Label Treatment: “Eschatone Records”

An interesting job I did recently was for a new client in Brooklyn. I designed a record label for the independent record company “Eschatone Records” who’ve started producing old-style vinyl records. This was the type of project that I never thought I’d get to see—but the surprising new found popularity of vinyl has given this genre a new lease on life. One of the owners of the company, Jed Davis, is a big fan of record labels from vinyl’s heyday, so I had a lot of fun giving this job some of the style I remembered from the 45 RPM labels I collected as a kid. A local art space Zakka Corp. in Brooklyn is hosting an exhibition of Eschatone’s album art beginning May 23, 2008.

Bette in Vegas

I recently did a logo for Bette Midler’s Las Vegas show at Caesar’s. The art director is actually and old pal of mine, Rod Dyer, a really colorful character who incidentally has a dual career operating one of LA’s best and longest running restaurants: Pane e Vino. Laura (my wife, illustrator Laura Smith) and I have loved going there for years—it’s undoubtedly one of our favorite LA restaurants. It has a fantastic outdoor garden seating area where you can always see some of Hollywood’s glitterati. One day while having lunch with Rod, Billy Dee Williams joined our table, Rod left, resulting in our having lunch with Lando Calrissian.

Bette’s new show is at The Colosseum, where she takes over the slot occupied for years by Celine Dion. Bette alternates showdates monthly with Elton John and Cher.