Paul Gorman, writer, journalist and visual commentator has dedicated the last 3 years of his life to Barney Bubbles. His latest book, Reasons to be Cheerful, is a tribute to the late and great illustrator and designer Barney Bubbles. Although it has taken Paul 3 years to compile and produce the book he has been a fan of his work since the early 1970's.
Barney Bubbles was an extremely private person and often did not sign his own work which led to him being not very well known although his work was. He onl
y gave one interview in his life in November 1981 to The Face and even for this he gave a collage portrait of himself as to avoid recognition. He produced ground breaking work for artists such as Ian Drury, Elvis Costello and The Damned and his work has inspired the likes of Peter Saville and Malcom Garret. However due to him being so private and un-wanting of public attention he became invisible after his death and his name was forgotten. This private nature was in fact what eventually led to his death, after having rejected by some musicians he began to go around to music agencies with his portfolio however because he never signed any of his work, many people has copied it and tried to pass it off as their own and he began to become depressed and eventually took his own life.
In 2007 Gorman wanted to bring back his work into public at
tention and give Bubbles the credit that he so rightly deserved. The book is a tribute to one of the great, forgotten music cover designers and I feel that it is a fitting publication and for me the lecture emphasised the importance of being proud of your work and making sure that you sign it so that yo
u gain the recognition deserved and that nobody can copy it, especially now that work is so accessible through the use of the internet.
This is my ultimate favorite of Bubbles' work. The cover was designed to look as if the printers has offset it wrongly and shows all of the registration marks used.
