Art history #1 (Safety EP)

June 10, 2010 5:38 pm

The first of a new series of interviews with the designers of Coldplay's artwork

Welcome to the first in a new series of interviews here on Coldplay.com, where we'll be talking to the designers behind the band's single and album covers, trying to find out the stories behind them.

 

We begin with Coldplay's very first release, the self-funded Safety EP, of which only 500 copies were released in May 1998. Its cover was designed by a friend of the band, John Hilton. Read what he has to say about it below this nice, big picture of the cover...

 

 

Hi John. So you designed Coldplay's first two covers.

I did, yeah. The Safety one and the Brothers & Sisters one.

 

How did you meet them?

I was friends with Jonny from school. In fact, I was in a band with him in sixth form. When he moved to London for university, I moved to Birmingham to do an art course. They started doing their band stuff and I'd come down to visit them in halls of residence. I was doing photography at the time, so I was taking lots of photographs of them when they first started.

 

And how did you come to design the Safety EP cover?

My course was a a commercial art course, so I asked if I could do a cover for one of my projects. And they were happy to do that. At the time, nobody really thought they were going anywhere, so nobody was that bothered!

 

Where is that photograph from?

It's just a photograph that I took of Chris. Just a really blurry picture. And the Safety bit actually came from the little bit of writing on the top of the camera film. I just dropped the negative down and it came out on the print.

 

Is that where it got its title from?

I think so, yeah. They were happy just to leave it there. So the name came from the picture.

 

Where's the picture of Chris from?

Probably from a gig at the Laurel Tree, in London.

 

Is it deliberately blurred?

Well, there were just loads of pictures, all in black and white. There were blurred ones and sharp ones, but that one just looked nicely weird. I suppose at the time, I was justifying it as trying to capture him moving around the stage and being all crazy. And it also it fitted in with that dark, Radiohead-y thing that everyone was into at the time.

 

Did you create the Coldplay logo too?

I can't actually remember who did that. But I might well have done.

 

Did you have other ideas for that cover?

I think there's a sketch book somewhere full of other ideas. There were even more Brothers & Sisters. I've got a whole notebook somewhere where Chris and the boys have written comments on each picture, saying things "No, I don't like this one, it's too spooky" or whatever. And then eventually we'd narrow it down to the one that they liked.

 

Were they taking the band quite seriously by this point?

Oh, definitely. At the time I did think they were going to get big, and I was telling all my mates at college about them. I remember when they did start making it, I was like "See, I told you!" It did always seem like they'd get somewhere. I'd go up with them to In The City or whatever to help put up posters and that sort of thing. It was obvious they were really good, but whether you got that lucky break or not was another thing. Happily, they did.

 

Were they demanding about the Safety EP cover?

No, they were quite easy with that one. The second one was a bit more difficult.

 

The Safety EP itself is worth quite a lot of money now.

Yeah. And guess what, I haven't got any! At the time my dad was telling me to ask for loads of them, but I thought that'd be a bit crass! But I used to take a few copies round in my portfolio when I was trying to get work as a graphic designer. They'd started to get big by then and it was a really good way of getting jobs in design places. My two are not the most amazing covers, obviously, but they did help me get some jobs! But as a consequence, I broke all the CD cases that I had and the CDs themselves got pulled out and put in different places, so I've ended up with none.

 

It'll cost you quite a bit to buy another.

Apparently so. I've heard they go for £800 on eBay.

 

But you're not very proud of the cover?

Actually, I like the Safety EP one. It's not a brilliant photograph by any means, but the reason I like it is that it's a photograph by a kid at college of some kids at college and they went on to be a really big band. So, in that way, I'm really chuffed about it.

 

Look out for Art history #2 (Brothers & Sisters) soon...

 

http://www.coldplay.com/newsdetail.php?id=629

Such a nice read! :nice:

The Safety EP itself is worth quite a lot of money now.

Yeah. And guess what, I haven't got any!

 

:lol: I like this part!

And the Safety bit actually came from the little bit of writing on the top of the camera film. I just dropped the negative down and it came out on the print.

Is that where it got its title from?

I think so, yeah. They were happy just to leave it there. So the name came from the picture.

Interesting. :thinking:

 

I always thought Safety had such a mysterious cover (though I'm perhaps more perplexed by Brothers & Sisters). Good read!

Excellent!Great idea.Can't wait for the other interviews

I didn't actually realise it was Chris!

Kinda cool to know that the title 'Safety' had absolutely no mysterious meaning behind it.

Although some people will probably find that a bit depressing.

decided a new thread would be good, looks like its going to be a fairly big series! :D

Oooh you moved it out of the small reminders thread...I was totally confused for a minute then. Thought I'd blacked out and created a new thread :uhoh:

 

Good idea :D

:laugh3:

decided a new thread would be good, looks like its going to be a fairly big series! :D

Yes, I hope it will also include the artwork for all the singles, not just the LPs and EPs. Basically... everything in the "Recordings" section on coldplay.com.

I didn't actually realise it was Chris!

Well I've learnt something too, I thought it was Guy!

I like the initiative!

This is a cool thread!!

