COMMUNICATE: INDEPENDENT BRITISH GRAPHIC DESIGN SINCE THE SIXTIES
BARBICAN ART GALLERY
Until 23 January 2005
Admission £8/(£6 conc)

Communicate charts the emergence of British graphic design over the last
forty years, focusing on 100 small independent studios. Featuring more than
600 exhibits, the show celebrates the achievements of designers as diverse
as Alan Fletcher, Ken Garland, Barney Bubbles, Peter Saville, Neville Brody,
The Designer's Republic, Tomato and Fuel. Curated by Rick Poynor.

Is it the matter hanging or leaning or splashed on the walls of contemporary art galleries or is it the substance to be found out there, on signs and posters (on the actual walls of the city), on packaging, on t-shirts & bags & trainers & jeans, on furniture and cars, on CD covers, on the covers and pages of books and magazines, on the telly and on the screens of computers and computer-game consoles? Well, in this case, the stuff that was out there is now also on the wall of a contemporary art gallery and this landmark exhibit asks questions such as:

Has contemporary retreated too far – so far as to become totally irrelevant in cultural terms? What work has best defined the last 10 years in terms of our visual culture?
The work of our infamous YBAs? I am not sure. Neville Brody, Ken Garland, Barney Bubbles, Mark Farrow, Peter Saville, The Designers Republic, Michael C. Place, Alan Fletcher, Tomato, Vince Frost, Fuel, North, Spin… That’s more like it, I think.
I believe that these (among many, many others) are the people who have lead the way in terms of defining our visual culture, they are the ones who have really shaken us, changed the way we look, the way our world looks and the way we look at things.
And it’s about time they got a bit of credit for it.

Marc-A Valli

In the last four decades British graphic design has established itself as a powerful and significant force, expressing itself within the music and publishing industries, through brand identities, new media and all other forms of visual communication in the contemporary world. Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties, which accompanies the Barbican exhibition of the same title, presents an authoritative overview of the design work produced in this period, tracing how and why British graphic design has developed in the way it has.

Over 60 internationally renowned designers working today are featured, including Derek Birdsall, Mark Farrow, Neville Brody, Peter Saville, Why Not Associates and The Designers Republic. Rare and classic pieces from the 1960s by influential designers such as Barney Bubbles, Herbert Spencer and Michael English are also featured. The book is divided into sections covering Publishing, Identity, the Arts, Music, Politics and Society and Self-initiated Work, with essays by John O’Reilly, David Crowley and Nico MacDonald. There are interviews with ten key designers, including Julian House, Ian Anderson and Margaret Calvert, and biographies of all the designers featured.

Rick Poynor founded Eye magazine in 1990 and was its editor for seven years. He now writes about design, media and visual culture for Eye, Blueprint, Frieze, Graphis, Adbusters, The Guardian and many other publications. His other books published by Laurence King Publishing include Typographica and No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism.