I’m looking forward to appearing at Pop Up, the subcultures festival being held in the Gloucestershire town of Stroud next month.
I’ll be comparing and contrasting the work of Barney Bubbles with that of his rivals Hipgnosis in the 70s and 80s with Mark Blake, author of the new book about the British music design studio and Pop Up organiser and writer Ben Wardle.
//Front Cover, Peter Gabriel, Charisma Records, 1977. Design: Hipgnosis//
//Suit jacket + tie: Mark Powell; tab collared polka dot shirt Simon James Cathcart//
Get your Barney Bubbles Button badge set from the Barney Bubbles online shop.
//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.
I’m featured in the Los Angeles Review of Books in conversation with the journalist and musician Elizabeth Nelson about the life and times of the late graphic designer Barney Bubbles.
Read the LARB piece here.
Nelson has also recorded a tribute to the late graphic artist with her band The Paranoid Style. The track was released yesterday and is available to stream/download via Bandcamp.
Here’s the song lyric video complete with customised Bubbles artworks:
The Wild World of Barney Bubbles, the third edition of my monograph, is published by Thames & Hudson this summer accompanied by specialist imprint Volume’s limited edition A Box of Bubbles. Order your’s here.
British design media outlet Creative Review has reported on the publication of A Box Of Bubbles, the forthcoming limited edition boxed and enhanced edition of the new monograph The Wild World Of Barney Bubbles.
A Box Of Bubbles is the special edition of the forthcoming book The Wild World of Barney Bubbles.
My next book, The Wild World of Barney Bubbles, is published around the world this summer by Thames & Hudson.
This is the enhanced and revised third edition of my monograph of the late graphic artist, who died in 1983 and would have been 80 this year.
//Outside my local “The Roebuck” in London SE1 yesterday//
//Barney Bubbles’ 1966 designs for Woodpecker and Strongbow ciders feature on the bus being used in filming//
This is freaky. Our local has been transformed into the King’s Road pub The Roebuck for the filming of Danny Boyle’s forthcoming FX series Pistol, based on guitarist Steve Jones’s memoir Lonely Boy.
The thing is I knew the Roebuck very well; it is in fact the place where I first met Malcolm McLaren, at the age of 15 in 1975. By happenstance I was drinking in the pub with an older brother the night McLaren recruited John Lydon to the Sex Pistols.
//The Roebuck in the late 70s. Photo by Barry Beattie/ANL/Shutterstock (5823647a)//
At The Roebuck I came across such individuals as the gangster John Bindon and his well-born paramour Vicki Hodge and the male model David “Piggy” Worth. One night we spotted the infamous art dealer Robert “Groovy Bob” Fraser with some ne’er-do-wells. It was that sort of place.
//The Roebuck was a couple of minutes’ walk east of 430 King’s Road where the Mini driven by Vivienne Westwood, Steve Jones and others could often be seen. This recreation even includes balls of mohair wall in the back//
I returned there over the following years, particularly after I moved to neighbouring Kensington in 1977 – it was a 15-minute walk away. By that time Punk was shifting overground and the upstairs snooker room was the scene of much nefarious activity.
A wild twist is that pioneering 60s designs by the late graphic genius Barney Bubbles have been recreated as period adverts on a bus which is being used for filming.
The conjunction of two of the subjects of my books with a fondly remembered venue 20 yards from where I live is kind of wild.
Among the many things the world doesn’t need now is another book of record covers, but DB Burkeman’s Art Sleeves, which is published today by Rizzoli, is something else entirely.
For once the publisher’s blurb is spot-on; this is “a tightly curated exploration” of record covers which challenge the distinctions between art and design, between object and product.
This means that there are many surprises in the book, and a minimum of the usual suspects.
Art Sleeves also contains a bonus in a series of artist spotlights and conversations featuring such exponents as Christian Marclay, INVADER, Ryan McGinley, Genieve Figgis and Marilyn Minter.
And Barney Bubbles receives a mention as DB’s “personal design hero” in the introduction.
I recommend Art Sleeves highly. Order your copy here and follow Art Sleeves on Instagram here.
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_
| Paul Gorman is a writer. This is his blog: art, books, conversation, cults, dancing, design, encounters, environments, events, film, galleries, groups, individuals, invitations, magazines, music, opinions, performance, photography, places, press, privacy, spaces, style, thoughts + views. |
© 2009 Paul Gorman is…. All Rights Reserved.
This blog is powered by Wordpress and Magatheme by Bryan Helmig.
Recent Comments