TALKINGHEADS:77

OUOTE No. 11

The front cover of Talking Heads:77 was designed by me in a little graphic design studio on 57th St. where I was working as my day job. They mostly did the design of pop-up makeup displays that you see on department store counters. I was what was called the stat man - this was pre computers, so type and for-position-only photos were enlarged and reduced photographically.
I had plenty of down time, so I used the same Times typeface we’d been using on our homemade fly posters and decided that, like the Tide and All detergent boxes, I would have it printed using Day-Glo inks so the result would be a combination of tacky pop loud (the day glo colors) and reserved conservative minimal (the boring typeface and no image). To me, that combination said something about the band - it was a subtle way of saying it, but it was also so different than all the other record covers out there, so that was a part of the statement too.
The record company insisted that we have our picture on the “cover” - so we put the group shot in our nerdy preppy attire on the back.

David Byrne
Vocalist, Gutarist - Talking Heads