At Brian Duffy's North London studio, Duffy introduced Bowie to Celia Philo, his design partner at the Kitchen Shop, and Arden make-up artist Laroche.
Bowie later described his concept for the Aladdin Sane character as "a lightning bolt. An electric kind of thing. Instead of the flame of a lamp, I thought he would probably be cracked by lightning. Sort of an obvious thing, as he was sort of an electric boy."
In 2009, Duffy recalled, "Bowie was interested in the Elvis ring, which had the letters TCB (Taking Care of Business) as well as a lightning flash."
Duffy noticed that the National logo on the cooker in the studio bore a similar but shorter logo on it, which he drew onto Bowie's face. Laroche then filled in the blue and red with lipstick and applied a purple 'death mask' wash to Bowie's face.
Illustrator Philip Castle, known for his Clockwork Orange poster and soundtrack cover, later airbrushed the teardrop to Bowie's collarbone, adding to the aura of stillness.
Duffy wanted to make him look like "a statue that's wet".
Castle also collaborated with Duffy and Allen Jones on the Pirelli calendar, which they revisited for the inside gatefold. Castle applied a silver airbrush to Duffy's photo, completing the statuesque androgynous image.
Brian Duffy (2010)
Tony realized that in order to get the record company truly operational, he had to get them deeply in debt, which was, of course, a masterstroke. He aimed to create the most expensive cover he could possibly get the record company to pay for, because he understood that if it cost five thousand pounds, "so what, one or the other." If it cost fifty thousand pounds, the record company would now be compelled to pay attention.
Tony said "Can you make it expensive?" No problem. First, dye transfer, a genius method of spending the amount of money to get a reproduction from a color transparency onto a piece paper.
Second, get the plate made in Switzerland, the most expensive place in the world to get plates made. Then, employ me to and create it—an even more wasteful approach.
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