This advert for Vince Man’s Shop – the small Soho boutique which sparked the modernisation of menswear design and retailing in the second half of the 20th century – was designed by Gordon Moore for issue 20 of the Royal College Of Art magazine ARK, published in autumn 1957.
Continue reading ‘Soho-Italianate’: Gordon Moore’s advert for Vince Man’s Shop in ARK magazine 1957
Kommando Otl Aicher is Alexander Negrelli’s study of the 1972 Olympic Games through the prism of corporate and terrorist visual identities.
Continue reading Kommando Otl Aicher: Discover the dark side of the Olympics
My book Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Life & Work Of Barney Bubbles receives a special mention from Weareuseful art director Alex Geoffrey in the current issue of London listings magazine Shortlist.
Continue reading Weareuseful’s Alex Geoffrey picks Reasons To Be Cheerful for Shortlist
There were big smiles for Tommy Roberts at the midsummer’s eve party to celebrate the publication of my new book Mr Freedom – Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero.
Continue reading Smiles all round at the Tommy Roberts book launch
My new book MR FREEDOM – Tommy Roberts: British Design Genius is featured in the new editions of US fashion monthly W magazine and European quarterly Husk.
With a foreword by Paul Smith and contributions from the designers who created the work sold in Roberts’ shops as well as friends, family and design authorities, MR FREEDOM is published in June by Adelita and distributed in the US by DAP.
“People do love huge pieces of paper”.
So runs the quote heading up a section in V&A curator Catherine Flood’s excellent overview British Posters: Advertising Art & Activism, published by the museum to coincide with its multifarious design celebrations this Olympic year.
And it’s true. We do.
Or we all did, when this vital form was simultaneously a mass-medium and a highly personal communications device, when huge promotional budgets and lack of urban controls resulted in the accretive papering of our street-scapes. Meanwhile, behind closed doors, we gave posters pride of place on the walls of our bedrooms, bedsits and sitting rooms.
Continue reading British Posters: Advertising Art & Activism
This is the front of the jacket of my new book Mr Freedom – Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero.
Continue reading Cover of Mr Freedom – Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero
I am beguiled by this photograph, which is entitled Pierre’s Breakfast and was taken by Willie Christie at David Hockney’s house in Notting Hill on May 18, 1974.
The identities of the two individuals on the left are a mystery*; with Clark (in the white jumpsuit) are make-up artist Pierre Laroche, Marianne Faithfull and Michael Roberts (then writer/photographer at The Sunday Times, now Vanity Fair’s fashion/style director). Behind the group are a selection of artist Mo McDermott’s signature painted wooden tree sculptures.
Laroche, who had worked at Elizabeth Arden for five years before taking up with rock & roll when he was recruited by Brian Duffy for the cover of David Bowie’s 1973 album Aladdin Sane, engaged Willie Christie for the May 74 session for a potential magazine feature.
Photographer Ivan Jones dropped by this week to take my portrait for a forthcoming book about the design business Burro. Contributors have been asked to wear garments they bought from the company for Ivan’s portraits.
I was a regular customer of the Burro outlet in Covent Garden’s Floral Street (and wrote about the label here).
