John Lennon: Gimme Some Truth

2020
Universal Music
London

Gimme Some Truth is a completely remastered and remixed collection of music drawn from across John Lennon’s solo career, created in collaboration with Sean Lennon and John Lennon’s estate to celebrate his remarkable life and released to coincide with the artist’s 80th birthday.

Barnbrook designed the artwork for the extensive multi-format release, which spans a one CD digipak, a two CD gatefold, a two LP gatefold and a deluxe two CD, four LP box set, as well as various ephemera including postcards, stickers, posters and the cover of a hard-bound book.

The design aims to explore Lennon’s legacy in a contemporary context, celebrating a man who never separated his strong beliefs from his creative output: the title of the project is turned into a statement, presented in the typeface used for Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous Happy Christmas, War is Over graphic – with an arrow pointing directly from this into Lennon’s ear to suggest he drew inspiration from his music to tell his truth to the world. The image used is an unusual, striking black and white profile portrait of Lennon, taken on the day in 1969 when he returned his MBE, an important moment and a major political act undertaken with characteristic wit and self-deprecation that suggests a life filled with honesty.

The supporting images seen throughout the packages introduce further moments of honesty and truth, presenting three scenes: the bed-in for peace in Amsterdam; the Apple office on the day Lennon returned his MBE; the Imagine sessions in 1971. All three scenes have key parts highlighted in gold to demonstrate methods of communication (the recording devices in the bed-in), to highlight John and Yoko (the Apple office) or simply to draw the viewer’s eye to magical moments of musical expression (the instruments in the studio session).