OUGD501 - Jonathon Barnbrook Research

Young British Art: The Saatchi Decade.
A book about British art in the Saatchi Gallery.

The cover of this book was designed to be a homage to the Sex Pistols cover design by Jamie Reid of God Save The Queen, however features the barcode of the book rather than a safety pin. This was done in order to comment on some of the financial motivations of the art world in the 21st Century. The poster was also made to be controversial in that it uses an official portrait of the Queen, whereby it is stipulated that the picture must not be defaced in any way, yet Barnbrook has done just so. In this way and others, Barnbrook produces controversial, subjective design which still holds a commercial purpose and meaning. Such an approach to design should therefore be carefully considered to help better inform my own design work.

The style of graphics used within the design of this book uses the opposite of that seen in most commercial galleries. Instead, the design uses primitive ASCII graphics with illustrations reminiscent of the kind of thing to be found as humour of office notice boards or emails. In my personal opinion, this approach also presents some similarities with screen-printed design in the style of the illustrations. This effect, along with ideas based on ASCII art (which I already have experience with through a previous studio practice module), is something I will experiment with in my own designs to inform the layout.

Adbusters: Design Anarchy.
Design for anti-corporate magazine.

Adbuster is a Canadian-based non-profit, anti-consumerist and pro-environment organisation founded in 1989. Barnbrook has collaborated with this organisation many times as they believe in the central idea of questioning the role of corporate power and the issues it raises in society. The cover takes on a more handmade approach in that the type has been handwritten and the photograph on the front has been scribbled over in the same pen to represent ideas of protest and rebellion that make for politically-informed design.

Inside the magazine, Barnbrook makes use of all available space, with most designs filling and stretching over a full double-page spread. These combine both text and image in interesting ways that help communicate his ideas of consumer society. The use of blackletter in this design, as well as in his designs for 'Young British Art: The Saatchi Decade' has been noticed, something which is subjective in its nature. This shall also be experimented with in my own designs.