ARTIST: Living Colour | ALBUM: Vivid | LABEL: Epic Records | YEAR: 1988 | ARTWORK: The Thunder Jockeys

This UK-based graphic design team of Graham Elliott & John England. One day Graham Elliot received a phone call from Steve at CBS asking him if he was interested in doing the artwork for Vernon Reid's new band. The album had yet to be named and were told to "just slap in a type sample where you want the name to go” and so they did. At that time they working at a design company named VIVID. So... they cut out the company letterhead and placed it on the artwork. It was supposed to be a space holder to help give the band an idea of what the album cover would look like with it's title in the upper right hand corner. At the same time there also was no band logo designed either. Immediately before sending the package back to the United States for approval they quickly created one by hand and misspelled the word color. Well, they actually didn't misspell it (that's the proper English spelling) but it stuck. ALL of it. Vernon Reid (and the band) saw the connection between visual artwork and sonic artwork. Both expressing something similar, powerful and full of life.