At the end of 1970, Cefalu joined forces with
Craig Braun, Inc. in New York, and worked on
The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers album as well as
Grand Funk Railroad's
E Pluribus Funk. Eight months later, in mid-1971, he opened a satellite office in California for Braun, the head Creative Director. There, he was the creative force behind a string of famous album covers for
Alice Cooper's
''School's Out'', and
Cheech & Chong's
Big Bambu. He is also credited with being one of the people to design
The Rolling Stones "Lips and Tongue" logo. Cefalu opened his own agency,
Pacific Eye & Ear, in January 1972. Over the next 15 years, he created another 194 album covers for rock artists such as
The Doors, Alice Cooper,
Aerosmith,
The Bee Gees,
The Guess Who,
Black Sabbath,
Jefferson Airplane, the
Modern Jazz Quartet,
Burton Cummings, Grand Funk Railroad,
Iron Butterfly, and
Black Oak Arkansas. Cefalu's collaborations with then emerging illustrators such as
Drew Struzan, Bill Garland,
Joe Petagno, Carl Ramsey, Ingrid Haenke and Joe Garnet led Pacific Eye & Ear's quest to become one of the top album design companies in the country. In 1985, Cefalu formed David Hale Associates and broadened his client roster beyond the music industry to include the food companies
Nestle and
Kraft. Over the next decade and a half, his work helped more than 20 brands in five divisions post double-digit sales growth. In 1990 he was retained by
Panavision Motion Picture Cameras,
NGK Spark Plugs and
Rockwell International. In 1996, Cefalu also added retail chain
Kmart, motion picture studios
Paramount,
Universal, and
Disney,
National Hot Rod Association and
Valvoline, and
Wolfgang Puck's
La Brea Bakery. Before the end of 2010 Cefalu had expanded his client roster to welcome
Fortune 100 companies
InBev,
Honeywell/
Novar and
Avery Dennison. ==Awards and recognition==