Too early, Boyd was taken from us. His friends organised a show in Paradiso playing the maestro’s songs one more time. i made the poster for the event, showing Boyd as if he’s preparing his drumset for the upcoming gig. I owe him big time.

For Boyd Small’s album ‘So Easy’ we made a ‘brown bag’ (as seen around bottles of alcohol) cover with only typography on it. Inside the design looks quite a bit like a 50’s pulp mag, including advertisements on how to play guitar in just three days. (one chord per day)

illustrations for ‘So Easy’ by Boyd Small. I did the album design with the association in mind of ‘buying dirty magazines in a brown bag’. So the lyrics inside had these drawings, that resemble ’60s cheesy advertisements in pulp magazines.

Blues singer Boyd Small asked me to do his cover art. I asked photographer Susan ArbabZadeh to make this picture in the cafe we frequently visited: ‘De Diepte’. The owner was kind enough to give us the keys and let us make these pictures here. I asked Boyd to write some lyric on a beermat, as if he was writing them in the bar and this picture started the practical joke of never showing his face on his covers.

For this album, Boyd asked me if he could be portrayed with his car. ‘Of course’ I thought – but maintained the running gag to not show his head on his covers.

We thought we’d do a real ‘blues’ cover for this one. Boyd’s photo is torn in four pieces and left in a puddle. Again, we don’t see his face but we see the girl who’s leaving him. Photos by Annuska Steixner and the model is Ama Badu.