David Costa

David Costa (born 18 November 1947) is an English graphic designer, art director and musician. Notable design collaborations include those for Queen, Elton John, Anastacia, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Beatles, The Moody Blues, Genesis, The Rolling Stones and Phil Collins.

Early life

Costa was born in London, England. His grandfather was a songwriter and pianist with the Savoy Orpheans. His father was the singer and radio presenter Sam Costa. He attended Merchant Taylors' public school, pursuing Fine Arts at the University of East Anglia in 1966.

Career In early 1969 he left university and brought together Barry Clarke, Bias Boshell, Unwin Brown and Celia Humphris to form the folk-rock band Trees, subsequently recording two albums: The Garden of Jane Delawney and On the Shore. In 1971 he left Trees to pursue freelance graphic design, eventually with Dick James Music in 1972, leading to a sequence of album sleeves for Elton John, and subsequently as art director in the UK offices of Rocket Records. During this period, Costa and guitarist Barry Clarke went on to write, record and produce the band Casablanca and subsequent eponymous album in 1973.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s freelance design projects included work with ex-Beatles press officer Derek Taylor to instigate the "Brighton Pier" label for Warner Bros. Records UK. From 1977 through 1979 Costa ran his studio Jubilee Graphics from the previous offices of the Rocket Record Company in Wardour Street, London. Over the ensuing decade he worked as a freelance designer/art director on the re-launched Tatler magazine with Tina Brown; redesign and art direction on the relaunched The Field magazine; early visual proposals for Today, Eddie Shah's publication that pioneered the use of computer systems with photo-typesetting and full-colour offset printing, and, the redesign and frequent illustration of covers for Encounter magazine.

Discography Musician Year Album Artist Label 1969 The Garden of Jane Delawney Trees CBS Records, 2007 Sony Rewind, Sunbeam Records 1970 On the Shore Trees CBS Records, 2007 Sony Rewind, Sunbeam Records 1973 Casablanca Casablanca Rocket

Graphic art, design and packaging Year Album Artist Label 1973 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road George Harrison Dark Horse Records 1987 Live in Australia Elton John Rocket, MCA 1988 Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 Traveling Wilburys Wilbury/Warner Bros. Records 1988 Reg Strikes Back Elton John Rocket 1989 Sleeping with the Past Elton John Rocket 1989 The Best of Dark Horse George Harrison Dark Horse Records 1990 Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 Traveling Wilburys Wilbury/Warner Bros. Records 1990 The Very Best of Elton John Elton John DJM 1990 To Be Continued... Eric Clapton Duck Records/Reprise Records 2000 Genesis Archive 2: 1976–1992 Genesis Virgin, Atlantic 2000 The Very Best of Cat Stevens Cat Stevens PolyGram 2001 Vagabonds Kings Warriors Angels Thin Lizzy Vertigo 2001 Re-release of All Things Must Pass George Harrison Gnome Records 2003 Let It Be... Naked The Beatles Apple 2004 Love Songs: A Compilation... Old and New Phil Collins Atlantic/Rhino/Virgin 2004 The Capitol Albums, Volume 1 The Beatles Apple 2005 The Concert for Bangladesh George Harrison Apple 2006 The Captain & the Kid 1991 24 Nights Eric Clapton/Peter Blake Genesis Publications 1994 Liverpool Days Astrid Kirchherr/Max Scheler Genesis Publications 1994 Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book Brian Froud/Terry Jones Pavilion Books 1995 Mason's Yard to Primrose Hill Gered Mankowitz Genesis Publications 1995 Sometime in New York City Bob Gruen Genesis Publications 1996 Strange Stains and Mysterious Smells Brian Froud/Terry Jones Pavilion Books/Simon & Schuster 1996 Stuart: The Life and Art of Stuart Sutcliffe Stuart Sutcliffe Genesis Publications 1997 Raga Mala Ravi Shankar Genesis Publications 1998 Eye-Contact Gered Mankowitz Genesis Publications 1998 Wyman Shoots Chagall Bill Wyman Genesis Publications 1998 The Rolling Stones: A Life on the Road Philip Dodd/The Rolling Stones Virgin Books 1999 Hamburg Days Astrid Kirchherr/Klaus Voormann Genesis Publications 1999 The Vogue Book of Blondes Kathy Phillips Pavilion Books 2000 The Beatles Anthology The Beatles Cassell/Chronicle Books 2001 The Book of Rock Philip Dodd Pavilion Books 2002 Shooting Sex: The Definitive Guide to Undressing Beautiful Strangers Bob Carlos Clarke Bob Carlos Clarke 2002 Martin Guitar Masterpieces Martin Guitars/Dick Boak Bulfinch Press 2003 Punk: A Life Apart Stephen Colegrave/Chris Sullivan Cassell/Chronicle Books 2005 Drawing Blood Forty Five Years of Scarfe Uncensored Gerald Scarfe Little, Brown Book Group 2006 Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America Country Music Hall of Fame DK Publishing 2007 Genesis: Chapter & Verse Genesis Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2009 Woodstock: Three Days That Rocked the World Mike Evans, Paul Kingsbury, Museum at Bethel Woods Sterling 2011 No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan Robert Shelton Backbeat Books 2013 Starting at Zero Alan Douglas/Peter Neal Bloomsbury Publishing

Tour programmes and books Year Artist Tour 1976 Elton John Louder Than Concorde 1979 Elton John & Ray Cooper Back in the U.S.S.A. 1980 Peter Gabriel Tour of China 1984 1985 Elton John World Tour 1987 Prince Sign o' the Times Tour 1990 Phil Collins The Serious Tour 1994 Phil Collins Both Sides of the World Tour 1997 Phil Collins The Trip into the Light World Tour 1997 - 1998 The Rolling Stones Bridges to Babylon 2002 - 2003 The Rolling Stones Forty Licks 2003 Simon & Garfunkel World Tour 2003 - 2004 Shania Twain Up! Tour 2004 - 2005 Anastacia Live at Last Tour 2004 - 2009 Elton John Red Piano, Las Vegas 2005 - 2007 The Rolling Stones A Bigger Bang 2005 Destiny's Child DC Weekly World Tour 2006 - 2008 Elton John The Captain and the Kid Tour 2007 Beyoncé The Beyoncé Experience 2007 Spice Girls The Return of the Spice Girls 2007 - 2008 The Police The Police Reunion Tour 2007 - 2010 Elton John Rocket Man: Greatest Hits Live 2008 Robert Plant & Alison Krauss Raising Sand Tour 2009 Elton John & Billy Joel Face to Face 2009 2009 Elton John The Red Piano: Live in Europe 2009 Take That The Circus Live 2010 - 2011 Rihanna Last Girl on Earth Tour 2011 - 2018 Elton John Million Dollar Piano, Las Vegas 2011 Elton John Million Dollar Piano, 40th anniversary edition 2011 Elton John World Tour 2014 Elton John Showbook