FLEETWOOD MAC – RUMOURS

About this image – when I was at the Art Center College of design, Fleetwood Mac was one of my all time favorite bands. It was long before Stevie and Lindsey joined the band, when it was Fleetwood Mac, the English blues band lead by Peter Green. After art school, when I got the call to work on a new self-titled Fleetwood Mac album (editor’s note – 1975’s Fleetwood Mac was the second eponymous LP from the group, the first being their 1968 debut record), I couldn’t believe my luck. It was the first album with the new lineup including Stevie and Lindsey. I designed and hand-lettered the logo for that package, which went on to become a multi-million seller. After the success of that album, in 1977 I was asked to do the same for Rumours. You never know when you are working on the next big thing. Rumours became one of the biggest selling albums in pop/rock music history, selling somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-50 million copies. For many years after its release, I received emails from designers from around the world wanting to know what font I used, and I always had to explain that it is a pre- computer, hand-lettered logo – done only for that album – and so there is no “rest of the alphabet.” I’ve seen attempts at adding letters to the logo and it always looks terrible. The inspiration for the lettering was taken from the photo. The tall f and condensed letters were echoing the 6 foot 6 inch height of mick, and the sweeping lines of the a, the r and the s were inspired by Stevie’s cover pose. I recently saw Fleetwood Mac in Las Vegas, and they are still using the logo I designed over 43 years ago.