Kosh (art director)

Kosh (born John Kosh) is an art director, album cover designer, graphic artist, and documentary producer/director. He was born in London, England and rose to prominence in the mid-1960s while designing for the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera House. He was the creative director of The Beatles' 1969 album "Abbey Road".

History

As art director of "Art & Artists Magazine", he met The Beatles towards the end of the 1960s and was hired as Creative Director for Apple Records, where he was responsible for design, promotion and publicity. During this period he designed albums for a clientele that covered numerous British rock bands including The Rolling Stones. In 1969 Kosh handled the "War Is Over" campaign for John Lennon and Yoko Ono and created the famous "Abbey Road" and "Who’s Next?" album covers. During this period Kosh became well known in the London avant-garde art scene for designing and producing exhibitions, posters and books.

In 1973 after garnering several awards with the London Design & Art Directors Club, he was elected to the British D&AD Jury before moving to Los Angeles. Once in Los Angeles he continued designing for various famous musicians including: Jimmy Buffett, The Eagles, Ringo Starr, Linda Ronstadt, Rod Stewart, and Spinal Tap. His work with Linda Ronstadt garned him his three Grammy Awards.

He served as faculty member of Otis/Parsons Institute of Art and on the Board of Governors of the National Recording Academy. Kosh’s client roster has included Capitol Records, Columbia-TriStar, Walt Disney Studios, Walt Disney Classics, Fox Television, The Gurin Company, CNN, MCA, MGM, the NFL (he designed the Super Bowl XXI logo), Sony Records and Warner Bros. Records.

Works

A display of his more prominent graphics was exhibited at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
*The Beatles
**1969 "Abbey Road", #1 (Designer)
**1970 "Let It Be", #1 (Designer)
*Ringo Starr
**1970 "Beaucoups of Blues", US #65 (Design and Art Direction)
**1976 "Ringo's Rotogravure"
**1977 "Ringo the 4th", US #162
**1978 "Bad Boy", US #129
**1981 "Stop and Smell the Roses", US #98
*Humble Pie
**1972 "Smokin'", US #6 (Designer)
**1973 "Eat It", US #13 (Designer) [ [http://www.fye.com/Eat-It-Front-Page_stcVVproductId2385135VVcatId455366VVviewprod.htm FYE: Eat It Humble Pie / CD / 1973 ] ]
*The Who
**1971 "Who's Next" (Designer)
*Rolling Stones
**"Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!" (Designer)
**"Through The Past, Darkly" (Designer)
*Stone the Crows
**1972 "Ontinuous Performance"
*Bad Company
**"Run With the Pack"
*Jimmy Buffett
**1977 "Son of a Son of a Sailor"
**1989 "Off To See The Lizard"
**2002 "Far Side Of The World"
**2005 "Live In Fenway Park"
*The Eagles
**1976 "Hotel California" #1 US (16x Platinum), #2 UK
***voted No.6 in the Rolling Stone Magazine 100 Best Album Covers of all Time
**1979 "The Long Run" #1 US (7x Platinum), #4 UK
**1980 "Eagles Live" #6 US (7x Platinum), #24 UK
*Electric Light Orchestra
**Designed the bands logo and these album covers
**1976 "A New World Record" #5 US (Platinum), #6 UK
**1977 "Out of the Blue" #4 US (Platinum), #4 UK
*Randy Newman
**1995 "Faust"
*Pointer Sisters
**1981 "Black & White" (Pointer Sisters), #12 US, #21 UK
**1982 "So Excited", #59 US
*Linda Ronstadt
**1975 "Prisoner in Disguise"
**1976 "Hasten Down the Wind"
**1977 "Simple Dreams"– nominated for a Grammy
**1978 "Living in the USA"
**1983 "Get Closer" – Grammy; design Kosh and Ron Larson
**1986 "Lush Life" – Grammy; design Kosh and Ron Larson
**1987 "Trio (album)" (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris), art direction by Kosh and Ron Larson
**1987 "Canciones de Mi Padre"

