Blue and LonesomeThe Rolling Stones‘ lips and tongue logo is arguably the most famous band logo in rock history, and has appeared on thousands of items, from album covers to underwear. Its origin, though, is a humble one. Turns out the artist who designed the logo was a 25-year-old art student, who was paid a mere 50 pounds sterling — about $785 in today’s currency value — for the iconic image.
London’s Victoria and Albert Museum interviewed the artist, Jon Pasche, who tells the story of being selected by his art school, the Royal College of Art, to create a tour poster image for the Stones. The only guidance he was given was a newspaper clipping of an image of the Hindu goddess Kali, which had captured the attention of Mick Jagger.
The goddess is feminine looking and in the clipping — and many other famous renderings — she’s sticking out her tongue and smiling. From that, Pasche created rock & roll art history.
The entire story can be viewed on the Victoria and Albert Museum website, and includes an interesting side story on a classmate of Pasche’s, who designed Pink Floyd‘s Dark Side of the Moon cover.
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