Neville Brody

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Neville Brody in Berlin
Neville Brody in Berlin

Neville Brody (born April 23, 1957 in London) is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director.

Neville Brody is an alumnus of the London College of Communication and is known for his work on The Face magazine (1981–1986) and Arena magazine (1987–1990), as well as for designing record covers for artists such as Cabaret Voltaire and Nine Inch Nails.

He was one of the founding members of FontWorks (now FontShop) 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.

Initially working in record cover design, Brody made his name largely through his revolutionary work as Art Director for the Face magazine. 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 Guardian and Observer (both newspaper and magazine).[citation needed]

Brody has consistently 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 & Hudson published the first of two volumes about his work, which became the world's best selling graphic design book.[citation needed] Combined sales now exceed 120,000.[citation needed] An accompanying exhibition of his work at the Victoria and Albert Museum attracted over 40,000 visitors[citation needed] before touring Europe and Japan.

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 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 Times in November 2006 with the creation of a new font Times Modern[citation needed] – only the fourth time that the newspaper had changed its font since it launched in 1785.

The company also completed a visual identity project for the famous Paris contemporary art exhibition Nuit Blanche in 2006.

Brody’s team launched a new look for the champagne brand Dom Pérignon 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 Fransisco and Berlin. The conferences bring together speakers from design, architecture, sound, film and interactive design and web.


Contents

[edit] Early Life And Education

Neville Brody was born in Southgate,London on April 23, 1957. At school, he studied A-Level Art, very much from a fine art viewpoint. In 1975 Brody went to on to be a Fine Art foundation course at Hornsey College of Art, once renowned for its late sixties agitation, now safely amalgamated into Middlesex University.

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",[citation needed] often putting a heavy emphasis on safe and tested economic strategies, as opposed to experimentation.

By 1977 punk 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[citation needed] for putting the Queen's head sideways on a postage stamp design. He did, however, get the chance to design posters for student concerts at the college, most notably for Pere Ubu, supported by The Human League.

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 Art.

[edit] Work

[edit] Music

[edit] Fetish Records

Art Director (1980)

[edit] Cabaret Voltaire

  • Numerous T-shirt, badge and poster designs.
  • "3 Crepsule Tracks" Album Cover (1981)
  • "Red Mecca" Album Cover (1981)
  • "Crackdown/Just Fasination" 12" Album Cover (1983)
  • "Just Fasination" 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)

[edit] Other

  • 23 Skidoo, "The Culling Is Coming" Album Cover (1983)
  • Defunkt, "The Razor's Edge" Album Cover (1982)
  • Depeche Mode, "Just Can't Get Enough" Album Cover (1982)
  • Level 42, "Standing in the Light" Album Cover (1983)
  • Level 42, "Microkid" Album Cover (1983)
  • Elephant Talk,Album Cover (1983)
  • Zuice, "Everyone A Winner" Album Cover (1986)
  • Zuice, "I'm Burning" Album Cover (1987)
  • Zuice, "Bless Your Lucky Stars " Album Cover (1987)

[edit] Magazine Work

  • 1981 – 1986 Art director for The Face magazine
  • 1987 – 1990 Designed for Arena Magazine.

[edit] Misc

  • 1990 – Opened FontWorks and became the director of FontShop International
  • 1994 Founds Research Studios
  • Pioneered work using Apple computers in type design
  • A number of influential record cover designs and magazine designs
  • Designer of Israeli leading news portal ynet.co.il

[edit] Accomplishments

  • Design for Tribeca Issey Miyake in New York with Frank Gehry
  • Major contributor to FUSE, an influential publication on experimental typography
  • Had a book written about his designs – The Graphic Language of Neville Brody by Jon Wozencroft, the world’s best-selling graphic design book.
  • London’s Victoria & Albert Museum hosted an exhibition of Brody’s work, a huge honor

[edit] Fonts by Brody

Brody has designed some groundbreaking fonts, including:

  • FF Autotrace
  • FF Blur
  • FF Dirty Faces 1
  • FF Dirty Faces 2
  • FF Dirty Faces 3
  • FF Dome
  • FF Gothic
  • FF Harlem
  • FF Meta Subnormal
  • FF Pop
  • FF Tokyo
  • FF Typeface 4
  • FF Typeface 6 & 7
  • FF World
  • Linotype Arcadia
  • Linotype Industria
  • Linotype Insignia
  • Jamesrex

[edit] Sources

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