Barney Bubbles

Category: Design

  • Norman Maslov on The Wild World of Barney Bubbles on Youtube

    Artists’ agent and passionate music lover Norman Maslov has posted a 10 minute journey through The Wild World of Barney Bubbles on his Youtube channel, augmented by examples of original and reissue record sleeve and poster designs from his collection.

    Watch above and here.

  • 42 years separate this pair of Muleskinners-inspired T-shirts

    ++ Left: New Barney Bubbles Muleskinners T; right: Julian Balme’s tribute for The Commuters, 1980 ++

    42 years separate the designs in this great photo, which pairs the new official Barney Bubbles Muleskinners T-shirt on the left with the one-off tribute on the right designed in 1980 by Julian Balme for the UK post-punk R&B group The Commuters.

    Both belong to Peter Stanfield, the group’s harmonica player who is these days a prominent pop culture academic and author, notably of the recently published Pin-Ups 1972.

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  • The first copy of A Box of Bubbles is in…. and it looks amazing

    ++ A Box of Bubbles is housed in this impressive 25 x 30cm casing decorated with one of Barney Bubbles’ most familiar artworks, for Ian Dury & The Blockheads’ 1978 single Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick ++
    ++ The box contains a copy of The Wild World of Barney Bubbles with a different hard cover jacket from the regular version ++

    Very exciting – the first advance copy of A Box of Bubbles has arrived… and it looks amazing.

    ++ The boxed version of Wild World also has different end-papers based on patterns produced for Elvis Costello & The Attractions 1979 LP Armed Forces ++

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  • New: Muleskinners Knockout R+B Here Tonight shirts

    A new addition to the Barney Bubbles Shop is the 1964 design for Twickenham Tech art school r&b group The Muleskinners, whose line-up included the late, great Ian McLagan of the Small Faces and The Faces.

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  • Original artworks sell for £20,000 as Barney Bubbles’ collectability soars

    ++ This 1977 felt tip on paper sketch for the debut album by The Damned together with the stickered limited edition LP fetched £6,120 ++

    The first-time sale of original artworks by Barney Bubbles in yesterday’s Bonhams auction achieved close to £20,000 in total, with one item – the original design for The Damned’s 1977 debut album – scoring a winning bid in excess of £6,000.

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  • Ultra-rare Barney Bubbles artworks on view as Bonhams auction ends tomorrow

    Auction house Bonhams’ sale of ultra-rare and collectible original artworks by Barney Bubbles ends tomorrow at 12noon BST (British Summer Time).

    ++ Artwork for a poster for a 1979 Christmas concert at Birmingham International Arena. Barney Bubbles playfully inserted the name of his friend Cynthia Lole as the promoter ++

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  • The Hamer & Sickle artwork is up for sale

    ++ Barney Bubbles’ ‘Hamer And Sickle’ photography paste-up, 1979. Dimensions: 25.5 x 29.3cm ++
    ++ The four appearances by the logo on the inner and outer sleeves of Nick Lowe’s Labour of Lust LP ++

    The photographic paste-up of one of Barney Bubbles’ most notable designs is among the late designer’s incredibly rare and highly collectible artworks included in the online sale currently being conducted by international auction house Bonhams.

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  • Creativity as catharsis: The M!ss!ng L!nk with The Fandangoe Kid on May 19

    The M!ss!ng L!nk is the title of a celebration of the life and work of Barney Bubbles at London’s Camden Art Centre on May 19.

    There’ll be music, film and visual displays as well as an in-conversation with Paul Gorman, author of the forthcoming monograph of the late graphics genius, and the artist The Fandangoe Kid, whose work hinges on creativity as catharsis.

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  • Exclusive film of the meticulous making of A Box of Bubbles

    Here is exclusive film from the specialist printers which is handling the making of the forthcoming limited edition A Box of Bubbles.

    Just 500 copies of A Box of Bubbles will be published this summer; it contains a unique hard cover version of the new monograph The Wild World World of Barney Bubbles along with a folio of reproductions of the late graphic genius’s most innovative and eye-catching artworks.

     

    As this shows, A Box of Bubbles is presented in a clothbound pink solander box, featuring a screen-printed design taken from Barney Bubbles’ legendary artwork for Ian Dury and The Blockheads’ hit single Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick/There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards.

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  • Accidents Will Happen: The ‘accidental’ single sleeve

    ++ Back of the Accidents Will Happen sleeve ++

    Barney Bubbles’ sleeve for Elvis Costello & The Attractions’ 1979 Radar Records single Accidents Will Happen/Talking In The Dark/Wednesday Week famously took its cue from the title of the lead track by presenting a blank outer with the design on the inside, as if the result of a printer’s error.

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