How an iconic 60s rock logo became bigger than the band-Brooke Ivey Johnson-Entertainment – Metro

The Rolling Stones iconic logo has almost transcended the band (Picture: Getty Images)

Besides the Christian cross, there may be no more prominent instance of successful branding than the Rolling Stones’ logo. 

If you walk through central London any day of the week and look carefully, you’re almost sure to run into at least a few people wearing merch emblazoned with the band’s trademark lips and tongue and there’s a good bet, if you were to ask them, that not all of them would be Stones fans. 

While the image remains associated with the band for which it was made, it’s taken on a life of its own over the years. It’s appeared on everything from t-shirts to stage sets to airplanes and can be found emblazoned on items in shops that don’t sell music merchandise at all. 

While the Grateful Dead’s teddy bear or Nirvana’s smiley face may be iconic, there’s no question that the tongue logo is, ‘the most famous logo in the history of popular music,’ as Sean Egan put it in his book The Mammoth Book of the Rolling Stones.

He continues: ‘Regardless of its provenance, the logo is superb. Without using the Stones’ name, it instantly conjures them, or at least Jagger, as well as a certain lasciviousness that is the Stones’ own.’

But contrary to popular belief, the logo was not created to represent Jagger’s famously plump lips. It also wasn’t – as many believe – designed by Andy Warhol. 

Many incorrectly believe Andy Warhol designed the logo (Picture: YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images)

The hot lips logo is undoubtedly the most famous in the history of rock and roll (Picture: Eugene Adebari/REX/Shutterstock)

Here’s everything you need to know about the real story behind the Rolling Stones’ famous hotlips logo. 

Who designed the Rolling Stones’ logo?

It’s true that Andy Warhol worked closely with the band on several of their album designs, including Sticky Fingers and Love You Live, but he didn’t design their logo.

Instead, it was a penniless art student who originally thought up the iconic design in 1970. 

Many believe the logo represents Jagger’s mouth, though there is some debate about whether this was the artist’s intention (Picture: Getty Images)

The Stones were truly at the height of their fame in 1970 when the logo was conceptualised (Picture: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

As the story goes, John Pasche, a final year Master of Arts student at the Royal College of Art in London was contacted by the Rolling Stones’ head office after Mick Jagger saw some of his work at an art fair. 

Unsatisfied with the options provided by their label, the Stones wanted a new design for their 1970 European tour posters. 

After several meetings with Jagger (which Pasche would later tell the New York Times ended with the singer telling him ‘You can do better John.’) Pasche was told to scrap his work on the posters and instead focus on making ‘an image that could work on its own … like the Shell Petroleum logo. He wanted that kind of simplicity.’ 

The logo can now be found on every imaginable item of memorabilia (Picture: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

John Pasche is credited with the original design (Picture:GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images)

In the time between meetings, Jagger had stumbled on an illustration of the Hindu deity Kali in a shop and asked to borrow. 

He liked the idea of incorporating imagery from Hinduism into the band’s brand, as Indian culture was popular in the UK at the time, but Pasche was struck by the deity’s open mouth and boldly protruding tongue.

The label wanted the new logo to appear on Sticky Fingers, which came out in 1971, so Pasche rushed to create the logo in time. 

Mick Jagger first approached Pasche in 1970 (Picture: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)

The album’s iconic cover was designed by Andy Warhol but the logo also appeared, for the very first time, on the back.

Pasche was paid just £50 in 1970 for the logo and then an additional £200 in 1972.  In 1984 Pasche sold his logo copyright to the Rolling Stones’ commercial arm, Musidor BV, for just £26,000.

Are there different versions of the Rolling Stones’ logo?

Interestingly, there has been some controversy about who truly designed the final logo. 

This is in large part because the US release of Sticky Fingers featured a slightly different version of the logo.

The two logos were very similar (Picture: Getty)

When a version of Pasche’s design was faxed to the American side of the record label, it came in grainy and difficult to see, prompting Craig Braun (the owner and creative director of the Sound Packaging Corporationt) to create his own version.  

As he’s told many publications, he gave the grainy image to an illustrator working for him who came back with the hot lips logo as we know it today. 

Braun told Long Live Vinyl: ‘Pasche hadn’t finished his logo, so I told them to use his on the English album. Ultimately, it ended up being my version, not his, they use everywhere. They use mine for the tours, merchandising, licensing. Ironically, the V&A Museum paid Pasche almost £100,000 for his original logo art, but it’s not the official Stones version.’ 

The logo has been present on every Rolling Stones album since 1971 (Picture: Phil Dent/Redferns)

The difference between the two logos is very slight but noticeable, with Braun’s featuring a slightly elongated tongue with extra lines and highlights.

In the time since, the logo has appeared on every Rolling Stones album and unique versions have been created for anniversaries and limited edition merch. 

Countless brands have collaborated with the Stones merchandising company to create special products using the logo over the years, with children toy creator’s Lego releasing a buildable version of the hotlips as recently as 2023. 

What does the Rolling Stones’ logo represent?

Pasche’s answers have changed over the years regarding whether or not Jagger’s lips were a part of his inspiration for the design. 

He told Victoria Broackes, a senior curator at the V&A Museum, who helped facilitate the museum’s purchase of Pasche’s original sketches in 202, that any resemblance to Jagger’s lips was subconscious. 

The logo even famously appears on the Stones’ airplane (Picture: Sipa/REX/Shutterstock)

Contradicting that, he told Rolling Stone that the symbol was meant ‘to represent the band’s anti-authoritarian attitude, Mick’s mouth and the obvious sexual connotations.’

But artistic intention is one thing; the life a piece of art takes on once it’s out of its creator’s hands is another thing. 

Now, when a 15-year-old who has never heard of The Rolling Stones wears a hotlips shirt he’s declaring a general sense of rock and roll aesthetic and anti-establishmentarianism. 

The Rolling Stones stage set was shaped like the logo at the halftime show during Super Bowl XL (Picture: Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

The symbol has become one of the most recognisable in the world (Picture: Moment Editorial/Getty Images)

Pasche always intended for the logo to be interpreted in this way, making a conscious decision not the incorporate the band’s name into the design. 

‘It’s the kind of thing kids do when they stick their tongue out at you,’ he said. ‘That was the main reason I thought it would work well.’

And work well it has, growing over the years to represent not just the Rolling Stones and their music but the entire devil-may-care culture surrounding rock and roll.

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