Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues

Object Details

Design Director

Tibor Kalman, American, b. Hungary, 1949–1999

Design Team member

David Byrne

Carol Bokuniewicz

Artist

David Byrne

Bonny Lutz

Photographer

David Byrne

Firm

M&Co, New York, New York, USA, 1979–1992

Catalogue Status

Research in Progress

Description

Both recto and verso are reproductions of paintings and thus intentionally show the brushmarks of the originals.

Recto: Occupying center space is a seven inch diameter blue circle, its narrow inner rim in yellow and slightly thicker outer rim in white overlaid with purple dabs. A faint black spiral grows outward from a dot in the center of the circle and fades into the blue before reaching the rim. Behind the circle is an orange square with two borders, the inner one green and outer one red. In each of the four corners enclosed by the inner border is a black-rimmed photograph of the same easy chair in various positions, its plaid cover colored differently in green, pink, blue and purple. Above the circle, between the chairs at top left and right, Talking Heads is imprinted on one line in black capitals; although the band's name is recognizable to anyone familiar with it, the words are separated illogically so as to form nonsense syllables. The album title, Speaking in Tongues, on two lines between the lower left and right chairs, is similarly depicted.The outermost border, a rickrack design in greenish-brown on faded orange, completes the design.

Verso: A circle of the same size and in the same position as on the recto is divided into four quadrants of green, red, orange-yellow and purple. The two rims are identically colored and positioned to the recto, but each one is proportionally thicker. Wavy black vertical and horizontal lines bisect the circle, passing under the rims and extending beyond them almost to the edges of the album space. The background is green, mixed with black and white. In approximately the position of the chairs on the recto, there are four black rimmed rectangles in reddish-orange, with the song titles, musicians' names and production information imprinted in small black capitals. Four striped borders, blue and purple at the top, pink and red on the bottom, yellow and orange on the left, and two shades of green on the right complete the design.

Credit Line

Gift of Tibor Kalman/ M & Co.

1983

Accession Number

1993-151-74

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Type

graphic design

Object Name

Album Cover

Type

Album Cover

Medium

Offset lithography

Dimensions

31.2 x 31.2 cm (12 5/16 x 12 5/16 in.)

Place

USA

See more items in

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Collection

Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design Department

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Record ID

chndm_1993-151-74

Metadata Usage (text)

Not determined

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kq48283cd1a-a85c-431c-88ff-b5c4b0d4b0d1