Neville Brody is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
graphic designerA graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
, typographer and
art directorThe art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
.
Neville Brody is an alumnus of the London College of Printing and Hornsey College of Art, and is known for his work on
The FaceThe Face was a British music, fashion and culture monthly magazine started in May 1980 by Nick Logan.-1980s:Logan had previously created the teen pop magazine Smash Hits, and had been an editor at the New Musical Express in the 1970s before launching The Face in 1980.The magazine was influential in...
magazine (1981–1986) and
ArenaArena was a British monthly men's magazine. The magazine was created in 1986 by Nick Logan, who had started The Face in 1980, to focus on trends in fashion and entertainment. British graphic designer Neville Brody, who had designed The Face, designed Arena's launch appearance.The magazine featured...
magazine (1987–1990), as well as for designing record covers for artists such as
Cabaret VoltaireCabaret Voltaire were a British music group from Sheffield, England.Initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson, the group was named after the Cabaret Voltaire, a nightclub in Zürich, Switzerland that was a centre for the early Dada movement.Their earliest performances...
and
Depeche ModeDepeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
. He created the company Research Studios in 1994 and is a founding member of Fontworks. He has been announced to be the new Head of the Communication Art & Design department at the Royal College of Art commencing in January 2011.
Early life and education
Neville Brody was born in
Southgate, LondonSouthgate is an area of north London, England, primarily within the London Borough of Enfield, although parts of its western fringes lie within the London Borough of Barnet. It is located around north of Charing Cross. The name is derived from being the south gate to Enfield Chase...
on 23 April 1957. At school, he studied A-Level Art, very much from a fine art viewpoint. In 1975 Brody went on to do a Fine Art foundation course at
Hornsey College of ArtHornsey College of Art is a former college centred in Crouch End, London, England. Since 2008, the building has been a part of Coleridge Primary School, upon its expansion to four form entry...
, once renowned for its late sixties agitation, now part of
Middlesex UniversityMiddlesex University is a university in north London, England. It is located in the historic county boundaries of Middlesex from which it takes its name. It is one of the post-1992 universities and is a member of Million+ working group...
.
In autumn 1976, Brody started a three-year B.A. course in graphics at the London College of Printing. His tutors often condemned his work as "Uncommercial", often putting a heavy emphasis on safe and tested economic strategies, as opposed to experimentation.
By 1977
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
was beginning to have a major effect upon London life and, while this had a great impact upon Brody's work and motivation, was not well received by his tutors. At one point he was almost thrown out of the college for putting the Queen's head sideways on a
postage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
design. He did, however, get the chance to design posters for student concerts at the college, most notably for
Pere UbuPere Ubu is an experimental rock music group formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975. Despite many long-term band members, singer David Thomas is the only constant...
, supported by
The Human LeagueThe Human League are an English electronic New Wave band formed in Sheffield in 1977. They achieved popularity after a key change in line-up in the early 1980s and have continued recording and performing with moderate commercial success throughout the 1980s up to the present day.The only constant...
.
In spite of the postage stamp episode, Brody was not only motivated by the energies of punk. His first-year thesis had been based around a comparison between Dadaism and
pop artPop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
.
1980-1993
Initially working in record cover design, Brody made his name largely popular through his revolutionary work as Art Director for
The Face magazine when it was first published in 1980. Other international magazine and newspaper directions have included
City Limits,
Lei,
Per Lui,
Actuel and
Arena, together with the radical new look for two leading British newspapers
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and
The ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
(both newspaper and magazine). Brody has never pushed the boundaries of visual communication in all media through his experimental and challenging work, and continues to extend the visual languages we use through his exploratory creative expression. In 1988
Thames & HudsonThames & Hudson is a publisher of illustrated books on art, architecture, design, and visual culture. With its headquarters in London, England it has a sister company in New York and subsidiaries in Melbourne, Singapore and Hong Kong...
published the first of two volumes about his work, which became the world's best selling graphic design book. Combined sales now exceed 120,000. An accompanying exhibition of his work at the
Victoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
attracted over 40,000 visitors before touring Europe and Japan. Amongst countless other projects, in 1989, upon request by the then-director Gerhard Coenen, to Neville Brody, the young Swiss graphic artist and typeface designer Cornel Windlin, then working at the then called "Neville Brody Studio" designed the Corporate Identity for the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures) in Berlin, Germany. Subsequently, Brody, Windlin, and staff Simon Staines, Giles Dunn and others visited Berlin more than once on projects; resulting in several collaborations with Berlin-based graphic artist and typeface-designer Kolja Gruber and artist Nina Fischer for the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in the following years.
