John Van Hamersveld (born September 1, 1941, Baltimore, Maryland, United States) is an American graphic artist and illustrator who designed record jackets for pop and psychedelic bands from the 1960s onward.^[1][2] Among the 300 albums^[3] are the covers of Magical Mystery Tour by the Beatles, Crown of Creation by Jefferson Airplane, Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones, and Hotter Than Hell by Kiss.^[1] His first major assignment, in 1963, was designing the poster for the surf film The Endless Summer, after which he served as Capitol Records' head of design from 1965 to 1968. During that time, he worked on the artwork for albums by Capitol artists such as the Beatles and the Beach Boys.^[4] He also oversaw the design of the psychedelic posters for the Pinnacle Shrine exposition.^[5]

Endless Summer

In 1964, John Van Hamersveld was a student at the Art Center College of Design and the art director of Surfing Illustrated magazine and Surfer magazine. Van Hamersveld was also a local surfer and was hired by director and filmmaker Bruce Brown to design the iconic Endless Summer movie poster using a photograph taken by Bob Bagley, general manager and cameraman for Bruce Brown Films.^[6] To produce the image that would become iconic, he organized a photo session with the producer and the two stars at Salt Creek Beach in Dana Point. Using photo techniques for the central image and hand-lettering the title Van Hamersveld created a “national phenomenon” image that has endured as a classic. He was paid $150 for the art. The poster is featured in the National Museum of American History section of the Smithsonian Institution, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.^[7]

In its description, the Smithsonian noted, “The poster’s premise was Browns but Van Hamersveld took Bob Bagley’s image of the movie’s stars Mike Hynson and Robert August and Brown and transformed it into a 1960s neon masterpiece of the LA modernist poster, having been an Art Center College of Design student".^[8]

Other work

He designed an official poster and 360-foot-long mural for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games;^[1] illustrations for Esquire, Rolling Stone, Billboard; and branding and logos for Fatburger, Contempo Casuals, and Broadway Deli.

Later projects

In 1997 Van Hamersveld started his own line of products revisiting his work from 1964 to 1974, which he calls "Post-Future". With the printmaking of a fine art edition of the Endless Summer poster, he moved his design work into his Coolhous studio in Santa Monica and between analog and digital environments managed to create works such as the posters for the 2005 Cream reunion concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

In 2013 he celebrated 50 years in graphic design by producing a vinyl EP sleeve for Liverpool-based blues-rockers Sankofa, in addition to publishing the book John Van Hamersveld—Coolhaus Studio: 50 Years of Graphic Design. He continued that line of work in 2014 with two more artworks for records by Asher Roth and the Gaslight Anthem.

In April 2018 Van Hamersveld completed a mural on a storage tank near Grand Avenue in El Segundo, California. "El Segundo is where my career started, as a surfer and an artist," he told the Los Angeles Times.^[9]

Album covers

Among his album covers are: