The man who designs FTD covers

The man who designs FTD covers, Chris Lambeth, talks to EIN
Chris Lambeth works in London for Peacock Design, the company that fashions the look for all of Elvis' Follow That Dream CD releases and more.

Chris is an incredibly busy man, so it was kind of him to take time out to talk to EIN's Piers Beagley about his Elvis work and designs.

EIN - Apart from working on the incredible amount of Elvis product that is coming out, what else does Peacock Design do?
CL - We do a lot of music industry stuff for various record companies with CD design as well as TV marketing and adverts. There is a continuous flow of albums covers and, of course, pre-Christmas was an extremely busy period.

EIN - Do you only work on Elvis product?

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CL - I've been with Peacock for about 2 years and I started on the Elvis stuff around March 2003 so there's always something new for me to be working on. I also design other artist's product and adverts. Recently I worked on several compilations such as a Country compilation, a Valentine special, that kind of thing. I also did a 'Rock Chicks' compile album where I had to go out and photograph two live panthers wearing diamante collars! So it's a fun job - but always busy.

EIN - Do you have a background in design or art?

CL - I did a diploma and then a degree in design followed by various jobs as a freelancer and then luckily, with my main interest in music, I got a full-time job here at Peacock.

EIN - Peacock's name seems to have been on Elvis product since 1997, why does RCA, as an American company, employ an English design firm?

CL - Most of the stuff we do is organised through Roger Semon and I work with him the most. We are heavily involved with the FTD designs but we also do mainstream stuff with RCA in New York, who seem very pleased with our work. There are several of us here who have all, at some time, worked on Elvis designs. Peacock's creative director is Stuart Crouch and I work alongside two other designers Jon Tricklebank and Stuart Gardiner. Other mainstream releases we have done are the Christmas Peace CD, Ultimate Gospel and, for instance, the Artist of The Century box-set, in fact the whole studio had some role in putting together the artwork for the amazingly successful 'Elvis 30 #1s' release.

EIN - So, have you always been an Elvis fan?

CL - To be honest, no! My music tastes encompasses a lot of contemporary rock music and other English bands. However when I started working on Elvis product, and listening to the material I was working with, I found myself blown away by Elvis' work - especially on stuff like Suspicious Minds. When it comes down to it, I am a real music fan who loves all types of music.



EIN - How do you get ideas for the designs, do you get told what FTD wants? Do you even get to hear the actual CD first?

CL - No, in fact I often have to make the cover designs without first hearing the CD. Roger usually provides me with books, scanned material, information and photos but there are no particularly strict guidelines. Sometimes I'm lucky, for instance with 'Closing Night' where I had Arjan Deelen's excellent 'Caught in a Trap' book to work with. I tend to come at it from a totally design point of view. I come up with sleeve ideas & try to get the feeling of what the session or concert was all about. Roger is great to work with because he is straight down-the-line and knows what he wants & what he doesn't, so there's no mucking around!

EIN - Do you have to pay for the photos, can you use anything?

CL - I sometimes see a great image in a book and then have to go through Roger to get clearance or perhaps obtain archive material from RCA in New York. Sometimes I get genuine memorabilia to photograph & scan, or perhaps just get sent scanned images which I then have to use as best I can.

EIN - Do you work with Ernst as well?

CL - Whatever I work on, I send to both of them to have a look at and to comment on. It's always the three of us who discuss it, and they say whether it captures what they had in mind. Ernst is very fast at getting back to me as to whether the design will work & we all have regular contact. I thought the idea of the 'Closing Night' cover with Elvis and the monkey on his back was a nice analogy to what had been happening emotionally to him at the time. That was, in fact, the third cover design we tried and the one we liked the most.

EIN - Do you do the movie Soundtrack CDs as well; I love those 7 inch format designs!

CL - I have designed something like nine of those. Unfortunately, in the music distribution world, everything seems to be getting smaller & smaller and the design side is disappearing, so I do think there is a real positive to these larger Soundtrack sleeves. They nicely hark back to the time & feel of when the LPs first came out. However for me, as a contemporary rock fan, it is often hard to understand why Elvis was recording such awful movie songs. In fact Ernst pointed me towards your EIN website & the reviews to help get an understanding of what was happening to Elvis at the time! I do love their look and I think they are pretty collectable.

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EIN - Do you have favourites?

CL - The 'Elvis Live In Memphis' FTD was one of my favourite designs and there was the odd fascination with them originally having Graceland & a brick wall on the cover of the original LP! I think by adding the concert photos & memorabilia we made much better & more appropriate final package. I do like adding little touches like memorabilia or ticket stubs, like the dice on 'Taking Tahoe Tonight' which is also a favourite.

EIN - How long does it take to work on an Elvis FTD?

