World Record Club – Lance Stirling

by rgarrod on May 23, 2011

I’m SO happy that I’m finally able to attribute the designer of the Album Cover (first image) that has had more hits and re-blogs than any other image on my entire blog, since obtaining a copy of the book ”It’s Another World Record” by Geoff Hocking. In the coming weeks and months I will also be able to group many of the album covers I have been posting – into groups, designers and themes - putting many of these designs into their historical context.

In this beautifully written and illustration volume Geoff Hocking outlines the history of this important organisation and the contribution it made to Graphic Design during its operation from 1958-1976. WRC employed many of Australia’s top Graphic Designers and Visuals Artists.

One of the important Designers for WRC was Lance Stirling (b 1928) who was trained as both a designer and painter. In his time with WRC, Stirling only produced 10 designs(as a freelancer) in the early years of the studio, but they were very important in their contribution to quickly establishing what became the WRC ‘style’. In 1962 lance was included in “International who’s who in Graphic Art” – Published in Switzerland, and in 1996 Lance Stirling inducted into the AGDA Hall of Fame.

These are the 3 Lance Stirling album designs I have previously posted from my WRC Album Collection – and I will post others as I find them, now I know what Lance’s designs are.

Liszt – Piano Sonata in B minor, The Philharmonia Orchestra

conducted by Walter Susskind, Witold Malcuzynski (pianoforte)

Sibelius No. 2 in D Major. Sinfonia of London, Taunao Hannikainen

Tchaikovsky, Sleeping Beauty Ballet suite, Sinfonia of London,

John Hollingsworth (conductor)

For such a significant and influential designer, examples of Stirling’s work are hard to locate on the Internet, but I feel more may be found in Design Annuals from Australia and Internationally.

I did manage to find these few examples of some of Lance’s other work.