Barney Bubbles

Blog

  • New range pays tribute to Barney’s countercultural legacy

    The first fruits of our collaboration with leading streetwear brand 1 Of 100 are available now with a new range of T-shirts, sweatshirts and totes paying tribute to Barney Bubbles’ countercultural heritage.

    Available to order now from weare1of100.co.uk

    Featuring the pop art hamburger motif for Barney’s Teenburger Studios, launched in alternative London’s then-beating heart of Notting Hill in the late 60s, the reverse of the designs feature the address the master typographer placed on his headed paper: 307 Portobello Road W10 with the old-school phone number 01 969 7683,

    Back of shirt featuring Teenburger Design’s address hand-lettered by Barney

    Barney occupied the premises on returning from a trip to San Francisco’s Summer of Love central Haight Ashbury, where he hung with musicians such as Janis Joplin and graphic heroes Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse all the while operating light shows for Moby Grape at the Fillmore West and Pink Floyd at the Avalon Ballroom.

    Struck by the community aspects of the West Coast scene, on his return Barney built his own creative commune within the three-storey building at 307 Portobello Road.

    Barney, centre back next to Giana Cioffi, with friends outside 307 Portobello Road in 1969, including ‘Record John’ Cowell, standing second right. Photo: Stafford Cliff.

    The live-work space was shared with friends, among them his girlfriend Giana Cioffi, her friend Donna, painter Colin Ramsay Elder and ‘Record John’ Cowell (step-brother of the X-Factor’s Simon, as well as musicians, drifters and draft dodgers.

    The visitors included Dr Sam Hutt (later to benefit from Barney designs in his C&W star persona Hank Wangford) and Australians Phil ‘Shiva Shankar’ Jones and Ron ‘Raja Ram’ Rothfield, whose band Quintessence rehearsed in the basement.

    Pages from Barney’s booklet for Quintessence’s debut album In Blissful Company, Island Records, 1969. Design credit: Barney Bubbles and ‘J. Moonman’ (John Muggeridge)
    Gatefold cover, Brinsley Schwarz, UA, 1970. Design credit: Teenburger Designs

    Quintessence’s 1969 album In Blissful Company was the first record sleeve to feature Barney designs and Teenburger – Barney and his assistant John Muggeridge – was soon to be credited with designs for the eponymous debuts released in 1970 by country-rockers Brinsley Schwarz, blues merchants Red Dirt and the prog outfits Gracious! and Cressida.

    Front cover, Red Dirt, Fontana Records, 1970. Design credit: Teenburger
    Front cover, Cressida, Vertigo Records, 1970. Design credit: Teenburger
    Front cover, Gracious!, Vertigo, 1970. Design credit: Teenburger Designs

    Barney and Teenburger only lasted about 18 months at 307 but his occupancy sparked associations with Hawkwind and underground magazine Friends, setting him on the path to becoming one of the greatest graphic designers of all time.

    The Barney Bubbles Estate’s first range with We Are 1 of 100 seeks to summon the boundless creativity of those heady times.

    All designs are handprinted by 1 Of 100 in Glasgow featuring Barney’s distinctive copyright signature and are available to order here.

  • YA YA! New album by London rockers The Great Leslie to feature unseen Barney Bubbles artwork

    The Barney Bubbles Estate is thrilled to announce that, for the first time in more than four decades, the sleeve of a new album by a contemporary group will feature an original Barney Bubbles artwork.

    The cover of TRACES by London quartet The Great Leslie incorporates this previously unseen design of four dancing figures – do they spell YA YA? – from the Estate’s archive.

    Typically quizzical, the hand drawn idents are cast here representing each of TGL’s members and are juxtaposed with a band portrait by Christian Lombardi. 

    We have also given our blessing for the design to appear on select limited edition band merchandise. Watch this space and check out the TGL website here for more news and detail of this exciting collaboration.

    Follow TGL on Instagram @thegreatleslieband

  • The Cracking Up Pendant is available now!

    This pendant is a standout in the new Barney Bubbles Jewellery collection and is of course based on one of the designer’s most recognisable artworks, the smiling hand featured on the front cover of Nick Lowe’s 1979 single Cracking Up.

    7in sq sleeve for Nick Lowe’s Cracking Up/Basing Street, released on the British independent label Radar in May 1979

    The ident appeared in music press adverts for the single, though the spot colour used in the inkies lessened the impact of the original

    Bubbles had more control over colour balancing for the Cracking Up poster, which measured 50 x 75cm

    Made from an original, hand-built master using mixed metals, the pendant is cast in recycled silver and finished with a stainless steel chain. Part of an open edition, each piece is individually cast and hand-finished, resulting in subtle variations that make every necklace one of a kind.

    Each pendant is packaged in a bespoke box featuring the toothy smile, which Bubbles appropriated from a photograph of the late keyboardist Bob Andrews (Brinsley Schwarz/The Rumour), who played on the track and others from Lowe’s  album Labour Of Lust.

    Each Barney Bubbles Jewellery piece includes the ‘© BB’ mark of the Barney Bubbles Estate

    The Cracking Up Pendant is £100 and available from the Barney Bubbles Jewellery shop here.

