Philip Marshall

Asset 1

Europa
Pleasuredome, 2014

Holly Johnson, the iconic former lead singer of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, asked me to design the artwork for ‘Europa’, his first solo album in 15 years.

Its typography was influenced by Wyndham Lewis’s 1914 Vorticist manifesto, ‘Blast’, whose name had been borrowed by Holly for his first solo album, 25 years prior.

The artwork features paintings by Holly himself from a series titled ‘United Kingdom After The Rain’ (2001-2002), created during his time studying at the Royal College Of Art. The title references Max Ernst’s post-war apocalyptic landscape, ‘Europe After The Rain’. Each of the album’s four formats featured a slightly different treatment of the front cover.

Our work continued throughout the promotional campaign with 7"s, 12"s and additional items featuring the typographic theme alongside Holly’s artworks.