By Ruth Rowland
I was delighted to be asked by Stuart Crouch Creative to work on some additional hand lettering for the single, Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush. The single CD was released, following its global success when featured on the The Duffer Brothers’ hit series, Stranger Things.
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill Single: Front Cover
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill Single: Back Cover
I talked to Stuart Crouch about his work on the newly released single:
"It was wonderful to see the renewed interest in Kate’s Running Up That Hill after it was used in Stranger Things. As it was originally released in 1985 no digital artwork existed and the cover photo was never returned to Kate’s brother John. The only option was to scan it from the 12” cover and clean it up. Kate was keen to include the full title on the back - Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) which was missing from the original single. With a tight deadline looming I approached Ruth to match the lettering and she did a fantastic job, as always."
The original 1985 design was created by Bill Smith:
"Working with Kate was always a joy, mostly her ideas for images and us helping with layout. Her brother John took front and back photos as well as the hand lettering for the front. All images based on kyudo the Japanese art of archery, what this had to do with the song - no idea, but of course, the whole cover was arresting in a way that all Kate’s covers were. Our job was to take her ideas and make them work.”
"Working with Kate was always a joy, mostly her ideas for images and us helping with layout. Her brother John took front and back photos as well as the hand lettering for the front. All images based on kyudo the Japanese art of archery, what this had to do with the song - no idea, but of course, the whole cover was arresting in a way that all Kate’s covers were. Our job was to take her ideas and make them work.”
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill Single: Original and New Hand Lettering
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill Single: New Hand Lettering
Ian Ross worked at Bill Smith Studio and assisted Bill on this and other designs for Kate Bush:
"I worked on Hounds of Love and the original release of Running Up That Hill, although to say I designed it would be a real stretch… Kate pretty much knew what she wanted. Bill and (to a lesser extent) I helped her achieve it. I got involved in all the Kate projects as I was a huge fan. The consummate artist, controlling all aspects of her work, I was incredibly fortunate to work with Kate for almost 10 years."
"I worked on Hounds of Love and the original release of Running Up That Hill, although to say I designed it would be a real stretch… Kate pretty much knew what she wanted. Bill and (to a lesser extent) I helped her achieve it. I got involved in all the Kate projects as I was a huge fan. The consummate artist, controlling all aspects of her work, I was incredibly fortunate to work with Kate for almost 10 years."
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill Single: Original and New Hand Lettering
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill Single: New Hand Lettering Back Cover
In order to work in style with the original title lettering, I took samples of John’s original italic calligraphy as my reference, working quite large to get a feel for the character of the script. It was then reduced by Stuart to fit unobtrusively within the original cover design.
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill Single: New A Deal With God Title Lettering
Although I only had a very small part to play in the design, when I received the CD in the post, it was a wonderfully surreal moment to see my hand lettering on the cover. If you'd like to see more of my work for Kate Bush, click through to my post for the Before the Dawn album or browse my Music folder for more band logos, album titles and hand lettered lyrics.
If you're interested in seeing an overview of the lettering I've created for the music industry over the years, you can find a list on Discogs.
