Jay Vigon and Margo Z Nahas: The Artists Behind Rock’s Greatest Album Covers

Margo Nahas and Jay Vigon are the artists behind some of the most iconic album covers of all time. They have worked with some of the biggest names in rock and roll, including Prince, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, The Doobie Brothers and Tom Petty. 

The couple is now working at Mainframe Studios in Des Moines after leaving Los Angeles to be with family. Nahas said, “We had moved here in 2004 when we were getting ready to slow down a little bit. We moved out in the country in Adel, a timber house. It was wonderful, but we didn’t get any recognition.” She continues, “However, our daughter came to live with us after she graduated from the Chicago Art Institute. She stayed here while we went back to take care of my mom in LA […] when my mom passed nobody would come back to California, and so she ended up getting married and having a baby here, and we just followed her and the baby.”

Vigon and Nahas were quick to compliment each other in their accomplishments. Vigon says, “Well I think the one big one is the one that you have,” as he gestures towards a print of 2-year-old Carter Helm holding a candy cigarette. 

Hits from MCMLXXXIV [1984]: Jump!, Panama, I’ll Wait

Nahas recalls, “Warner Brothers called to ask me if I would do Van Halen’s next album, and that they wanted four dancing chrome nude women. I declined, I just couldn’t imagine doing something like that, and so a couple hours later the art director from Warner Brothers called Jay. They weren’t going to take no for an answer, and asked him if he would take my portfolio over to the band the next day.” Nahas smiles, “This is how I got out of meeting everybody I guess.”

She said, “So they’re looking through my portfolio and they stopped on this illustration that I had done two years prior in 1982, and they said ‘is this available?’ and it was, because I just stuck it in there, and they said, ‘we’ll take it!’ The rest is sort of album cover history. At that time, [the candy cigarettes] came in the same kind of cigarette packs that they come in today, and the candy was a chocolate cylinder wrapped in cigarette paper.” 

Nahas continues, “Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth were such rebels. I mean, when they saw a baby smoking cigarettes, obviously the four dancing chrome women just vanished. And that’s the way it was quite a bit. Artists would want something, but they just didn’t know the possibilities of what could be yet, so that’s why Jay would sit down and talk to them and explain the possibilities. Then the artist gets more comfortable knowing that there is sort of a finished product that could come out of that.”

Hits from VOA [Voices of America]: I Can’t Drive 55, Burnin’ Down the City, Rock is in my Blood

The couple has worked together on a variety of album covers, and logos too. Vigon would design the logo and Nahas would add color to the final product. Nahas explains, “We shared a few in that he would do Sammy Hagar Voices of America [VOA]. He would do the logo and he would do it in black and white, and then I would do it in airbrush and color.”

Vigon says, “I met most of the people on that wall, Margo didn’t care much about that.”

Nahas admits, “No, I didn’t go out and meet anybody. I was young, I was a girl, and even though I was the best at what I did, I was just totally intimidated by these guys. They were all guys, musicians, and I just stayed home and illustrated. I branched out after doing album covers for 20 years, and I branched out into doing advertising. So I did advertising which paid quite a bit more than the album covers did.”

Hits from Purple Rain: Purple Rain, I Would Die 4 U, When Doves Cry

Yet another iconic album the couple can boast design credit for is Prince’s magnum opus, Purple Rain. Vigon designed the instantly recognizable lettering that appears on the album. Nahas said, “They also used it for the movie, and for the record album. It was Prince and the Revolution, it was Prince Purple Rain, and it was just Purple Rain, it was just Prince. I mean, it’s been used in every different possible configuration that you would want.”

Nahas compliments Vigon saying, “You could see the Prince Purple Rain in raindrops, and it was like, okay, that’s a good one. But he felt he never really captured what he wanted, and then when he felt that he had just not attained the dynamicism that he wanted, he got out some ink and a paintbrush and he did it in paintbrush and ink. You can see it came out so much more dynamic.” The purple rain design has been immortalized due to the success of the album and the countless amounts of merchandise that show off the jagged purple lettering.