**2002 "The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt"
*The Steve Miller Band
**1986 "Living in the 20th Century"
*Spinal Tap
**1992 "Break Like the Wind"
**Designed with Larry Brooks
*Rod Stewart
**1975 "Atlantic Crossing", UK #1, US #9
**1976 "A Night on the Town", UK #1, US #2
**1977 "Foot Loose & Fancy Free", UK #3, US #2
**1983 "Body Wishes", UK #5, US #139
*James Taylor
**1977 "JT"
**1979 "Flag"
**1981 "Dad Loves His Work"
*10,000 Maniacs
**1986 "In My Tribe"
*T-Rex
**1973 "Tanx", US #3
**1974 "Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow", US #12
**1975 "Bolan's Zip Gun"
*W.A.S.P.
**1992 "Crimson Idol"
**1997 "K.F.D"

Awards

Kosh is a seven-time Grammy nominee, and has won three of the awards:
*Grammy Awards of 1986 - John Kosh & Ron Larson (art directors) for "Lush Life" performed by Linda Ronstadt
*Grammy Awards of 1983 - John Kosh & Ron Larson (art directors) for "Get Closer" performed by Linda Ronstadt
*Grammy Awards of 1978 - John Kosh (art director) for "Simple Dreams" performed by Linda Ronstadt

Journey to the Ten Worlds

In 1995 Kosh and actor Susan Shearer formed Ten Worlds Entertainment. They directed the opening and closing sequences for the Emmy winning documentaries "When The Lion Roars—The MGM Story" and "In Search of Dr. Seuss" for Turner along with the 1992 through 1998 Billboard Awards telecasts for Fox TV. As production designers on the Showtime six-hour documentary, "Sex and the Silver Screen" with Raquel Welch, Kosh and Shearer recreated the look, lighting and film techniques of the 1960s back through the 1920s and teens. Ten Worlds was responsible for the title, set and production design for the CBS special "60 Years of Life Magazine" hosted by Candice Bergen. Ten Worlds also produced the elegant show logos and graphics for a series of TCM documentaries on glamourous film stars such as Louise Brooks, Rita Hayworth and Clara Bow. They designed the Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary Show, "Glorious Technicolor", hosted by Angela Lansbury, for TNT and the New Year’s special, "Life Remembers for CBS". Ten Worlds achieved critical acclaim for their work on "The Last Days of Kennedy and King" for TBS and the ten-hour documentary "100 Years -100 Movies" for the America Film Institute and CBS. The Ten Worlds team designed "California Connected", a dynamic, weekly news program for PBS stations throughout California and "The Barrymores", a 90-minute special for A&E along with "Masters of Production" for PBS, chronicling the great Hollywood movie production designers.

In 2005, Kosh led Ten Worlds Entertainment into its evolution – becoming Ten Worlds Productions, Inc. Under its new name, it produced and directed a pilot for The History Channel, "Declassified: The Rise and Fall of the Wall", which sheds new light on the Berlin Wall. This pilot soon became a series, which Kosh is presently finishing up directing and producing this 13 part documentary series. The subjects of these documentaries focus on such figures as John Lennon, Fidel Castro, the Tet Offensive, Charles Lindbergh, Joseph Stalin and World War I.

Kosh and Ten Worlds Productions, Inc. are producing another, currently "classified", pilot for the History Channel.

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0467014|name=Kosh
* [http://www.tenworlds.com Ten Worlds Productions]
* [http://www.superseventies.com/ac4hotelcalifornia.html The Seventies website]
* [http://www.geocities.com/dsmurashev.geo/discography/a_13.htm Beatles fan site]
* [http://www.rollingstones.com/discog/?view=album&id=15 Rolling Stones]
* [http://theenvelope.latimes.com/extras/lostmind/year/1981/1981grammy.htm Grammy List]
* [http://www.connollyco.com/discography/ringo_starr/fourth.html Ringo Discography]
* [http://www.jpgr.co.uk/sapcor11.html John Lennon Fan site]