CL - It so varies between the digipacks and the larger 7 inch format that also includes the 12 page booklet. There can be a lot of scanning and retouching involved plus the backwards & forwards of copy-checking everything. Then there's the typesetting and making the soundtrack CDs look like the vinyl LP labels. Sometimes there are hard deadlines or alternatively the work can be spread out - but we have to work within the tight budget and it might only be a working week to complete a digipack design.

EIN - Do you ever read reviews on the websites and get disillusioned by negative comments?

CL - I do read them sometimes but it's just too easy for people to slag off designs after they have been released. Like any designer, or artist, the fact is that we have come up with the idea first and have got it out there! Of course with the internet you can find all the pictures you want of Elvis but we have to get official permission to use any of our images which can make it a harder job than people think. Constructive criticism is good, as long as people provide good reason - I also get plenty of positive feedback too which is nice.

EIN - The most controversial FTD design was the 'Dragon Heart' cover which got a terrible response.

CL - Actually that was done before I arrived here, my first one was 'Girl Happy'. We have to come up with so many ideas so fast, that it is hard to get something exciting and new every time. 'Dragon Heart' was an off-the-wall design and it takes balls to do something different sometimes. I do know who did that one but I can't name names!

EIN - How far ahead do you work, what's the project that you are working on now?

CL - I am currently working with Roger and Ernst on the Big Boss Man digipak, it's already looking good. I have also just finished working on 'Elvis Is Back' 7 inch pack.

EIN - With the Soundtrack FTD covers, why don't do a straight scan of an original LP cover & vinyl label and then clean them up? Instead you seem to redo all the lettering over the original images?


CL - That's not always the case to be honest, as it can depend on the original sleeve, deadline pressure, time and other things that have to be taken into consideration. We have just produced a new 7 inch pack plus booklet for 'Elvis Is Back!' and I did use the original LP sleeve scan for that. With the labels they need to be as legible as possible and they also require new information i.e. legal copy, so this always needs to be re-typeset. Unfortunately it then starts to look messy, for want of a better word, if I do use the original scanned artwork and then also have to add non-matching new typesetting.

EIN - I noticed on Kid Galahad that the "Vinyl label" on the cover says the track is called 'I Got Licky', which I actually thought rather funny, rather than 'I Got Lucky' - how did that happen?

CL- I have to admit that that was a good, well actually bad, old-fashioned typo, there was no pun intended! Unfortunately it wasn't picked up by any of us who do check the artwork at the proofing stage. There was a lot of pressure at the time, what with 'Kid Galahad' coming out at the same time as 'Follow That Dream.' We all do our best to make sure that mistakes don't happen, but they can and sometimes do. I apologise to any fans out there, it wasn't meant to cause offence if it did. We all do our best to make a great product.

EIN - 'On Tour: The Rehearsals' got more than the usual bout of negative comments. The pictures did have a very "lifted off VHS source" kind of look - I was surprised that Roger couldn't obtain better pictures off, say, a laser disc copy?

CL - I have to say they were the best images that we had to work with, but I actually really like the package myself. It's got a contemporary feel to it and I like the clean design. As I've found out though, the people that buy Follow That Dream releases are quite clearly ardent fans of Elvis, which is great, - and with that you have to learn to take the bad comments with the good, as you should with any of your work. I think that since I've worked on the releases with Roger and Ernst we have had a greater share of positive feedback than bad, so I think we are doing a good job all said and done.

EIN - On a final note, what do your friends think of you working on Elvis designs?

CL - My friends think it is so cool that I actually work on Elvis designs as anyone who really understands music knows that you can't lump him in together with, say Cliff Richard or whoever! I never even thought I'd end up working on Elvis stuff - I love it. There is so much Elvis material available now, with no glossing over the truth & there is so much Elvis history to investigate. No one comes close, it must be great to be a true Elvis fan - if you have enough money!

Chris Lambeth was interviewed by EIN's Piers Beagley during February 2005.

Quelle : EIN

Sehr interessant Hat der junge Mann auch eine Emailadresse Ich würde ihm gerne mal schreiben

das ist also der Typ, dem wir immer den Rotstich zu verdanken haben??

das ist also der Typ, dem wir immer den Rotstich zu verdanken haben??

"Immer"? Also, ich persönlich kann mich momentan an keinen einzigen Rotstich erimmern äh erinnern. Ich glaube, hier übertreibst du geringfügig.

Das "immer" ist sicherlich eine Übertreibung, aber speziell einige der ersten 7"-Soundtrack Cover kamen stark "errötet" daher.

vielleicht ist er farbenblind?


trotzdem, Jörg S., danke für den bericht. :tschuldigung:

Bei aller Kritik, die hier so gut wie jede/r (ich natürlich eingeschlossen) schon einmal geäußert haben dürfte, weil ihm/ihr persönlich etwas gegen den Strich ging und den eigenen Geschmack und die eigene Vorstellung nicht getroffen hat. Eines muss man erstaunt feststellen und den Verantwortlichen, die hinter FTD stehen, lassen: Dass sie hier nun offenbar - zumindest in Ansätzen - die Öffenlichkeit suchen, ist eine lobenswerte Sache, finde ich.

