Island Visual Arts

Background

Island Visual Arts was the home video division of Chris Blackwell's Island Records.

(1989-Early 90's)

Nickname: "Musical Island"

Logo: The logo is animated with painted drawings. We see water, then fish start swimming across the sea. We rise up from the water, and a wave forms. The wave hits an island in the background, which forms the classic Island Records logo, which turns into a person on a sailboat singing. The music notes from his singing turn into a bird that flies to the sun, then the image pans down to a globe. A white continent zooms in, and the bird drops down and turns into a rock star that sings in front of a crowd, which then pans to the right, where there are flamenco dancers. The camera zooms in, and we see another bustling crowd, looking at a saxophone player. A tiger suddenly leaps out of the saxophone. The tiger's mouth opens and suddenly the image becomes a U2 concert. One of the singers grows wings, and flies over the water to the same island as we described earlier. The island becomes a skyline with a stylized Grace Jones on the top in her pose from the Island Life album, with people dancing at a building out of different windows. The camera pans to the right, and a random person has his radio blaring. We zoom in to the radio's left speaker and see more flamenco dancers. The image zooms out slowly, and we see a sun, and the bird is carrying the word "ISLAND" on his talons. The sun is in full view and the bird flies by, creating the word "ISLAND", with "VISUAL ARTS" below it in a smaller font.

FX/SFX: The animation of the painted drawings, which resembles that of Bill Plympton. Astounding animation; it's creative and a joy to watch. This is also one of the longest logos ever, clocking in at 59 seconds.

Music/Sounds: An assortment of music all taken from the Island label catalog, which are in order:

"My Boy Lollipop" by Millie Small,
"One Love" by Bob Marley,
"Many Rivers" by Jimmy Cliff,
an unknown jazz tune,
"With or Without You" by U2,
"Pull Up to the Bumper" by Grace Jones,
"Bass & Trouble" by Sly & Robbie,
and, finally, "All Right Now" by Free.

Availability: Rare. Was seen on Robert Palmer Video Addictions and U2 Zoo TV Live from Sydney. Might have also been on some VHS releases of The Harder They Come and other music-related/concert films.

Legacy: This logo is long, but professional and very creative. All the different music may make this logo a favorite among fans of music in general.