  • The Barney Bubbles Jewellery Shop is good to go!

    We’re really pleased to announce that after months of tests and tweaking we’re launching the Barney Bubbles Jewellery range!

    Click on the image above to check out the Barney Bubbles Jewellery Shop featuring the exciting launch collection consisting of a baker’s dozen of pieces including badges, brooches, pendants and earrings.

    These are based on the design maestro’s stunning artworks for a range of artists from space rock through punk and new wave, including Dr Feelgood, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Nick Lowe, Hawkwind, Johnny Moped, John Cooper Clarke, Ian Dury & The Blockheads and Rockpile.

    We’ll be featuring the stories behind individual pieces here over the coming weeks, with insights into the origination of each design and the ways in which it has been realised in 3D.

    Prices range between £25 and £120 for the Barney Bubbles jewellery collection, which is shipping worldwide and is a collaboration between the Barney Bubbles Estate and sculptor/jeweller Blaine Hurdle.

    Check out Blaine’s work here.

  • Experimental Jetset: ‘Barney Bubbles irreversibly shaped the subcultures that shaped him’

    ‘Barney Bubbles’ oeuvre reads like a full-circle scale-model of UK pop culture in general: a circular journey, from the sharpness of mod (A1 Good Guyz) to the fuzziness of psych (the lysergic space travels of Hawkwind), and back again to the angularity of punk (Stiff, The Damned).

    ‘As much as Bubbles was a product of those times, he also was a producer of those times – irreversibly shaping the subcultures that shaped him. He created a graphic language of objects and signs (signs as objects, objects as signs) that truly defined an era – a language that still bewitches us, decades later.’

    Experimental Jetset

    Experimental Jetset 2018: Erwin Brinkers, Danny van den Dungen, Marieke Stolk. Photo: Kotoko Koya

    Mixing post-punk sensibilities with graphic design innovation and avant-garde polemic, Amsterdam collective Experimental Jetset puts the ‘provo’ into provocation.

    Founded in the mid-90s, the trio of Erwin Brinkers, Danny van den Dungen and Marieke Stolk consistently challenge the bloodlessness of much contemporary graphic design by incorporating clashing collages, signs,  symbols and signifiers with declamatory typography and tonal audacity into their cross-media approaches.

    One of the studio’s first designs was the perforated A2 bi-weekly programme poster originally produced for the hallowed Amsterdam venue the Paradiso in 1996. The template is still in use at the Paradiso, latterly featuring the  2010 version which was the result of what EJ describes as a ‘slight redesign‘.

    Triptych of posters for group exhibition Graphic Design: Now in Production at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2011.

    Installation view (detail) of the retrospective Word-Things in Time-Space at Riot, Ghent, May–September 2016.

    EJ’s profile was raised way back in 2001 when the John & Paul & Ringo & George shirt was released through Japanese t-shirt label 2K/Gingham. This of course soon became a band t-shirt design staple.

    Offset-printed A2 poster for  the EJ-curated exhibition about Amsterdam’s radical Provo movement at the city’s W139 art space in 2011.

    From the graphic language created for New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art in 2012-13.

    Installation view of EJ’s 2023 exhibition at MACRO, Rome’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

    Statement and Counter-Statement  is the title of EJ’s 2015 monograph published by Amesterdam’s Roma Publications.

    Spread from Statement and Counter-Statement.

    Spread from Statement and Counter-Statement.

    In 2022 Experimental Jetset collaborated with Amsterdam-based streetwear label Patta on what they describe as ‘a slightly pop-situationist/mod-revivalist’ capsule collection Patta Psychogeographic Practice.

    Patta Psychogeographic Practice Converse All Stars.

    Patta Psychogeographic Practice manifesto.

    Record sleeve for Escape-ism’s 2024 album Charge of the Love Brigade, released by Radical Elite Records.

    Visit EJ online archive here and read It’s Nice That’s wide-ranging interview with Experimental Jetset where they mention Barney Bubbles here.

  • ‘He was a visionary’ Raissa Pardini on Barney Bubbles

    Photo courtesy Raissa Pardini

    Barney Bubbles wasn’t just a designer – he was a visionary. His work brought colour, dynamism and a sense of bold expression to every project. He taught me that design isn’t just about aesthetics – it’s about emotion, energy and creating something that speaks to the heart.
    Raissa Pardini

    This is the first in an occasional series of contemporary practitioners providing their thoughts on the continuing relevance of the work of Barney Bubbles.

    Concert poster

    From Tuscany and based in London after sojourns in Berlin and Glasgow, Pardini’s work expresses vibrancy and wit, showcasing her considerable talents as a multi-disclipinary designer who is also a radical typographer and joyous creative director.

    Concert poster

    ‘Coming from a tiny town where nothing much ever happened, I took my first solo trip to London at 14,’ said Pardini recently. ‘I quickly learned the art of sneaking into Trash and the indie clubs, full of makeup and nerves, hoping no one would clock my age. Back in Italy, all I could think about was being involved in music. I hustled my way into a local radio station, then hit the national ones, eventually landing my own show.