Bisher wusste man ja so gut wie gar nichts über die Hintergründe bei FTD. Für mich - und ich denke, das hat in nicht unerheblichem Maße zu meiner Einstellung FTD ggü. beigetragen - war das immer fast so etwas wie eine "Geheimsache", ein paar Typen, die irgendwo in einer Art Garage etwas zusammenbasteln und von denen man so gar nichts weiß. Wie läuft da was ab, wer gibt welche Vorgaben, wie werden Dinge besprochen, geplant, entschieden, umgesetzt usw.. Insofern finde ich das Interview bemerkenswert und auch eigentlich auch unglaublich interessant.

Wie gesagt: Persönlich mag man denken, was man will. Aber dieses Interview gibt der ganzen Sache zum ersten Mal ein Gesicht (abgesehen einmal von dem alles beherrschenden von Jorgensen), macht die Sache greifbar und besser vesrtsändlich, finde ich. Und das ist eine m. E. begrüßenswerte Entwicklung. Nachdem man nun offenbar erkannt hat, dass die Menge an VÖ der letzten zwei Jahre schlichtweg zuviel war, sowohl was die Fans als auch die Qualität betrifft, ist das hier eine weitere Neuerung und ein Schritt in die, wie ich finde, richtige Richtung. Hätte man schon vorher einmal mehr erfahren über die Abläuf eund die Gesichter, Ab- und Ansichten "dahinter", vieles oder doch zumindest einiges wäre wohl anders aufgenommen worden. Möglicherweise wäre es besser aufgenommen worden. Ich kann das zumindest für mich persönlich nur so feststellen.

Als nächstes würde mich unbedingt einmal ein kleines Feature/Interview über/mit Lene Reidel interessieren. Vielleicht etwas, was ein bisschen mehr noch in die Tiefe geht. Ich habe den Eindruck, Chris Lambeth hat sich hier noch etwas zurück gehalten, obwohl er zwischen den Zeilen hier und da schon einiges durchblicken lässt. Aber wie interessant wäre bitte ein Interview mit Lene Reidel? Und wieviel würde es vielleicht erklären und an möglichen Missverständnissen aus der Welt schaffen? Ich kann nur sagen, dass ich den offenen Weg stets für den besseren gehalten habe und diese Geheimniskrämerei der letzten Jahre war doch letztenlich eher hinderlich als alles andere. Insofern finde ich das hier eine tolle Sache. Geschmackliche Fragen einmal außen vor gelassen.

Und so kann ich in diesem speziellen Falle nun wirklich einmal guten Gewissens sagen: "Keep 'em coming, Ernst!" :jamie:

Es versetzt mich wirklich in Angst und Schrecken, an dieser Stelle zu lesen, dass die (zu einem großen Teil) beängstigend unprofessionellen FTD-Cover tatsächlich von professionellen Designern eines namenhaften Hauses entworfen wurden. Mit unprofessionell meine ich übrigens nicht unbedingt das unkreative Artwork der Cover, denn über Geschmack lässt sich bekanntlich streiten, sondern vielmehr die unterirdisch schlechte Ausführung der Arbeiten.

Es fällt mir in der Tat schwer, zu glauben dass FTD für diese Arbeiten Geld investiert, wo die Firmenphilosophie doch sonst eher lautet:
How much does it cost if it's free?!

Bei mir (und auch bei anderen) enstand stets der Eindruck, dass es Ernst verschiedenen Leuten gestattet, vielleicht sogar aus Gefälligkeit, die Cover für FTD zu entwerfen. Ich geb' dir zwei Tickets und ein Menu, und dafür lässt Du mich ein Cover für FTD machen.
Die zum Teil erheblichen qualitativen Unterschiede sprächen jedenfalls dafür.

Da gibt es unzählige Elvis Fans, die privat hervorragende grafische Leistungen erbringen und die ihren rechten Arm dafür hergeben würden, wenn sie für FTD / BMG Cover gestalten dürften. Das hierdurch eingesparte Kapital könnte dann viel sinnvoller in den Ankauf von Benutzungsrechten für gutes Bildmaterial oder sogar in die Verbesserung der Klangqualität investiert werden, was sicherlich positiv von allen Fans und Sammlern aufgenommen werden würde und das angeschlagene Image von FTD erheblich rehabilitieren würde.

Sehr interessantes Interview.
Vielen Dank dafür, Jörg!

Sehr interessantes Interview.
Vielen Dank dafür, Jörg!

ich schliesse mich an und möchte mich bei Jörg für dieses interessante interview auch bedanken !!