Details
The image
Lettering that behaves like a poster for a show rather than a cover for a record: the title stacked and tilted, the band’s name set above it, the whole sheet built from type and one strong colour. There is no photograph of the group and nothing decorative beyond the letterforms.
Where it comes from
Love You Live was the Rolling Stones’ live album of 1977, recorded across shows in Paris, Toronto and London during the years when the band’s stage act was as much a visual event as a musical one. Posters of that period moved away from the illustrated concert sheet of the previous decade towards typography: the name was the image and it was set loud enough to work on a wall or a hoarding. The design language came from advertising and from punk and it has been imitated ever since.
On the wall
It suits a studio, a hallway or a living room with dark furniture, where lettering at scale gives a wall structure and attitude. Because the composition is typographic and the palette limited, it holds a small wall as well as a large one. In a group it should be the piece that sets the volume.
In company
Other sheets in the Music collection work the same way on a wall.Avoid hanging it beside delicate work, the type is loud by design and will overwhelm anything quiet.