    Record sleeves

    ‘I played bass with local pals in their garages, spinning records just to secure a couch to crash on after gigs—most of which I seemed to be attending alone. Getting my driver’s license was a game-changer, as it meant I no longer depended on others for rides to gigs. By then, I had built my own communities around different cities, and being part of the music scene became my lifeblood.

    Concert poster

    Magazine design

    ‘I was printing zines in my mom’s office, and that’s when I discovered my love for design too.’

    Book designs

    As her portfolio shows, Pardini’s designs are collected by the V&A and she has worked with major brands and bands from MTV and Nike to Blur and The Rolling Stones but retains a street-level engagement having DJed live and on radio stations, played in such groups as Loaded and collaborated with the amazing likes of Yassassin and Cumgirl8 (who she manages – see below for a great promo directed by Leah Hennessey featuring a Susan Sontag AI hologram – you have to sign in to watch it but it’s worth it).

    Billboard

    Glastonbury Festival billboards

    Pardini’s social conscience has also led her to work with such organisations as Brian Eno’s Earth Percent, Endometriosis UK and Rape Crisis.
    Hear Pardini’s talk about designing for music.

    Listen to Pardini’s recent playlist for International Women’s Day here and visit her site here.

  • 5000-plus followers of the Barney Bubbles Instagram account can’t be wrong

    The Barney Bubbles Estate’s Instagram feed has now gathered more than 5,000 followers and is collecting more every day.

    Presenting a regularly updated and rich mix of design history and ephemera, @barney_bubbles_estate has great engagement. Followers keenly contributing comments and views on the examples of the late graphic artist’s exemplary body of work, from art student sketches to promo videos to rare posters to record sleeve extravaganzas.

    The account also provides news on developments in the wild world of Barney Bubbles; soon there will be trails for a series of major forthcoming collaborations with contemporary artists and designers.

    If you haven’t already join the fun by adding @barney_bubbles_estate today.

  • RIP Dick Pope: Great cinematographer and Barney Bubbles’ collaborator on the Ghost Town video

    RIP to the great British cinematographer Dick Pope, who has died aged 77.

    Pope is best known for his work with the director Mike Leigh, and his impressive CV includes a raft of music videos including Queen’s I Want To Break Free and, of course, the Barney Bubbles-directed Ghost Town for The Specials.

    As recounted by Bubbles’ video producer Genevieve Terry in The Wild World of Barney Bubbles, Pope was horrified when Bubbles played fast-and-loose with the expensive camera affixed to the car the members of the Specials were travelling in, though appreciated the outcome.

    Here’s the tremendous outcome of their efforts:

  • Barney Bubbles’ Space Ritual tour programme/fold-out poster

    ++ The front panel of the Space Ritual tour programme/poster ++

    Just as he did for Ian Dury & The Blockheads and Elvis Costello and the Attractions half-a-decade later, Barney Bubbles produced a fold-out programme/poster for Hawkwind’s 1972 Space Ritual tour.

    ++ Opened out to reveal this portrait of saxophonist Nik Turner and the start of Robert Calvert’s essay ++

    As well as Bubbles’ striking illustrations and graphics, the exercise included photography of the group’s main members and an entertaining if rambling sci-fi/semi-fictional account of the group’s activities by poet, lyricist and performer Robert Calvert.

    ++ Unfolded the poster measures 56 x 39 cm ++

    Calvert, Bubbles and other contributors such as writer Michael Moorcock received tips of the hat in the credits.

  • The Art Nouveau roots of the Space Ritual cover

    ++ Front panel of Barney Bubbles sleeve for Hawkwind’s 1973 live album Space Ritual.  Artwork © Barney Bubbles Estate ++

    Barney Bubbles’ representation of dancer/performance artist Stacia Blake adorned the front panel of his hugely ambitious trifold sleeve for Hawkwind’s live album Space Ritual, released 50 years ago last month.

    ++ Space Ritual’s exterior six-panel trifold. Design concept and artworks © Barney Bubbles Estate. Photography: Gabi Nasemann and Laurie Lewis ++

    Those familiar with the sleeve will know that once unfolded the front six panels show that the Stacia figure was emitting shockwaves across the artwork, which incorporated photography of the group in performance by Laurie Lewis and Gabi Nasemann.

    ++ L’Emeraude, Alphonse Mucha, 1902. Colour lithograph from the Precious Stones series. 67 x 30cm ++

    The arresting front panel channels the Art Nouveau work of Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist Alphonse Mucha, who was very much in vogue in post-hippie circles in the early 1970s. British artist John Coulthart has identified elements in the Space Ritual design directly derived from Mucha’s 1900 lithograph L’Emeraude (The Emerald).

    ++ The Precious Stones series, 1902 ++

    The slavering beast’s head appeared in many of Mucha’s drawings and was based on armrests on one of his chairs, whileL’Emeraude was in Mucha’s series Les pierres précieuses (Precious Stones) along with representations of topaz, ruby and amethyst.