Part 01 – 1960s In the Beginning: Undergraduate work

Early Student Work

As a student at Bath Academy of Art, I loved the craft-based, hands-on approach to design that was a feature of the teaching there.

Many posters were commissioned that relied on ‘back of an envelope’ concepts, which generally worked quite well, although the execution shows my lack of practical experience. Competition to design posters for college events was fierce and the resulting standard was high.

Student Events Poster. Not everything works out as planned, I took the brief for this project on the back of an envelope and tried to replicate it. Two colour stone lithography.

The true challenge was to produce something memorable, knowing full well that you would have to do your own production and print. This certainly developed my print production skills. Hand-drawn 3 colour litho-stone printing was a typical production process – very touchy-feely.

Designs for exhibition panels were produced from my hand-drawn artwork silk-screened onto board, and a poster for an event at Sussex University used letterpress printing from handset type. Printed on newsprint, the yellowing effect was a planned Part of the design.

Exhibition panel diagrams of a prototype computer game.
Khepri Coat Poster – blind against the sun / lakes between the clouds. A happening choreographed by Chas Mitchell and Peter Town. An A1 typographic poster printed on newsprint, a substrate that would discolour over time.

Resurgence Magazine

It is 40 years since I undertook my first commercial commission to design and artwork a masthead for the slightly ‘alternative’ magazine, Resurgence, but the memory is still very fresh.

Something that would probably take less than half an hour to complete today using Illustrator, took me a week to do. Good to see the magazine is still flourishing with its by-line ‘at the heart of earth, art and spirit’ – the perfect sentiment for the 21st century, it seems.

Magazine Masthead

History of the English Speaking Peoples

During the late sixties, while still at Bath Academy of Art, I worked as a junior designer for a magazine publisher.

David Collins, the Art Director who employed me at publisher Peter Dunbar, gave me plenty of responsibility both designing and organising some of the production.

The fast pace of magazine production and unbending schedules was ideally suited to my personality, and this provided an exciting early episode in my career as a graphic designer.

English Speaking Peoples Part-work Spread from first issue.

My journey as a graphic designer, an introduction

Part 01 – 1960s In the Beginning: Undergraduate work

Part 02 – 1970s The Royal College of Art & The Advent of Colour

Part 03 – 1970s Starting Out in the Real World

Part 04 – 1970s My First Major Client

Part 05 – 1970s More Than One Man

Part 06 – 1970s Striking It Lucky

Part 07 – 1970s Embracing Ground-breaking Techniques

Part 08 – 1980s Changing Roles for Designers

Part 09 – 1980s Our First Technology Client

Part 10 – 1980s Growing Through Recommendation

Part 11 – 1980s The Dream Client

Part 12 – 1980s Moving into Corporate Design

Part 13 – 1990s Ramping Up the Workload

Part 14 – 1990s Graphic Design goes Global

Part 15 – 1990s A Steep Learning Curve

Part 16 – 1990s Working for The Nation’s Favourite

Part 17 – 1990s The Challenge of the Future

Part 18 – 1990s Picking up the Crumbs

Part 19 – 1990s Vested Interest

Part 20 – 1990s Setting the Standard

Part 21 – 1990s Still Growing after All These Years

Part 22 – 1990s New Business from Old

Part 23 – 1990s Keeping up with Demand

Part 24 – 1990s A Full-Service Consultancy

Part 25 – 1990s Into the Unknown

Part 26 – 2000s Learning New Tricks

Part 27 – 2000s Lifestyle Publishing Moves on

Part 28 – 2010s and Now…