Vaughan Oliver has made a name for himself having produced inlays and art for bands mostly but not exclusively on the 4AD label since 1983 up to 1988. This was a partnership with Photographer Nigel Grierson and is what has established Vaughan as an auteur in the design community. This partnership with the 4AD label was not the standard at the time. It was unusual for an independent record label to work pretty much solely with one graphic Designer and thus gave 4AD something a lot of the larger labels where missing, an Identity. This identity allowed 4AD to reach a wider audience as the collaboration opened up a discourse between people into design and people into music and made fans and converts out of their respective others.The identity which ran so prominently through the artwork of 4AD’s releases is due to the unique approach to design embraced by Vaughan and Nigel who where operating under the name 23 Envelope and where actually situated in the basement of the 4AD building. The artwork has been described as timeless as it is far from indicative of the era it was produced. The majority of work in the 1980’s featured bold colours, blocky layouts and a lot of images of the artists on the covers. Vaughan’s approach was almost the polar opposite using almost no band photography with the exception of ‘Throwing muses’ ‘Chains Changed’ in 1987. Vaughan and Nigel used close up photography and distortion to create almost abstract images with a huge aesthetic identity that became so synonymous with 23 Envelope. Vaughan also employed a David Carson-esque fondness of mix and match typography giving their work a grunge feel, which was to pre-date grunge itself. Vaughan has stated that their minimalist abstract approach was trying to achieve a narrative that embodies the emotion of the music. In fact some of the bands for instance the Cocteau Twins would send tapes of the music as it was being made, to give them the atmosphere to work to. At the time Vaughan and Nigel came under criticism for the “non-descript’ nature and use of recurring devices and bands such as Colourbox were not initially pleased with the outcome of their earlier record sleeve’s, stating that some were ‘Obscure for obscures sake’. Vaughan has admittedly stated at the time, that their forte’ was not communication and that they did not consider themselves to be ‘graphic Designers’ in fact Vaughan’s attitude seemed somewhat rebellious against any convention. In a BBC documentary about 23 Envelope he stated that he looked at the company as personal rather than a business claiming he

could not work for an outside company. He refers back to working on packaging to commercial products prior to 23 envelope. He states that creating record sleeves is the antithesis of commercial packaging design as it allows the designer to sympathise with the product and also tends to have sustainability i.e. a can of beans will end up in the bin and a record will be treasured. It is fair to say that because of this dramatically different take on the aesthetics of 23 Envelope they appealed to the sub culturists of the 80’s which would grow to become almost cult status and today is a staple example of alternative design.

Vaughan Oliver

After 23 Envelope Vaughan moved on with new partnerships under the title of v23 where he moved away from 4AD but still maintained some of the same clients and his signature look and feel. This time Vaughan looking more into video had created a music Video for ‘Debaser’ by the Pixies, the video incorporated Vaughan’s distorted typography interspersed with live footage layed out in a manner conducive with his early record covers, this persistence in style ensured that existing fans could enjoy continuity but also suited the agonising screams of Frank Black potentially opening the eyes of Pixies fans that were not necessarily aware of Vaughan’s work. In an article on Vaughan’s departure of 23 envelope to v23 he notes that

whilst MTV liked the video the more terrestrial Chart show didn’t seem to embrace the dark and dirty side to the visuals. Another example of how Vaughan’s work gains huge support from the alternatives and subcultures but still remained slightly off the radar for the more mainstream audiences. But as the alternative took a turn for the more mainstream in the mid nineties after bands like Nirvana broke into the mainstream and a thousand copycats followed Vaughan’s position became more mainstream by default with him doing work for bands like Gus Gus and Bush and still encapsulating the feel of grunge and the dirty aesthetics that made him so popular in the fi rst place. This is a good example of how bucking the trends can eventually work in one’s favour as the old trends give way to the new order.