{ feuilleton }

Skull Vision by Michael Ayrton (1943).
The Dark Monarch: Magic and Modernity in British Art: great title for an exhibition, a shame that it’s all the way down in Cornwall at Tate St Ives.
This group exhibition takes its title from the infamous 1962 book by St Ives artist Sven Berlin. It will explore the influence of [...]

A design for life | Jon Savage on the history of the Smiley symbol: Watchmen, Acid House and beyond.

1 Top Class Manager is a book bearing the subtitle “The notebooks of Joy Division’s manager, 1978–1980″ published this week by Anti-Archivists, Manchester. I’ve been working on the design for this on and off since March although we actually started putting it together this time last year.
Rob Gretton, manager of Joy Division and later New [...]

Controlled chaos
| Jon Savage on Ian Curtis’s literary influences.

Unseen pleasures
| Jon Savage on Joy Division’s visual documents.

Against the tide
| Jon Savage remembers Derek Jarman.

Beyond Bowie and Frankie, there’s a whole secret history of gay pop, reports Alexis Petridis
‘Wilder, madder, gayer than a Beatle’s hairdo’
It was the love that dare not sing its name—or was it? Beyond Bowie and Frankie, there’s a whole secret history of gay pop, reports Alexis Petridis
Tuesday July 4, 2006
The Guardian
The year 1966 is known [...]

Seven Songs by 23 Skidoo, FM 2008, 1982.
Since I made a post earlier about bad album design, it’s only right to redress the balance somewhat. Neville Brody has long been a favourite designer and something of an influence since it was looking at his work during the 1980s that made me think seriously about design [...]