VAN HALEN

The mighty Van Halen. While we designed a few smaller projects for the band during their reunion tours with David Lee Roth in 2007/2012, nothing of greater significance came about back then. There were discussions with record company execs who wanted to release album-specific box sets while the band was still active, but sadly, those proposals never came to light. Even though I recall having a meeting with drummer, Alex Van Halen, at Edward’s studio where we discussed the possibility of a box set. Again, it remained a discussion. But we did get to work with Edward on his photo book and a line of merchandising for EVH, in which we are still involved.

Early in 2024, the good folks at Rhino (the catalog division of Warner Records) contacted us again, as they were working on a Van Halen 5LP box set, a compilation of all Sammy Hagar era albums. I briefly explained to the creative director (Rory is the man!) that I am a massive VH fan and that I’d literally drop everything to create designs for this legendary band.

They wanted us to design the special ‘Studio rarities’ LP. Oak, and although it was a small job at the time, it did lead to the box sets that we have recently designed. Next came the album box set for the 1991 album F.U.C.K., one of my personal favorites. Rhino opened their photo vaults, where we discovered many unseen photos that were taken during the recording process of the album. It was great to edit and personally select these photos. I brought in VH collector Michel Schinkel, a Dutch man who prides himself in owning one of the largest VH collections. Michel was kind enough to provide me with lots of cool ephemera for the book inside this fairly elaborate packaging. In addition, we also created a standalone 2LP set of the infamous Dallas concert from 1991.

More recently, we were commissioned by Rhino to design a similar configuration packaging for the 1995 album BALANCE. Once again, Michel helped out with ephemera, and the label provided me with great archival photographs for me to choose from.

Let’s see which album is next…