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Ruby Mazur and 'The Tongue'

Brooklyn-born Ruby Mazur claims to have bluffed his into designing album covers, but this is one bluff that paid off: Rock 'n' roll icons Billy Joel, Van Morrison, Elton John and Jimmy Buffet all have Mazur-designed album covers somewhere in their back catalogs. And he’s responsible for creating the logo of “the world’s greatest rock 'n' roll band,” the Rolling Stones.

Designed in 1972 to both highlight Mick Jagger’s infamous lips and reflect the Stones’ image as irredeemable bad boys, Mazur’s mouth-and-tongue logo has become one of the most well-known images in rock and roll. It has appeared on just about every piece of Stones merchandise imaginable, from T-shirts to refrigerator magnets to ladies underwear and beyond.

But as album covers shrunk to accommodate CD jewel cases, Mazur responded by expanding his artistic horizons, becoming a talented and successful designer of corporate logos, comic illustrations and personal portraits. Most recently he has built a sterling reputation as a painter of celebrities and their dogs. Jason Priestley, Sandra Bullock and Jessica Simpson all have original Mazurs hanging on their walls.

“My work is like breathing,” said Mazur. “It’s a growth thing. I feel like I’m always seeing better, thinking better."