Hits from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: American Girl, Breakdown, Anything That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll

Vigon and Nahas have also had their roadblocks while working in the music industry. Vigon designed the iconic logo that appears on Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers debut self-titled album. Nahas said, “The guitar was shaped like an arrow, so I asked him that right in the beginning, I said, ‘Does he play that kind of guitar?’ he said no, but it was just a perfect one for the heart.” Vigon added, “When he [Petty] got his whole band together, they were all incredibly stoned out of their minds. You couldn’t really talk to him.” Nahas laughs, “Yeah, the first photo session was like a huge failure. They were just so beyond out of control. I’ll just say that.” 

Hits from Farewell Tour: Listen to The Music, What a Fool Believes, Black Water

The duo has also had major successes in artwork and logos that are still used by groups today. Vigon is credited with art direction and design on multiple famous works, including The Doobie Brothers’ Live double album, interestingly named Farewell Tour. The group took a 5 year hiatus before reuniting in 1987. Nahas said, “They felt as though the several days they were with the Doobie Brothers they never really got a good shot for the cover. Well, one of the guitar players came up and said, ‘We’re gonna cut the strings on this guitar’ and Jay was with his photographer at the time standing there, so going towards the end of the concert, Jay pushed his photographer out because he really wanted that. The photographer was really ambiguous about whether he should go out and take a picture of this guy getting the strings cut on his guitar, but he did, and it came out really nice.”

Hits from Metal Health: Cum on Feel the Noize, Metal Health (Bang Your Head)

Hits from Condition Critical: Mama Weer All Crazee Now, Party All Nite

Quiet Riot, who Vigon also worked with, are widely regarded as the first heavy metal band to top the Billboard 200 album charts with their 1983 album Metal Health. The band followed up on this success with top 15 hit Condition Critical. These are the only two albums that the most successful Quiet Riot lineup produced, with the group consisting of lead singer Kevin DuBrow, Guitarist Carlos Cavazo, Drummer Frankie Banali and Bassist Rudy Sarzo. Nahas said, “Jay did two Quiet Riots. They only did two albums, so he did both of them, and then they just disappeared.” Quiet Riot’s next studio album, QR III, is sometimes seen as the beginning of the end for the group, as the band failed to produce any major hits in subsequent years.

Hits from 7800º Fahrenheit: Silent Night 

Hits from Slippery When Wet: Livin’ on a Prayer, You Give Love a Bad Name, Dead or Alive

Hits from New Jersey: I’ll Be There For You, Bad Medicine

Vigon also designed Bon Jovi’s logo for their sophomore album, 7800º Fahrenheit. This logo would later appear re-colored on the band’s next studio albums, Slippery When Wet and New Jersey. Vigon said, “They were very nice, I met them in New York. We had a nice talk and sat down together and thought about different ways to come up with [a logo].” Nahas said to Vigon, ”It got used forever and ever, they used it for 35 years. So Bon Jovi used it for 35 years, Tom Petty used his for 35 years until he died, but your work is still hanging around like nobody’s business.”

The popular music industry in recent decades has seen a shift from rock and roll bands to pop artists, and the creative process behind album covers has been impacted as a result. Vigon says, “I like what I’ve seen before, and I’m not liking what I’m seeing now. The album cover used to be a really great part of it.” Nahas adds, “The album covers today have actually no inspiration. They’ll just have somebody sitting there, and that’s it. And the part that was so inspiring about those album covers before is they would tell a story. If you look at them they tell a story, and today’s don’t tell a story.”

Visitors interested in the couple’s work can visit Mainframe Studios any day. “Jay is here almost every day, so they can come in all the time.” She adds, “We have a First Friday here, every first friday of the month, and it’s open from 5-8 and there is a huge party on every floor. They have 200 artists and 185 studios or something like that, and we’re always here.”

Jay Vigon and Margo Z Nahas have been working together since they met, working on albums as early as 1974. Nahas says, “We’ve been together 52 years, and the partnership is great. I mean we really respect each other and we respect each other’s ideas. If I critique his or he critiques mine, we know we’re doing it for the best of the image.”

To learn more about Jay Vigon and Margo Nahas, visit their websites.

Jay Vigon Creative – https://www.jayvigon.com/

Margo Nahas’ 1984 – https://www.vanhalen1984.com/