Black sleeve, pink disc: the design of the Vegas singles
Why She is the Vegas record to frame, and the promo pieces that went with it.
Some records you buy for the music. Some you buy because you want to hold them. The best Vegas singles are both.
We spend a lot of time on this site cataloguing pressings, but today we want to talk about something simpler. What these records actually look like, and why the design of Vegas still feels so good more than thirty years later.
Start with the logo
Everything begins with those five letters. V in orange, E in blue, G in pink, A in yellow and S in purple, each one a slightly different shape, all sitting on black.
It is a brilliant piece of design. The name Vegas makes you think of neon, and the logo gives you neon without a single light bulb. It is playful but it is also quite classy, thanks to those wide, sharp serifs. It works at the size of a stamp and it works on a shop banner.
It also tells you something about the music. Bright colours on a dark background. Glamour with something a bit shadowy behind it. That is Vegas in one picture.
She: the one to frame
If you only own one Vegas single, make it the UK CD of “She”, catalogue number 74321124652.
It comes in a black cut out sleeve with a metallic green inner sleeve tucked inside. Slide it all out and the disc itself is a bright, almost luminous pink.
Black, metallic green and shocking pink. It sounds like a mess written down. In your hand it is a little object of joy. It feels expensive, slightly ridiculous and very 1992, all at once.
The UK promo CD on SHE2 uses the same black cut out sleeve with a shocking pink disc, so if you see one going for a sensible price, grab it.
Possessed: two faces, one case
The “Possessed” CD singles took a different approach. Rather than one disc, there were two, each a picture CD. One carries Terry’s face and the other carries Dave’s. The Dave Stewart disc came in a double case with an empty slot waiting for the Terry Hall one.
It is a lovely idea. The band is two people, so the single is two objects. You only get the full picture when you bring them together.
The promo pieces
Some of the most striking Vegas design was never meant to be sold at all.
The UK album promo, VEGAS1, is a picture CD in a plain white plastic sleeve with a Vegas colour sticker on the front. The German version came with a full promo folder. These were made for DJs, journalists and shops, and they are some of the most sought after items in the catalogue.
Then there are the shop pieces. In our memorabilia section you will find a double sided shop display board, satin banners and a sales presenter used by the record company to sell “She” into shops. Seeing the logo blown up big on a satin banner is a real treat. It holds up beautifully.
Why it still works
A lot of early nineties design has dated badly. Think of all those wobbly fonts and clashing gradients. Vegas avoided that by keeping things simple: one strong logo, lots of black and a few bold colours.
It is the same reason the band still sounds good. Clean lines, strong choices, nothing added just for the sake of it.
If you have a Vegas item we haven’t photographed yet, especially any of the shop display material, please get in touch. We would love to add it to the discography.