Back in London in the early 1980s when I opened my own lab I used a friend, who was a graphic designer, to design my letterhead and business cards. She insisted that I use Bush Hollyhead for the logo even though I didn’t really know anything about him or his work at the time, but I trusted her and think I paid him about £200 to design it.

L – R George Hardie, Bush Hollyhead and Malcolm Harrison

Since then I’ve discovered more about Bush and his career, despite him being quite elusive. His early days in the 1970s were at Nicholas Thirkell Design, which, with colleagues George Hardie and Malcolm Harrison, quickly became NTA Studios and was located in Charterhouse Square, where my friend worked.

During this time they were all working as freelance artists on jobs for the design group Hipgnosis; George Hardie creating Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album cover and Bush Hollyhead designing the logo for Led Zeppelin!

Recently while going through some old boxes I found the original artwork and thought it would be fun to resurrect it for my website.

As an endnote, not long after the stationary had been printed I was approached by the Victoria and Albert Museum who asked for copies of each piece – business card, letterhead and compliment slip – for their archives.

Other work by Bush Hollyhead.