"All You Need Is Love" Poster Art

Crayola Signature Coloring Songbook: Lyrics by Lennon & McCartney 4-panel wall poster "All You Need Is Love" by Joe Lacey

It's not just a coloring book, it's a full experience! The Crayola Signature Coloring Songbook: Lyrics by Lennon & McCartney includes a "4-panel wall art piece".  Each page is perforated and can be pulled out and taped together to measure 32" wide, or 40" tall (if you stack it top to bottom) when assembled!

My first idea for the pull-out poster sections was to create a globe image in four sections with All You Need Is Love circling the earth. The border was to be the word "love" repeated in twenty different languages. I took this idea directly from the "Our World" press event in which the Beatles wore sandwich boards hand painted with All You Need Is Love in multiple languages to promote the event. The following day, on June 25th, 1967 the Beatles performed All You Need Is Love as part of the "Our World" satellite broadcast. Unfortunately, the foreign languages were omitted from my designs due to too many translation issues. The globe looked good as a single image, but I just couldn't get it to break down nicely into the four segments and still have each page stand nicely on its own. So, I was back to the drawing board.

My second idea, and the one that you see here, was to make it look like a blacklight hippie poster from the '60s. The style is a bit different from the rest of the coloring book, but I felt that was the right way to approach it — make it something unique and special. Also, what if someone would like to put it above a door, or down the wall like a full length mirror? To do this, the poster needed to fit together in as many ways as possible — horizontally, vertically, square, or staggered. This was easy enough, given that each section was a single letter, but they needed to work as a unit as well, so with the addition of a decorative border, the mural can connect at the corners. Each letter also had its own color scheme and theme: "L" hearts — "O" musical notes — "V" flowers — "E" peace signs.

The added touch that I like the most is the inclusion of the incidental background lyrics — "It's Easy!", "All Together Now!", "Everybody!", and "She Loves You Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!". A fun way to get two more song references into the book and stick to the supplied list of approved songs.* In the end, this new design captured the feel from the "Our World" event better than my first idea. I hope kids are taping this poster on their walls!

You can read more about my work for The Crayola Coloring Songbook: Lyrics by Lennon and McCartney here.

*Neither All Together Now, nor She Loves You were included in the official licensing list of approved Lennon & McCartney songs, but since both these songs' lyrics were included in All You Need Is Love, I was able to put them on the poster.

1967 "Our World" press event. The Beatles holding boards with "All You Need Is Love" in multiple languages.

John Lennon & Paul McCartney Coloring Songbook by Crayola featuring art by Joe Lacey.

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE Lennon McCartney Crayola Mural art by Joe Lacey.