Sidebeat Music with Kosh – album cover designer & documentarian
Kosh is one of the greatest art / creative directors in Rock history. From The Beatles to today … and still going strong. Kosh, a three-time Grammy award winner, has designed over 2000 album covers including Abbey Road, Let it Be, and Hotel California.
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Kosh (born John Kosh) is an English 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.
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 L.A. he continued designing for various famous artists including: Jimmy Buffett, Bob Dylan, The Eagles, Dan Fogelberg, Carole King, Randy Newman, Pointer Sisters, Richard Pryor, Ringo Starr, Linda Ronstadt, Electric Light Orchestra, Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, Spinal Tap and James Taylor. Kosh has garnered seven Grammy nominations and won three for his work with Linda Ronstadt.
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. In 2009, the British Post Office (Royal Mail) issued commemorative stamps recognizing the Beatles and their album covers. Two of them were Kosh’s: Abbey Road and Let It Be.
Kosh and designer Bradford Stewart has created Ballet in Abstract and other amazing still art works and videos.
Sidebeat Music is a show on Actors Entertainment, a channel on the Actors Podcast Network, a Pepper Jay Production.