Neville Brody

Neville Brody

One of the most influential English artists that started working throughout the 80`s is Neville Brody. He is typographer, designer as well as art director. He is very much well known for his work as an art director for the face magazine. He also designed various geometric sans serif typefaces for this same magazine. In addition he has produced various album covers and also worked for the Arena magazine. Brody wanted to find a spontaneous nevertheless rational design expressing subjective ideas that could have significant meaning to the viewer. Brody was very much influenced by the Dadaist`s rejection of rules of the establishment and their experimental work along with the geometrical forms from Russian constructivism. His works very much reflect Rodchenko`s influence. Another great influence was Barney Bubbles. In his cover album Music for pleasure by the Damned, Bubbles produced a cover that is very much similar to the work of Wassily Kandinsky .Here made use of geometrical shapes, zigzag and straight lines and colours. Looking at the cover one can instantly feel the energy which reflects the content of the album.   

Whilst Neville Brody was working for the Face he was interested in reflecting the content in the headlines. As Meggs in his book states, “Brody viewed the magazine as a multidimensional object existing in time and space and maintaining continuity from issue to issue.” Furthermore the text inside along with the logo was

deconstructed into abstract glyphs. In his editorial page from the 59^th issue – the interview with Andy Warhol, Brody decides to recreate Warhol`s work by placing numerous copies of his portrait next to each other. Furthermore the ‘W’ in the title is actually the ‘M’ from Madonna`s feature. This also reflects Warhol`s work were he recycled images from the popular culture of the time. The cross and circle in the title are said to represent the sexuality of this artists work and life.

Neville Brody editorial pages from
the Face no 59 March 1985

Andy Warhol - Marilyn Monroe  

In Arena, Brody used a clean approach and made use of Helvetica typography. He played around with this font however in order to give it more energy and movement. He made use of simple and clear layouts and made use of contrasts.

Page Spread from Arena Magazine - Neville Brody

Page Spread from Arena Magazine - Neville Brody

Neville Brody1988 Nike Advertisement 

One of most popular works by Brody is his 1988 Nike advert. Over here Brody uses the text as part of the image. It is not simply there to give addition information it is part of the design itself. Furthermore, there is a sense of movement in the text by making use of verticals and horizontals. In addition the images of the shoes are also interacting with the text. Brody also makes use of contrasts. He divides the advertisement in half, on the right there is a light background so there is the use of black sans serif Helvetica type, whilst on the left the background is darker so he uses white typography. Very limited colours are used for the typography; red and blue along with black and white. Although the artist played around with typography it is still very much legible. This composition is also asymmetrically balanced.

Neville Brody is still very much producing impeccable works today. He has inspired and will continue to inspire many artists in the future. I personally like his works very much. The way he uses contrast and typography is very interesting. It is also like the way he makes the images and text interact as well as the text and the content. 

Blackhat 2014 

Christian Dior Identity 2014

References:

Philip B. Meggs, 2011. Meggs' History of Graphic Design. 5 Edition. Wiley

Rick Poynor, 2003. No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism. Edition. Yale University Press.