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4AD Designer Vaughan Oliver Dies at 62

Vaughan Oliver, the artist behind so many memorable LP covers from 4AD, has died at 62. Bands in his body of work include The Breeders, Pixies, Scott Walker, TV on the Radio, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Modern English, The Mountain Goats, and several others. His sensibility played an enormous role in the public-facing aesthetic of the label, from his entrance to the label in the 1980s on. He produced the art for every Pixies album so far.

Vaughan Oliver, the artist behind so many memorable LP covers from 4AD, has died at 62. Bands in his body of work include The Breeders, Pixies, Scott Walker, TV on the Radio, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Modern English, The Mountain Goats, and several others. His sensibility played an enormous role in the public-facing aesthetic of the label, from his entrance to the label in the 1980s on. He produced the art for every Pixies album so far.

On his work with the Pixies, he told Rolling Stone, “My starting point would always be the music, reading the lyrics, talking with the band. The images that [Frank Black] painted with his lyrics really struck a chord. His work is full of fantastic imagery that always appealed to me, and those were ideas I was trying to reflect with the packaging.”

See more of his work below.

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