My design work

Checking proofs for a large format book 2017

Having trained at the Manchester School of Graphic Design (it was later absorbed into Manchester Metropolitan university, in my time it was a stand alone centre based in Piccadilly) I’ve been involved with graphic design professionally since the late seventies. I first worked as a designer for South Yorkshire County Council in Sheffield, then for the Peak District National Park at their study centre in Castleton, Derbyshire, doing all their in-house material, course leaflets and photography. From there I went on to work at Granby Print in Bakewell (the building is now an undertakers!) and then at Phelan Print in Alfreton (and was able to do all these jobs travelling from Sheffield by public transport – it couldn’t be done today). Phelan eventually let me work there freelance as I got more involved and interested in reissue record sleeve packaging, which is where much of my work was centred during the 1980s into the 2000s. I did sleeve designs, notes (my first in 1977) and co-ordinated projects for many labels in the UK and around the world including: EMI, Warner Brothers, Harvest, Native, Warner Pioneer, Connoisseur (see the Deep Purple design at the bottom of the page), Sequel (below is the Searchers 30th Anniversary Collection done in 1992), Eagle, 4AD, Cleopatra, Rhino, VAP, Teichiku, Edel, Purple, Thunderbird, etc.

Searchers 30th annivrsary collection.jpg

With contacts made in the CD reissue business three of us founded one of the most admired CD reissue labels of the 1990s, RPM Records, for which I did dozens of designs.

More recently I have been concentrating on design both for Easy On The Eye Books‘ own titles and others. I have started detailing some older design projects here, alongside recent and forthcoming projects. My early freelance design jobs were usually credited with my own name Simon Robinson and the business name artwork. I later started to use the Easy On The Eye name. I was quite surprised recently when I was checking something out on the Discogs website, and stumbled across a page for myself, with over 140 projects listed there, and figured it was time I tried to sort something out myself. Please note that this is how I remember the jobs, but it was a long time ago for some of them…!

CD package : Ian Gillan and The Javelins

7″ single 4AD : The Past Seven Days

Book cover / CD : Beats Working For A Living • Sheffield Music

Audio CD / DVD package : Jon Lord • Concerto for Group & Orchestra

DVD package : Deep Purple California Jam

Book design : The High Peak & Tissington Railways: A Pictorial Guide

Book design : Covered! Classic album sleeves and their imitators

DVD package : Deep Purple Live In Denmark

CD package • Spencer Davis Group Live In Europe

CD back cover photograph : Bones Park Rider

VHS video package : Deep Purple Total Abandon live

RPM Records CD : Sandie Shaw Reviewing The Situation