1994 to present
Neville Brody continues to work as a graphic designer and together with business partner Fwa Richards launched his own design practice, Research Studios, in London in 1994. Since then studios have been opened in San Francisco, Paris, Berlin and New York. The company is best known for its ability to create new visual languages for a variety of applications ranging from publishing to film. It also creates innovative packaging and website design for clients such as Kenzo, corporate identity for clients such as Homechoice, and on-screen graphics for clients such as Paramount Studios, makers of the Mission Impossible films.
Recent projects include the redesign of the
BbcThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in September 2011,
The TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
in November 2006 with the creation of a new font Times Modern. The typeface shares many visual similarities with Mercury designed by
Jonathan HoeflerJonathan Hoefler is an American typeface designer. Hoefler founded Hoefler & Frere-Jones , a type foundry in New York that Hoefler shares with fellow type designer Tobias Frere-Jones.Hoefler has designed original typefaces for Rolling Stone Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Times Magazine,...
. It is the first new font at the newspaper since it introduced
Times New Roman in 1932.
The company also completed a visual identity project for the famous Paris contemporary art exhibition
Nuit BlancheNuit Blanche is an annual all-night or night-time arts festival. A Nuit Blanche will typically have museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions open and free of charge, with the centre of the city itself being turned into a de facto art gallery, providing space for...
in 2006.
Brody’s team launched a new look for the champagne brand
Dom PérignonDom Pérignon is a brand of vintage Champagne produced by the Champagne house Moët & Chandon and serves as that house's prestige champagne. It is named after Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk who was an important quality pioneer for Champagne wine but who, contrary to popular myths, did not discover...
in February 2007, having been appointed in 2004 to help the brand with its strategy and repositioning.
A sister company, Research Publishing, produces and publishes experimental multi-media works by young artists. The primary focus is on FUSE, the conference and quarterly forum for experimental typography and communications. The publication is approaching its 20th issue over a publishing period of over ten years. Three FUSE conferences have so far been held, in London, San Francisco and Berlin. The conferences bring together speakers from design, architecture, sound, film and interactive design and web.
Typography
He was one of the founding members of FontWorks
http://www.type.co.uk in London and designed a number of notable typefaces for them. He was also partly responsible for instigating the FUSE project an influential fusion between a magazine, graphics design and typeface design. Each pack includes a publication with articles relating to typography and surrounding subjects, four brand new fonts that are unique and revolutionary in some shape or form and four posters designed by the type designer usually using little more than their included font. In 1990 he also founded the FontFont typeface library together with
Erik SpiekermannErik Spiekermann is a German typographer and designer. He is a professor at the University of the Arts Bremen....
.
Notable fonts include the updated font for the Times newspaper,
Times Modern,
New Deal as used in publicity material and titles for the film Public Enemies and
Industria.
Fetish Records
Art Director (1980)
- Your Mum, Album Cover (1981)
- Suck Me, "Das Ah Riot/Boom", Album Cover (1981)
- The Bongos
The Bongos were a rock band from Hoboken, New Jersey, primarily active in the 1980s. With a unique blend of British Invasion-flavored power pop, jangly guitars, and dance beats they made the leap to national recognition with the advent of MTV.-Biography:...
, "Zebra Club", Album Cover (1981)
- Clock DVA
Clock DVA are an industrial music, post-punk and EBM group from Sheffield, England. The group was formed in 1978, with two members, Adolphus "Adi" Newton and Steven "Judd" Turner. Along with contemporaries Heaven 17, Clock DVA's name was inspired by the Russian-influenced Nadsat of Anthony Burgess'...
, "4 Hours", Album Cover (1981)
- Clock DVA
Clock DVA are an industrial music, post-punk and EBM group from Sheffield, England. The group was formed in 1978, with two members, Adolphus "Adi" Newton and Steven "Judd" Turner. Along with contemporaries Heaven 17, Clock DVA's name was inspired by the Russian-influenced Nadsat of Anthony Burgess'...
, "Thirst", Album Cover (1981)
- Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
, "Five Albums" Album Cover (1982)
- 8 Eyed Spy, "Diddy Wah Diddy" Album Cover (1982)
- Z'EV
Z'EV is an American poet, percussionist, and sound artist. After studying various world music traditions at CalArts, he began creating his own percussion sounds out of industrial materials for a variety of record labels...
