An exhibition curated by Rick Poynor at the Barbican Art Gallery (2004) charting over 40 years of graphic design in the United Kingdom.
Rick Poynor is a British writer on design, graphic design, typography, and visual culture.
Graphic design is the process of visual communication and problem-solving through the use of typography, photography, and illustration. The field is considered a subset of visual communication and communication design, but sometimes the term "graphic design" is used synonymously. Graphic designers create and combine symbols, images and text to form visual representations of ideas and messages. They use typography, visual arts, and page layout techniques to create visual compositions. Common uses of graphic design include corporate design, editorial design, wayfinding or environmental design, advertising, web design, communication design, product packaging, and signage.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country located off the northwestern coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea separates Great Britain and Ireland. The United Kingdom's 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi) were home to an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.
The first major attempt to reflect on how the smaller independent studios and agencies marked and shaped the way we look at images in our everyday lives: from book and magazines, music covers and promotions, web design, corporate identities, politics and society and self-initiated projects.
The exhibition assembled some of the most iconic pieces produced since the early sixties. From the covers for Penguin Books by Derek Birdsall and Romek Marber, the magazines The Face by Neville Brody and i-D by Terry Jones, the memorable Never Mind the Bollocks – Here‘s the Sex Pistols, the Channel4 and BBC2 TV idents by Martin Lambie-Nairn, the graphic work for Pirelli by Fletcher/Forbes/Gill.
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fiction to the mass market. Penguin's success demonstrated that large audiences existed for serious books. Penguin also had a significant impact on public debate in Britain, through its books on British culture, politics, the arts, and science.
Derek Birdsall is an internationally renowned British graphic designer.
Romek Marber is a Polish graphic designer and academic noted for his work illustrating the covers of Penguin Books. He retired in 1989, becoming a Professor Emeritus of Middlesex University.
Other designers and studios included: Lucienne Roberts, Malcolm Garrett, Kate Hepburn, Peter Saville, Vaughan Oliver, Mark Farrow, Tomato, Intro, 8vo, Richard Hollis, Herbert Spencer, Ken Garland, Margaret Calvert, Jonathan Barnbrook, Why Not Associates, Trickett & Webb, Graphic Thought Facility, Jannuzzi Smith, Fuel, Kerr/Noble, Alan Kitching, The Designers Republic, Hi-Res, Paul Elliman, Nick Bell, Phil Baines and many others.
Malcolm Garrett RDI FRSA is a British graphic designer, and Creative Director of Images&Co, a communications design consultancy based in London, UK. He is Ambassador for Manchester School of Art and co-founder of the annual Design Manchester festival, now in its sixth year.
Vaughan Oliver is a British graphic designer based in Epsom, south of London. Oliver is most noted for his work with graphic design studios 23 Envelope and v23. Both studios maintained a close relationship with record label 4AD between 1982 and 1998 and were to give distinct visual identities for the 4AD releases by many bands, including Mojave 3, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, The Breeders, This Mortal Coil, Pale Saints, Pixies, and Throwing Muses. Outside of 4AD, Oliver has also done sleeve design for such artists as David Sylvian, The Golden Palominos, and Bush.
Mark Farrow was named Designer of the Year in the Creative Review Peer Poll in 2004, voting him ‘the most important graphic designer working today’. His career began in the early 1980s designing experimental sleeves and posters for Factory Records, and The Haçienda, which placed him at the forefront of contemporary music graphic design. This has since continued with a longstanding creative partnership with Pet Shop Boys, and other bands such as Spiritualized. He designed the cover for Everything Must Go (1996), the breakthrough album by the Manic Street Preachers. His minimalist approach, and a rigorous, highly precise attention to detail defines his aesthetic, and appeals to a broad spectrum of clients, from museums and galleries to pop music and retail, product designers and architects, to restaurateurs and artists. In 2009 he was given the honour of Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) by the RSA.
