Why not associates biography

An exhibition curated by Rick Poynor at the Barbican Art Gallery (2004) charting over 40 years of graphic design in the United Kingdom.

The first major attempt to reflect on how the smaller independent studios and agencies marked and shaped the way we look at images in our everyday lives: from book and magazines, music covers and promotions, web design, corporate identities, politics and society and self-initiated projects.

The exhibition assembled some of the most iconic pieces produced since the early sixties. From the covers for Penguin Books by Derek Birdsall and Romek Marber, the magazines The Face by Neville Brody and i-D by Terry Jones, the memorable Never Mind the Bollocks – Here‘s the Sex Pistols, the Channel4 and BBC2 TV idents by Martin Lambie-Nairn, the graphic work for Pirelli by Fletcher/Forbes/Gill.

Other designers and studios included: Lucienne Roberts, Malcolm Garrett, Kate Hepburn, Peter Saville, Vaughan Oliver, Mark Farrow, Tomato, Intro, 8vo, Richard Hollis, Herbert Spencer, Ken Garland, Margaret Calvert, Jonathan Barnbrook, Why Not Associates, Trickett & Webb, Graphic Thought Facility, Jannuzzi Smith, Fuel, Kerr/Noble, Alan Kitching, The Designers Republic, Hi-Res, Paul Elliman, Nick Bell, Phil Baines and many others.

Exhibition venues

• Museum für Gestaltung, Switzerland 18 Mar - 7 May 06
• Guangzhou Museum of Art, China 29 Apr - 15 May 05
• Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre, China 2–19 June 05
• Chongqing Three Gorges Museum, China 29 Jul - 14 Aug 05
• Millennium Monument- Beijing, China 16 Sept - 9 Oct 05
• Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK 16 Sept 04 - 23 Jan 05

Sources

Research on Typographers:

☆Giabattista Bodoni

 (1740 in-1813) was an Italian engraver, publisher, printer and typographer of high repute remembered for designing a family of different typefaces called Bodoni.

☆Paul Rand

Born Peretz Rosenbaum  (1914-1996)

A well-known American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs. Rand’s education included the Pratt Institute (1929-1932), the Parsons School of Design (1932-1933), and the Art Students League (1933-1934). He was one of the originators of the Swiss Style of graphic design.

“Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.”

– Paul Rand, 1997

☆Saul Bass

(1920-1996)

 A Jewish-American graphic designer and filmmaker, best known for his design of motion picture title sequences.

Saul Bass was not only one of the great graphic designers of the mid-20th century but the undisputed master of film title design thanks to his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese.

☆Eric Gill

(1882-1940)

A wood engraver, sculptor, typographer, and draughtsman, Arthur Eric Rowton Gill was born in Brighton. who was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. He is a controversial figure, with his well-known religious views and subject matter being seen as at odds with his sexual and paraphiliac behaviour and erotic art.

☆Wim Crouwel

(1928)

A Dutch graphic designer and typographer. Between 1947 and 1949 In 1963, he was one of the founders of the design studio Total Design.  he designed the typeface New Alphabet, a design that embraces the limitations of the cathode ray tube technology used by early data display screens and phototypesetting equipment and thus only contains horizontal and vertical strokes.

☆Otl Aicher

(1922-1991)

was one of the leading German graphic designers of the 20th century. He created the rotis font family

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