Katie Allen
Associate Specialist
Lot 45
Lookout Management/The Geffen-Roberts Company: A group of stationary designs and proofs designed by Gary Burden, circa 1971, Qty
20 – 30 June 2025, 12:00 PDT
Online, Los AngelesSold for US$1,024 inc. premium
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Fred Lawton
Cataloguer
Claire Tole-Moir
Head of Department
Lookout Management/The Geffen-Roberts Company: A group of stationary designs and proofs designed by Gary Burden,
circa 1971,
varying letterhead proofs designed for Geffen Records or Lookout Management; nine reading Geffen & Roberts to the window, some with color bars and trim marks; four with Lookout Management Company to the window, all with company details to the lower margins; with hand sketched patterned envelope designs in yellow and orange, with hand drawn envelope design in pencil; seven of contact sheets in the offices, showing company members of CSNY; two printed photos from the contact sheet,
smallest proof 11 x 8 1/2in; largest proof 18 x 10in; envelope 4 x 9 1/2in; contact sheets 8 1/2 x 11in; (Qty)
varying letterhead proofs designed for Geffen Records or Lookout Management; nine reading Geffen & Roberts to the window, some with color bars and trim marks; four with Lookout Management Company to the window, all with company details to the lower margins; with hand sketched patterned envelope designs in yellow and orange, with hand drawn envelope design in pencil; seven of contact sheets in the offices, showing company members of CSNY; two printed photos from the contact sheet,
smallest proof 11 x 8 1/2in; largest proof 18 x 10in; envelope 4 x 9 1/2in; contact sheets 8 1/2 x 11in; (Qty)
Footnotes
Gary Burden and David Geffen:
Gary Burden and David Geffen both played pivotal roles in shaping the visual and business landscapes of the Los Angeles/Laurel Canyon music scene in the 1970s, though their relationship was complex. Burden was known for his close collaborations with the artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, and was deeply embedded in the creative side of the music world, while Geffen, as the founder of Asylum Records and later Geffen Records, was a driving force behind the commercial success of many of those same artists.
Given their mutual ties to the Laurel Canyon scene and the artists within it, Burden often represented the artistic ideals that sometimes clashed with the more corporate ambitions Geffen pursued. Despite their differing roles, both were instrumental in defining an era where music, imagery, and commerce were becoming increasingly intertwined.
Elliot Roberts:
Elliot Roberts, the founder of Lookout Management in 1967 and later co-founder of Geffen-Roberts, served as a kind of bridge between the creative and business sides of the music industry. As the manager of Neil Young and co-founder of Asylum Records with Geffen, Roberts was deeply trusted by the artists he represented and respected by industry executives alike.
Roberts speaks in the documentary Inventing David Geffen; "The people we worked with were our friends, that was again what was unique about what Geffen-Roberts was, we didn't say it, that was really it, it was 24/7, these are the people we choose to spend our years with, and to defend". He continues, "Anything that moved us... is really what David and I were always about and always were from the very beginning, probably because of our training with Joni [Mitchell] and Laura [Nyro], it was always about the song, it was always about the spirit".
David Geffen recalls; "Elliot and I were particularly enamoured and fans of singer/songwriters and that's what we were attracted to, we were attracted to people that generated their own material, that had a voice".
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