elvis fan, began working on

the first project, a CD cover, he was freelancing. As more and

more hours were poured into the work, he was invited to join the

cYclops staff as creative director. What began as a single mark

for a CD cover soon became an extensive branding program,

complete with a TV special and mobile exhibit.

“The client wanted this program to be so comprehensive that

wherever the mark and its accompanying visual language would

be seen, it would feel like it came from the same voice,” he says.

The design challenge would be to depict Elvis’s entire career, from

his rockabilly roots in the 1950s to his last hit in 1977, represent-

ing his music, movies, and lifestyle.

The initial approach boiled the

concept of Elvis down to its

essence. Because of his nick-

names was “E,” and this CD was a

compilation of his number-one

hits, the idea naturally led to the

creation of an “E1” logo. Vasquez

liked this approach very much, but

the client felt it was too reductive.

(Ultimately, this design was used

on the CD itself, as well as on the

driver’s door of the truck that

transported the mobile exhibit.)

Vasquez’s solution for the world-

wide advertising campaign focused

on the “delivery mechanism” for all of Elvis’s number-one hits: his

mouth. The curled lip and squared chin are recognized around the

world. Vasquez simplified the message further by running the

photo as a black and gold duotone to complement the already

established program color palette of gold, black, and white.

The new CD, with its modern representation of Elvis, quickly

became a number-one best seller, surpassing earlier Elvis

releases. But the design of a compilation CD was not as warmly

received. This design also employed the photo cropping Vasquez

used for the first design. It resembles the “E1” mark, because it

works the numeral 2 into a photo of the face of the star.

The mark soon became the topic of many online chat groups,

where Vasquez’s work was blasted from all directions and even

reworked by those who were particularly outraged. Redesigns

were posted on the Internet, voted on by fans, and submitted to

RCA as bona fide alternatives. One critic compared Vasquez’s

design to “a coffee mug.”

Vasquez admits that the criticism stung, but he believes the bile

arose from his violating the established visual language of Elvis.

“Without a challenge, people will feel comfortable just regurgi-

tating the past. The language will not advance,” he says.

Elvis

Identity Design

cYclops, New York, New York

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