Lettering for Kate Bush Album - Before the Dawn

Music: Kate Bush - Fish People . Stuart Crouch Creative

I was thrilled to be asked to work on the new album lettering for long-time musical hero, Kate Bush.

Before The Dawn was recorded during the extraordinary run of 22 shows performed by Kate at London’s Hammersmith Apollo, 2014 and released November 2016.

Earlier in the year, I was asked by renowned music industry designers, Stuart Crouch Creative, to develop a range of hand lettering to work with the CD cover photography and inner booklet pages. I immediately immersed myself in Kate Bush’s music, from the early albums that influenced my teenage years to the latest magical performances from the 2014 shows.

I decided to develop some loose brush work, not too formal but still legible with a striated, textural ebb and flow that complemented the richly-coloured photography taken from the show. Nothing on the album was re-recorded or overdubbed and I wanted this rawness to be reflected in the immediacy of the brush strokes.

Developing an album design is a long process that goes through much revision, not all artwork gets used - so it was certainly a dream come true when I heard my lettering was approved for the CD and vinyl boxset booklet!