Described by The New York Times as "a hero to young designers," the British designer Barney Bubbles is one of the most mysterious but influential figures in the field of graphic design. Bubbles, who died 25 years ago, links the colorful underground optimism of the 1960s to the sardonic, edgier art that accompanied Punk's explosion a decade later. In the 1960s, Bubbles created posters for the Rolling Stones, brand and product design for Sir Terence Conran and psychedelic lightshows for Pink Floyd. Responsible for art direction at the key underground magazines Oz and Frendz, and for the classic masthead of the NME rock weekly, he is best known for the plethora of stunning record sleeves, logos, insignia and promo videos for musicians and performers, from the countercultural collective Hawkwind to New Wave and Postpunk stars Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, Graham Parker, The Damned, Billy Bragg, Depeche Mode and The Specials. Bubbles created his own idiom, amalgamating Expressionism, Dada, Constructivism and Concrete poetry into a Rock context. With over 600 images, the meticulously researched Reasons to be Cheerful is the first and definitive investigation into Bubbles' life and work. Billy Bragg contributes an introduction, graphic designer Peter Saville an essay on the significance of Bubbles' oeuvre (titled "Toward the Canonisation of Barney Bubbles") and Malcolm Garrett a foreword.

Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Life and Work of Barney Bubbles

Arts & Photography

Gorman, Paul

Graphic Design

Adelita Ltd.

David Bowie first came to notice with the 1969 song "Space Oddity," after which he promptly vanished from the public eye, immersing himself in a long period of musical experimentation and reemerging in 1972 as the glam rock androgyne Ziggy Stardust. Under this persona Bowie launched the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, spearheaded by the hit single "Starman." The late 60s and early 70s were an incredibly formative and fertile period for Bowie. Any Day Now provides the most detailed account of Bowie's early years ever published, with a wealth of new biographical information, interviews, memorabilia plus rare and unseen portraits from photographers including Terry O'Neill, Ray Stevenson, Geoff MacCormack, David Bebbington, Jak Kilby and Bob Solly. Proceeding year by year--and even day by day, as Bowie's career takes off and goes stellar--it tracks the rock legend's career from his birth in London in 1947 to the height of his success in 1974 with the release of his album Diamond Dogs and his departure from the UK. For hardcore Bowie fans, Any Day Now also includes the most concise listing of early Bowie performances ever published. Author Kevin Cann, who has worked on reissues of Bowie's back catalogue, unravels many of the myths that have surrounded the early career of one of rock's most influential figures, in this encyclopedic illustrated book. Kenneth Pitt, Bowie's manager during these years (1967-1970), contributes a foreword. Kevin Cann published his first book on Bowie (David Bowie: A Chronology) in 1983. In 1995 he worked as Bowie's assistant on his first solo exhibition in London, and in 1999 he researched and coordinated the reissue of Bowie's back catalogue with EMI. Cann has also worked as consultant on Bowie and Mick Rock's Moonage Daydream (2002) and Geoff MacCormack's Station To Station (2007).

Any Day Now: David Bowie: The London Years: 1947-1974

Biographies & Memoirs

Kevin Cann

Arts & Literature

At the apex of 1960s British fashion, Tommy Roberts was one of the premier designers to the rock royalty and stars of the era. Jimi Hendrix's famous frilly shirts were bought from Roberts' first boutique Kleptomania, on Carnaby Street; when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton went public as a couple, they commissioned Roberts to create matching T-shirts; the iconic Zodiac cape worn by Mick Jagger at Altamont was a Roberts creation; Elton John's outfit for his first Rolling Stone cover in 1971 came from Roberts' legendary Mr Freedom boutique; Roberts' City Lights Studio provided David Bowie with the suit he wore on the rear cover of his 1973 album Pin-Ups. "He did it first, time after time," Sir Paul Smith says of Roberts, who was indeed the first designer to incorporate Walt Disney cartoons and Pop art into fashion; the first to open a boutique in Covent Garden; and the first to overtly blur the professional distinctions between fashion and music by managing Ian Dury's art-rock band Kilburn & The High Roads (thus providing the precedent for Malcolm McLaren's transition from fashion into music, with his management of the Sex Pistols). Roberts' influence continued into the 1980s with cutting-edge home-ware and furniture design store Practical Styling, in the 1990s with Tom-Tom and in the 2000s with Two Columbia Road, selling furniture and artifacts. Mr. Freedom is a visual celebration of this fashion and design pioneer. With unlimited access to Roberts' and his archive, it compiles hundreds of archival images (both classic and previously unpublished) alongside a stellar cast of contributors, providing a revelation of fashion, design and pop culture from the 1960s to the 2000s.

Tommy Roberts: Mr. Freedom: British Design Hero

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