Paul Gorman is…

TON: Dave Baby’s Temple of Desire

Apr 17th, 2023

The new interiors magazine TON – the first issue is out now –  has two pieces by me on very different but equally extraordinary homes.

TON’s founder and editor-in-chief Jermaine Gallacher – who works with art director Rory Gleeson and editorial director Ted Stansfield – commissioned me to write about Dave Baby’s apartment close to where we both live, in south London’s Stockwell.

As I write, ‘this otherworldly space represents a bewitching realm of desires, sexuality and esoterica with Dave at the maelstrom’s centre, a still figure dispensing wily wit and charm’.

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Barney Bubbles website launched

Mar 30th, 2022

//barneybubbles.com//

The all-new Barney Bubbles website has been launched as part of the celebration to mark what would have been the graphic genius’s 80th birthday this year.

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Representing the Barney Bubbles Estate

Mar 23rd, 2021

Today I’ve launched a page on this site for the Estate of the late radical graphic artist and designer Barney Bubbles.

//Ridiculous Roadshow mask, 1973. © Barney Bubbles Estate//

I represent the Estate and its hundreds of original artworks. We have some exciting activity coming up, including the loving recreation of one of Bubbles’ most striking designs for a very special reissue on Record Store Day this year.

Then there is a new enhanced edition of my monograph Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Life & Work of Barney Bubbles, to be published by a leading international imprint. We are also planning a companion limited edition box of Bubblesiana, including high quality reproductions of his build-your-own paper and card designs.

In recent years the Estate has collaborated with a number of top-flight partners, including Universal Music, BMG Music, Paul Smith, Fred Perry and NOAH Clothing, and produced limited edition t-shirt, poster and postcard ranges with artist/dancer Stacia Blake and specialist printer Something Else.

//Johnny Moped Lightbulb 1977.© Barney Bubbles Estate//

//John Cooper Clarke, 1979. © Barney Bubbles Estate//

Read Barney Bubbles’ biography on the Estate page here.

//Still from Barney Bubbles-directed video for Ghost Town by The Specials, 1981//

//Letterhead for Teenburger Designs studio, 1969. © Barney Bubbles Estate//

//4D Man, 1982.© Barney Bubbles Estate//

//I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass, 1978. © Barney Bubbles Estate//

//Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, 1978. © Barney Bubbles Estate//

//Cracking Up, 1979. © Barney Bubbles Estate//

For licensing and reproduction inquiries, contact paulgormanis@btinternet.com. PDFs of available artworks on request.

Follow the Estate’s Instagram account: @_barney_bubbles_estate_ 

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New Barney Bubbles t-shirt evokes the graphic genius’s wish for ‘a groovy scene… with lots of hard work and fun play’

Aug 16th, 2020


//Musician Sam Parkin sports the Teenburger Designs t-shirt//

Infused with the personal freedoms and camaraderie experienced on a trip to San Francisco, the graphic artist Barney Bubbles (born Colin Fulcher 1942; died 1983) took occupation of the three-storey building at 307 Portobello Road in 1969 and transformed it into a creative commune at the heart of the Notting Hill counterculture.

With musicians rehearsing in the basement and a shifting set of unusual and interesting inhabitants and collaborators, Bubbles established his Teenburger Designs studio on the ground floor of 307 and set about servicing all manner of clients from livery for posh grocer Justin de Blank to record sleeves and posters for such rock, raga and prog groups as Brinsley Schwarz, Cressida, Gracious!, Quintessence and Red Dirt.

//Bubbles checks Justin de Blank artwork at Teenburger Designs, 1970//

//Teenburger Designs letterhead, March 1969//

Bubbles styled his Teenburger letterhead as a square wrapper with one side featuring a composition of Letraset fragments arranged in the form of a hamburger.

From today, this very limited edition shirt is available in S, M, L + XL and celebrates the brilliance of Barney Bubbles, evoking his wish for “a groovy scene… with lots of hard work and fun play”.

Order yours from daniel@somethingelse.gg

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Recent journalism: Baggies with attitude for MacGuffin + the colour black in street style for Fred Perry Quarterly

Jun 4th, 2019

//MacGuffin No 7, spring 2019//

//Fred Perry Quarterly Issue 2, Spring 2019//

Here’s a couple of pieces of recently published journalism, one filed for the Netherlands-based biannual MacGuffin, the other for the second issue of Fred Perry Quarterly.

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Love goddess Mrs Scully revealed: The Ortonesque court case which informed the Sex t-shirt You’re Gonna Wake Up

Nov 28th, 2017

//From The Times, September 24, 1974. Courtesy Matthew Worley//

//Mrs Scully features on the “right” side of the shirt after a reference to George Dangerfield’s book The Strange Death Of Liberal England//

//A 1970s issue of Mistress magazine//

I’m grateful to British academic Matthew Worley for having enlightened me as to the identity of “Mrs Scully”, whose name was among those printed on the You’re Gonna Wake Up us-and-them t-shirt first sold in Sex at 430 King’s Road in the autumn of 1974.

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“Forbidden connotations”: The source of Malcolm McLaren’s Naked Footballer design identified

Sep 20th, 2017

//John Rotten performing with the Sex Pistols at Andrew Logan’s Valentine’s Ball, February 1976 in a hybrid Sex t-shirt combining the images from the ‘Tits’ and ‘Naked Footballer’ designs. Note Jordan Mooney (far left), Luciana Martinez (third right), Derek Jarman (with camera) and Vivienne Westwood (far right). Photo: Joe Stevens. No reproduction without permission//

Last summer I spent a pleasant afternoon in the company of American academic Benjamin Court, who has been researching a dissertation entitled The Politics of Musical Amateurism, 1968-1981.

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Refna revival: Elizabeth Hamey’s adventures in art, design + fashion

Aug 9th, 2017

//Jean Shrimpton in Mr Freedom Minnie Mouse top, Hans Feurer, Fancy Dressing, Nova, December 1970, with the original design on tracing paper by Refna. No reproduction without permission//

Exciting news: Elizabeth Hamey, who signs her work ‘Refna’, has granted me access to her amazing archive of work at the cross-hatches of art, design and fashion in the 1960s and 70s.

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“Because it’s so damn good!” Extracts from my exclusive interview with pioneering illustrator/photographer Jim French, who has died aged 84

Jun 18th, 2017

//Jim French. Photo: SHOWStudio//

The American illustrator and photographer Jim French – best known for his pioneering endeavours in the field of homoerotic art – has died at home in Palm Springs at the age of 84.

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Jasper: Memories of the London fashion label and a Barney Bubbles connection

May 15th, 2017

//But Is It… ART, t-shirt design, Ian Harris for Jasper, 1979//

I’ve dug into collector and graphic artist Ian Harris’s rich archive again and turned up a brace of t-shirts he designed in the late 70s for Jasper, the eponymous London-based fashion label operated by entrepreneur Jasper Hamilton Holmes from showrooms in central London.

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