Designing the packaging for the White Album

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The embossed “The Beatles” name

The cover for the White Album was not completely white, as The Beatles’ name was subtly embossed in white Helvetica just below the center on the album’s right side (later releases would show the title in grey print, not embossed).

This idea was not Richard Hamilton’s but Gordon House’s.

For the White Album, it was Gordon House, likely under the pressure of Paul McCartney, who proposed adding The Beatles’ name to the cover, contrary to Richard Hamilton’s preference for a plain white cover, save for the unique issue number.

So now [Richard] was saying, ‘Let’s call it The Beatles and have it white, really white.’ I was saying, ‘Well, I dunno. It’s a great concept, but we are releasing an album here. This is not a piece of art for a rather elite gallery, this is more than that. I see the point. It’s a nice idea, but for what we were to people, and still are, it doesn’t quite fit, we’re not quite a blank space, a white wall, the Beatles. Somebody ought to piss on it or smudge an apple on it for it to become the Beatles, because a white wall’s just too German and marvellous for us.’

So the idea then emerged to do the embossing. ‘Maybe if we emboss the word “Beatles” out of the white, that’ll be good. We’ll get a shadow from the embossing but it’s white on white. It’s still white. That’ll be nice.’ But I still wanted something on the white, an idea, like the apple smudging.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

There is one thing that I dislike. The words ‘THE BEATLES’ were not supposed to appear on the cover and I did not see what had been done until after the album was on the shelves. Perhaps I just didn’t see the blind-embossed words at first, which were probably added, under pressure, by my friend Gordon House, who was responsible for the typesetting of the song lyrics on the back of the poster. I still believe that it is a regrettable touch of vandalism, like graffiti.

Richard Hamilton – From “The Beatles” Super Deluxe book, 2018

The “white fur” cover that could have been

In the 2018 “The Beatles” Super Deluxe book, designer Gordon House recalls a meeting at Apple with Paul, John, George, and Ringo, where John stated, “What we really want is a sleeve in white ‘fur’.”

At the time I thought the EMI production department would certainly go absolutely mad at such an unusual but brilliant request, but it occurred to me that there was a white “flock” paper that could have been possible. Although I did make a maquette in the “fuurr”material it soon got lost and pushed aside in the rush that ensued to manufacture the quantities of albums required.’

Gordon House – From “The Beatles” Super Deluxe book, 2018

The inner sleeve

Opting for a white album cover meant that this would be the first Beatles album to not feature the band on the sleeve. Instead, individual portraits of each Beatle were included on the right side of the inner sleeve. These were captured by photographer John Kelly.

The use of individual portraits indicated that the Beatles were no longer presented as a cohesive band, marking another first. This choice mirrored the dynamics within the recording studio at the time, where collaboration between Paul McCartney and John Lennon, in particular, had greatly diminished.

The four individual portraits, in color, were also included in the packaging of the album as small posters.

On the left side, the inner sleeve displayed the song titles.

I said: ‘If you have a white cover, you should have some pictures of yourselves inside. Not all together like the “head shot” but individual ones, just straight and simple so the fans have something.’ They agreed to do that and I did them at Apple. Well three of them. A nice easy picture of them, no incredible lightning or so. That was at the time that Paul couldn’t decide to go shaved or unshaven. We had ‘words’ about that and several attempts. Paul’s picture, by the way, was taken at Cavendish Avenue.

John Kelly – Photographer – From Beatles Unlimited fanzine #99 November/December 1991

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