Green Sleeves: In Their Own Words: Printers and Designers

Seven decades of LP covers in Ireland

Curated by Ciarán Swan and Niall McCormack

Printers and designers share their insights into the process of creating record sleeves. With contributions from photographer Hugo McGuinness, illustrator Pat Musick and designers Steve Averill and Peter Wildbur as well as printers Michael Lynam, Alf McCormack, Michael Murphy and Billy Ryan.

The overview page for this comprehensive online version of the Green Sleeves exhibition is here.

In their own words – Printers and others

Vinyl cover of Ten Of The Best; Dickie Rock; Marble Arch Records (1967); Design: N/A (designed for cut price series of compilation albums); Print: Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd
Ten Of The Best; Dickie Rock; Marble Arch Records (1967); Design: N/A (designed for cut price series of compilation albums); Print: Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd

In the 1970s postcards for bands like the Miami Showband, Dickie Rock, Eileen Reid and the Cadets and others were printed as promotional materials by Abbey Printers on Corporation Street. The postcards were high quality five colour productions in runs of 1,000 or more. These were not sold but given away.”

Michael Murphy  |  Printer

Vinyl cover for The Brendan Voyage; Shaun Davey; Tara Records (1980); design: Pat Musick; Print: Senol (England)
The Brendan Voyage; Shaun Davey; Tara Records (1980); design: Pat Musick; Print: Senol (England)

I was pleased with the finished work in most cases.  Designing the format of a record sleeve was a particular kind of design challenge, so the artwork was conceived specifically to work in that format.”

Pat Musick  |  Illustrator

In the 1960s and 1970s records were the big thing. In the 1980s cassettes came in and they actually matched and exceeded record sales by the mid-1980s. Cassettes were much easier to do.”

Billy Ryan  |  Printer

Vinyl cover of Boy; U2; Island (1980); design: Steve Averill / Photograph by Hugo McGuinness; Print: N/A
Boy; U2; Island (1980); design: Steve Averill / Photograph by Hugo McGuinness; Print: N/A

Punk brought about a real change. The attitude was that this might be the only record you would release so that made people less inclined to put photographs on the cover – they were keen to try to put the best, most striking printed imagery on the records. There was a fusion of ideas between musicians, printers and designers / artists / illustrators who went through art colleges. Suddenly it was possible to do 200 singles and make it work. could sell, get airplay, hold well-attended gigs, sell T-shirts. But there was no great plan – stuff happened. Punk had to have a printed sleeve, had to have a good image.”

Hugo McGuinness  |  Photographer

Vinyl cover for Rí Na bPíobairí; Leo Rowsome; Claddagh (1969); design: Jeffrey Craig; Print: Dublin Print And Paper Company
Rí Na bPíobairí; Leo Rowsome; Claddagh (1969); design: Jeffrey Craig; Print: Dublin Print And Paper Company

I cannot remember dealing with any printing house involved in printing album covers in hot metal days. However I was aware of the record industry through my involvement with Claddagh Records and the other company in Glasnevin. My own opinion is that the old record sleeves printed from letterpress and hot metal were always better as they were produced where there was more skill involved.”

Michael Lynam  |  Typographer and Printer

At Harlequin Bindings in Baldoyle orders would come in for record sleeves to be assembled. These would see women brought in on short term contracts. They could easily fold and glue up to 500 sleeves an hour.”

Alf McCormack  |  Printer

The Vinyl cover of John Field Nocturnes; Veronica McSwiney; Claddagh Records (1973); Design: Peter Wildbur; Print: Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd. (England)
John Field Nocturnes; Veronica McSwiney; Claddagh Records (1973); Design: Peter Wildbur; Print: Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd. (England)

I often worked closely with the printers, particularly if the artwork proved to have any problems. I can’t remember any specific problems. Claddagh were careful to use professional photographers to give the printer a choice of high quality material for production. The large format of double LPs always gave a striking impression to the cover material.”

Peter Wildbur  |  Designer

In terms of output Task, where I worked, might have 1000 print runs on an album. Dakota by contrast, as the largest outfit printing albums, would easily have 20,000 runs depending on the job. And jobbing printers wouldn’t know or do die cut whereas Dakota did.”

Billy Ryan  |  Printer

Vinyl cover of Urban Beaches; Cactus World News; MCA (1986); Design: Steve Averill; Print: N/A
Urban Beaches; Cactus World News; MCA (1986); Design: Steve Averill; Print: N/A

For the most part sleeve printing was a commercial entity and not considered fine art, so one had to largely take pot luck on the way a sleeve might ultimately appear when printed. Another factor related to this that the same artwork file could look quite different it terms of overall colour, depending on where in the print run it was printed or indeed on a subsequent reprint. The process aside from the physical manufacture varied from project to project as sometimes the brief came from the label, sometimes from the band or artist management and, on occasion, from the artist directly.”

Steve Averill  |  Designer

Import tariffs, VAT and point of entry taxes made it cheaper to print a lot of albums by international artists in Ireland. Jim Reeves etc. would be typical of artists we worked on. All work and film and master die was sent to Dublin (from London or US) and in two weeks they’d be up and running.”

Billy Ryan  |  Printer



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