“In graphics, in the music business at least, Barney pioneered the use of everyday objects in his work. He could see the design and the beauty in the apparently banal”
Suzanne Spiro, artist
The Barney Bubbles exhibition Optics & Semantics at London gallery Rob Tufnell closes tomorrow evening; if you have a chance, do go along and enjoy the late graphic arts maestro’s unique celebrations of the mundane and workaday.
You wait years for a Barney Bubbles exhibition and then two come along in the space of a month.
On the heels of the mini-show of Barney Bubbles music designs at Fred Perry’s basement space in Covent Garden comes a different take on the work of the late graphics maestro.
Continue reading Barney Bubbles: Optics & Semantics at Rob Tufnell London
The Barney Bubbles x Fred Perry shirts are available to buy now online; click on the image above to find out more.
I’ve organised a small exhibition of artwork relating to designs used in the forthcoming Barney Bubbles x Fred Perry collaboration; it opens later this week at Fred Perry’s flagship London store.
The countdown is on to this years’s most exciting street-style collaboration: the limited edition Barney Bubbles x Fred Perry collection.
Continue reading Barney Bubbles x Fred Perry: This year’s most exciting street-style collab
Stiff Records was on fire in 1977.
The British independent record label, with owners Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson snapping up acts and art director Barney Bubbles applying his unsurpassable skills to the visualising of their music, came straight out of the traps 40 years ago this month with the release of the first ‘punk’ LP Damned Damned Damned by – who else? – The Damned.
Continue reading The Stiff Records clock: When You Kill Time You Murder Success
This company letterhead was designed by the late graphics master Barney Bubbles for music entrepreneur Jake Riviera during the latter’s tenure at 60 Parker Street in London’s Covent Garden in the late 70s.
Continue reading Barney Bubbles’ cube letterhead design for Riviera Global Record Productions
A film of last month’s celebration of design hero Barney Bubbles by American graphic designer Ian Lynam is now available to view online.
Continue reading ‘A profound influence’: Ian Lynam on Barney Bubbles’ impact on graphic design
Rolling Stone’s obituary description of Ian McLagan as “jovial and charismatic” has nailed the character of this charming man.
It seems to me that Mac chose to accentuate the positive and keep playing his vital music, an admirable trait in one who had often been dealt an unfair hand by the fates (not least when his beloved wife Kim was killed in a car accident in 2006).
As an alum of the early 60s Twickenham beat scene, Mac was a valued contributor to Reasons To Be Cheerful, my book about his art school friend, the graphic designer Barney Bubbles.
Continue reading Knockout R&B every night: Ian McLagan 1945 – 2014
Here’s an old and new Christmas favourite; hope they spread holiday cheer.
Feliz Navidad’s blending of the Mexican Christmas carol as popularised by José Feliciano with PiL’s Public Image never fails to please, bringing back happy memories of the UK leg of the Merry Mex-Mas dates in 2000 I helped organise for my dear friend Robert Lopez, aka El Vez, who wowed audiences with his Elvettes and the Memphis Mariachis. This footage is from that tour.
Alan McGee’s Poptones released the accompanying album and the song on a limited edition 7in.
Meanwhile I’m adding Nick Lowe’s Christmas At The Airport to my list of hardy perennials; the video’s great and it was fabulous to see Nick at our Christmas drinks a couple of weeks back, fresh from yet another hit American tour.
It’s from his new album Quality Street which is as off-the-wall as you like.
Hope you enjoy both songs. Thanks for following my blog and Happy Holidays to you.
PG