VO / v23 / 4AD Universe ♥

This is a small, personal corner of the larger Stereohype collection: a love letter to the visual world of Vaughan Oliver, Nigel Grierson, Chris Bigg, their studio teams and key collaborators across 23 Envelope, v23 and 4AD.

As a lifelong fan and collector of 4AD and 23 Envelope / v23, both as a designer and a music lover, this work has meant a great deal to me for decades.

This is not intended as a complete archive or history. Instead, it brings together a growing selection of badges, prints and other Stereohype editions by people connected to this extraordinary creative universe: long-standing collaborators, friends, fellow travellers and artists whose work has helped make it so distinctive.


Stereohype and FL@33 editions

It was a huge privilege to meet Vaughan Oliver before later commissioning him on several occasions for FL@33 and Stereohype.

Vaughan’s work was featured in the Stereohype 2004–2014 book, and he went on to create postcards, posters and badges for us. We specially commissioned a poster and badge from him for Stereohype’s 10th Anniversary 10×10 Poster / Badge Series. He also contributed a postcard design to Postcard, one of two books I conceived, wrote and designed under the FL@33 imprint. His card was produced as an edition and is available with the book, alongside numerous other v23 / 4AD postcards, including work for Pixies, The Breeders and Dead Can Dance. The other, The 3D Type Book, prominently featured Vaughan’s 3D type work for Pixies’ Minotaur project.


A personal note on Vaughan Oliver, 29 December 2019:

Vaughan Oliver was a design hero and an immense inspiration to me and to a whole generation of graphic designers. Yet he was also a gentle, humble and generous man whom I had the pleasure and honour of meeting several times.

His work is one of the reasons I fell in love with many of my now favourite bands. It showed me that record sleeves could be mysterious, visceral, poetic and completely inseparable from the music they held. He had a rare ability to make images stay with you.

When Vaughan designed the Down To Ten Men poster for Stereohype, he did not want to accept his first royalties and instead asked me to buy something nice for my newborn daughter. What a lovely Mensch.

Vaughan left us far too early. One of a kind. One of the very greats.

Shine on, Vaughan. ♥

Personal words by Tomi Vollauschek.


Contributors so far: Vaughan Oliver / v23, Simon Larbalestier, Timothy O'Donnell, Marc Atkins, Dominic Davies, Roy Burns III, Gary Prendergast / cut shape make, Paul Farrington