I never thought that the one on the cover was Chris.

I'll presume they'll interview the artist who did the singles for the viva era

like

and designed the viva la vida on the painting on the album cover...

 

 

and not bringing Eugene Delacroix back to life :blank:

I'll presume they'll interview the artist who did the singles for the viva era and designed the viva la vida on the painting on the album cover...

 

and not bringing Eugene Delacroix back to life :blank:

:laugh3:

What a cool idea for interviews. Should be interesting.

It´s crazy he talks about when the guys were unknown. It´s a pitty he doesn´t have any Safety EP

This is a really neat idea! I was really excited to see it on the homepage :)

This is a nice idea, I'm looking forward to getting more of an insight into the covers.

 

Like others have said, I had no clue that picture was of Chris! It's not exactly obvious is it?! :laugh3:

What if say one is released once a month or once a fortnight spanning the whole discography section then when they reach the end the announce lp5's title and artwork!

^ :awesome: I could see that happen! :cheesy:

Art history #2 (Brothers & Sisters)

July 6, 2010 9:10 pm

The second in our new series of interviews with the designers of Coldplay's artwork

 

We continue our new series of interviews with the designers behind Colpdplay's single and album covers, with a look at the band's second release, Brothers & Sisters. Like their first single, it was designed by a friend of the band, John Hilton.

 

 

Hi John. So, after you'd done the artwork for the Safety EP, Coldplay then got a single deal with Fierce Panda and you were asked you to do the next artwork too.

That's right.

 

What was the thought process behind that one?

That was more like a proper project at college. I treated them like the client. At the time, they were quite into Radiohead, so it was quite Radiohead-y. I did lots of ideas in sketchbooks and on Photoshop. And this was when Photoshop was still quite new.

 

What's on the cover?

Well there's just a little image of some drowning, bobbing people, in that sketchy way. They quite liked that, but it was a bit boring on its own. I had this picture from my back garden in my horrible little student home in Birmingham. I remember there was this white pitbull dog in the garden next door which just used to bark constantly and drive me nuts. So it was a kind of angst-y, teenage-y picture, and it was supposed to be about being somewhere not so great. It was middle class angst, I suppose.

 

That picture was taken out of your bedroom window?

Exactly, from my college digs. So it's a solarised, negative version of that. You can see a fence, a couple of bin bags and that dog that was always barking. And over the top it's the drawing of Coldplay.

 

By this stage the band were beginning to go places. Were you under more pressure for this one?

No, I remember it being brilliant. I was really good friends with Jonny - I still am - so I'd go down there to see them all the time at university. And I'd be going with them to Fierce Panda. It felt like I was part of a team. They were very good at making everyone feel welcome. I was properly involved when they were recording things, as was all of our bunch of friends. We'd all be around. I was in the Fierce Panda studios working on the artwork and deciding where all the text and the logo would go. It just felt like I was helping them out, and vice versa.

 

Do you own a copy of this one?

Yeah, I have got that one. It's a bit battered though. It's had a lot of use.

 

How do you look back on that cover?

At the time I thought it was good, but you look back and it just looks like a pile of college rubbish now!

 

It has a certain charm. It's not too slick.

No, it certainly wasn't! This is the point where they still looked like geeky students. There was nothing polished about it.

 

So once they signed for Parlophone did your role as art man end?

Yeah, that's when it started to become a proper competition. Which was fine. I actually think I had better covers for the Brothers & Sisters one at the time - although in hindsight, they'd have looked rubbish as well - but that was the one that they chose.

 

Can you remember what the other options were?

Oh there's a whole load of them somewhere. I went off on loads of tangents. But I don't think they ever expected it to go massively stellar at that point. I think they just thought, screw it, it's of its time, it doesn't matter. And it doesn't really matter. It sells on the basis that it's this great early single from a now big band, and it's almost better that it's got a crap cover.

 

Crap is harsh. Have you designed other record covers since?

Only for bands I've been in. I've put down Photoshop now, really.

 

Do you still tell people that you've designed covers for Coldplay?

I used to, but I don't any more. I'll mention it occasionally if it comes up.

 

It's a pretty cool string to have on your bow.

Yeah, it's great. Although I'm more proud of the hundreds of photographs I've got of them rehearsing in their flat.

 

Have you got any plans to do anything with those?

They're all in a big Camden recycling box at the moment, in my wardrobe. Maybe one day I'll dig them all out. But it never felt right to try and exploit that sort of thing.

 

And you're still in touch with them?

Yeah. Jonny was my best man at my wedding, along with my friend Gav. We hang out all the time.

 

They've done quite well for themselves.

Brilliantly, I'm very, very proud.

 

Are you in a band still?

I am. I've been in a few bands over the years - Bettina Motive and Grand Transmitter. The one I'm in now is called The Complete Short Stories. It's a seven-piece with a girl singer. We've just done an album on Pointy records, which is a subsidiary of Fierce Panda. It's all going quite well at the moment.

 

Big thanks to John for the chats. Click here to check out The Complete Short Stories on MySpace.

the dog´s thingy scares me. I don´t know why. This pic is kinda horror movie where you start to discover many strange things :embarrassed: