A Royal College contemporary and friend of both Storm Thorgerson and George Hardie, John Pasche is the designer behind the infamous Rolling Stones logo, the original artwork for which is now in the collections of the V&A.

In 1970, The Rolling Stones' office contacted the Royal College of Art and asked if they could recommend a student to come along and meet with Mick Jagger to discuss the design of a poster for their forthcoming European tour.

Two weeks later the fortunate student, John Pasche, delivered the finished artwork which was approved by Mick and the band. Mick surprised student and visitors by suddenly turning up at the Royal College to see the artwork exhibited in John’s degree show exhibition.

Due to the success of the poster art, John was commissioned by Mick to design a logo for their independent record label and the ‘tongue and lips’ was born. The first major outing for the logo was on the inner bag for Sticky Fingers.