, "Wipe Out/Element L" Album Cover (1982)
- Stephen Mallinder
Stephen William Mallinder was a founding member of Cabaret Voltaire, Sassi and Loco and the Ku-Ling Bros. While in Cabaret Voltaire he contributed lead vocals, bass and occasional keyboards.-Biography:...
, "Pow Wow" Album Cover (1982)
Cabaret Voltaire
- Numerous T-shirt, badge and poster designs.
- "3 Crepsule Tracks" Album Cover (1981)
- "Red Mecca" Album Cover (1981)
- "Crackdown/Just Fascination" 12" Album Cover (1983)
- "Just Fascination" 7" Album Cover (1983)
- "James Brown" 12" Album Cover (1984)
- "Microphonies" Album Cover (1984)
- "The Covenant, The Sword and the Arm of the Lord" Album Cover (1985)
- "Code" Album Cover (1987)
Other
- 23 Skidoo, "The Culling Is Coming" Album Cover (1983)
- Defunkt
Defunkt is a musical group founded by trombonist/singer Joseph Bowie 1978 in New York, United States, and still active. Their music touches on elements of punk rock, funk and jazz....
, "The Razor's Edge" Album Cover (1982)
- Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
, "Just Can't Get Enough" Album Cover (1982)
- Level 42
Level 42 are an English pop rock and jazz-funk band who had a number of worldwide and UK hits during the 1980s and 1990s.The band gained fame for their high-calibre musicianship—in particular that of Mark King, whose percussive slap-bass guitar technique provided the driving groove of many of the...
, "Standing in the Light" Album Cover (1983)
- Level 42
Level 42 are an English pop rock and jazz-funk band who had a number of worldwide and UK hits during the 1980s and 1990s.The band gained fame for their high-calibre musicianship—in particular that of Mark King, whose percussive slap-bass guitar technique provided the driving groove of many of the...
, "Micro-Kid" Single Cover (1983)
- Elephant Talk, Album Cover (1983)
- Kurtis Blow
Kurt Walker , better known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapper and record producer. He is one of the first commercially successful rappers and the first to sign with a major record label...
, "Party Time" 12" single Cover, Club Records (1985)
- Raybeats, "Holiday Inn Spain/Cocktails" 7" single cover on Don't Fall Off The Mountain label (1981)
- Zuice, "Everyone A Winner" Album Cover (1986)
- Zuice, "I'm Burning" Album Cover (1987)
- Zuice, "Bless Your Lucky Stars " Album Cover (1987)
- Zuice, "shought owt to all the run it straight crew an all mah dirty-30 ninjas out der tongan crip souljah 4 life" Album Cover (1987)
Magazine work
- 1981–1986 Art director for The Face
The Face was a British music, fashion and culture monthly magazine started in May 1980 by Nick Logan.-1980s:Logan had previously created the teen pop magazine Smash Hits, and had been an editor at the New Musical Express in the 1970s before launching The Face in 1980.The magazine was influential in...
magazine
- 1987–1990 Art director for Arena
Arena was a British monthly men's magazine. The magazine was created in 1986 by Nick Logan, who had started The Face in 1980, to focus on trends in fashion and entertainment. British graphic designer Neville Brody, who had designed The Face, designed Arena's launch appearance.The magazine featured...
magazine.
Misc
- 1990 – Opened FontWorks and became the director of FontShop International
- 1994 Founds Research Studios
Research studios is a design firm headquartered in London and founded by designer Neville Brody and Fwa Richards in 1994.It has designed for a number of high-profile clients such as Macromedia, Nike, Sony, Homechoice, Kenzo, Dom Pérignon and many others....
- Pioneered work using Apple computers in type design
- A number of influential record cover designs and magazine designs
- Designer of Israeli leading news portal and time travel
- Postage stamps by Neville Brody
- 2010 - "global visual language" (GVL) to establish consistency across BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
websites - starting with Dr Who and BBC News
Accomplishments
- Design for Tribeca Issey Miyake in New York with Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
- Major contributor to FUSE, an influential publication on experimental typography
- London’s Victoria & Albert Museum hosted an exhibition of Brody’s work
Fonts by Brody
Brody has designed 24 font families, including:
- Arcadia
- FF Autotrace
- FF Blur
- FF Dirty 1
- FF Dirty 3
- FF Dirty 4
- FF Dirty 6
- FF Dirty 7
- FF Dirty 7.2
- FF Dome
- FF Gothic
- FF Harlem
- Industria
- Insignia
- FF Meta Subnormal
- FF Pop
- FF Tokyo
- FF Typeface 4
- FF Typeface 6 & 7
- FF Tyson
- FF World
External links