Some of the Chelsea College Of Art graphics communications students who staged their own Barney Bubbles mini-exhibition last year (see here) have posted their contributions online.

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To coincide with recent exhibition Process: The working practices of Barney Bubbles, a short run of t-shirts was produced featuring The M!ss!ng L!nk tattoo Barney Bubbles created for drummer Rat Scabies in the early 80s.

“Barney said he always thought of me as the original missing link,” says the former member of The Damned in Reasons To Be Cheerful.

Scabies hasn’t been able to locate the copy of the design Bubbles gave him for several years, so was delighted when the original turned up during research for the show. And he has vowed to finally have the tattoo inked; we have recommended a decent parlour and will keep you informed of developments.

Original artwork, pen and inks on card, early 80s.

With other examples of artwork on display at Process.

The original artwork – the broken links form a rat’s face – was a particularly popular exhibit among visitors to Process.

Rat has given the tees – on which the logo is inverted – two thumbs-up. It’s surely a testament to BB’s brilliance that the design remains full of impact. And, when wearing one, you look down at your chest and there’s a rat staring back at you…

There weren’t many produced and most went during the run of the show. However, there are some left  at £10 each in L (40″ chest) and XL (42″ chest).

These two sizes are modeled here by the talented and handsome Chelsea Space assistants Gyeyeon Park and Mike Iveson, both artists in their own right.

To order your t-shirt go here.

Postcard (front) with contact frames from Colin Fulcher to Margaret Minay, 1962.

Back of card. Courtesy: Maisie Parker.

We’re indebted to Barney Bubbles’ fellow Twickenham art school student Maisie Parker for providing the chance to post this precious hand-made card dating from 1962.

Bubbles, then 20-year-old Colin Fulcher, sent it to Parker – then Margaret Minay (whose maiden name he misspelt) – following a photographic modeling session in his bedroom in Whitton, Middx, for a putative project for Queen magazine.

There is no evidence to suggest the exercise reached publication, though portraits of Parker appeared in a college sketchbook, along with musings on art and life.

At one point on Saturday October 27 1962, Fulcher writes: “It is now 9.30 in the evening and we have decided to go up the pub, Margaret and me.”

One of these portraits along with text was featured in Reasons To Be Cheerful; another was an exhibit in recent exhibition Process: The working practices of Barney Bubbles.

Above: Maisie Parker portraits + musings, sketchbooks, 1962. Diana Fawcett Collection.

Bottom left: Portrait in Process exhibit vitrine, Sept-Oct 2010. Photo: Andi Sapey.

Parker, a West Country-based artist, was in the year below Fulcher. “I was aware of him from the very start of my time at Twickenham,” she says.

“He was very distinctive looking, quite loud and laughed a lot in the canteen,” she says. “But I was such a mouse I was terrified of speaking to anyone other than a few classmates. It wasn’t until my second year that he actually spoke to me, and then it was to joke about something or other.

“I was aware that he made the tickets for the end of term dances that we had on Eelpie, and remember discussing with a few other people how we were going to dress up for the Cowboys & Indians bash.

“I lino-printed raw linen with Wild West designs and made myself an Indian squaw costume, along the lines of the ticket design.”

Parker’s postcard provides another piece in the jigsaw of Barney Bubbles’ life and work: the self-portrait he drew on the wall of his bedroom in the early 60s. In Reasons To Be Cheerful brother-in-law Brian Jewiss recounts how this was subsequently covered over during redecoration. It has never been seen publicly…until now.

After teaching art and design in London secondary schools for a number of years, Parker is currently studying for a degree in fine art. She clearly recalls the conversations recounted in Fulcher’s sketchbook texts.

“I was very politicised; my family were incredibly left-wing, and musicians,” she says “I’d also just blown nearly all my grant on a leather coat!”

The students shared a love of jazz; in fact on the evening of October 27 1962 Fulcher records they listened to Thelonius Monk’s 1960 album At The Blackhawk.

“I kept a lot of the cards I received from him, though over the years most have disappeared,” says Parker. “One was particularly funny and ‘Colinish’: he knew I’d gone to a Thelonius  Monk concert and did a little painting of who he thought was Thelonius Monk, but in fact was Stevie Wonder…he cracked up when I told him.”

Visit Maisie Parker’s site here.

Captain Sensible with Reasons To Be Cheerful.

Saturday saw the final day of Process, with visits from well-wishers and some of the people who made it happen.

We’re proud to say that Process was Chelsea Space’s biggest show, with attendance at an all-time high and thousands flocking from all over the country, and, indeed, the world.

Designer Phil Pennington.

Twickenham alumni Jim Bunker, Arthur Robins and Mike Birkenshaw.

Clockwise from top left: Catherine Flood; Roger Klein; Young Kim; Olaf Parker; Jake Riviera; Stephen Goy & Jonathan Madden.

Some of Barney Bubbles’ oldest friends, fellow students and workmates came. So did family members, close acquaintances and musicians and photographers with whom he collaborated.

There were fellow practitioners, graphics experts and other admirers. Importantly, Process attracted hundreds of students, most of whom had never heard of Barney Bubbles before they entered the gallery, but left inspired and enthused at what they encountered.

Emma Gorman

With Eye editor John Walters.

With Belinda Syme and Dickie Lowe.

As intended; this is just the beginning. The V&A is now incorporating Bubbles in it’s next two big shows – Post-Modernism in autumn 2011 and British Design 1948 to date (which will be staged to coincide with the Olympics over the summer of 2012).

Plans are firming up for our exhibition to be held at another UK venue next autumn, and dialogue is also underway with US galleries and instititutions to take it across the Atlantic.

Talk to architects from Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands.

With John Clifton.

Here are a selection of photographs of those who dropped by over recent weeks and helped make Process such a success. Thank you. I would like to personally thank Lorry Sartorio for her generosity – once I’ve figured out how to get the photos of you off my phone, Lorry, I shall post them here!

Andy Childs (ex ZigZag, F-Beat and Demon)

Elvis Costello fan Eric Gatling.

With John Foyle (third right) and Elvis Costello aficionados.

Chelsea Space assistant Martina Gonano.

Dickie Lowe with Ersatz by The Imperial Pompadours.

Chelsea Space director Donald Smith with Ken “Brains” Smith.

With artist Jim Latter.

Photographer David Corio shows his glove-modeling hand on the inner of This Year’s Model.

With Aten Skinner and his mother Giana.

Photos: Donald Smith.

Third-year graphics communications students  at Chelsea have responded to Process with a stunning set of works which formed a mini-exhibition at the college last week.

Course director Geoff Thomas-Shaw’s brief was to create three-dimensional objects in response to the show.

Mindful of Bubbles’ educational experience working with paper and card as part of a display course at Twickenham School Of Technology in the late 50s and early 60s, Thomas-Shaw’s brief also paid attention to Bubbles’ work in the pre-digital age.

Thus, students were steered towards producing designs “analogue in terms of origination, utilising paper-based materials to reflect the non-dependency of digital influences in Barney Bubbles’ original artwork”.

Recognising some of the designer’s primary concerns, Thomas-Shaw also recommended they consider Bubbles’ use of scale, colour, texture and mode of display.

Chelsea Space director Donald Smith and I are bowled over by the quality and vision of the results.

“I’m incredibly impressed by the ways in which the students interpreted the brief; by their skill, wit and dexterity; and also by how well they had seemed to understand the original work,” says Donald Smith. “Their exhibition is impressive in its own right.”

Process is on until this Saturday (October 23).
Come along and say hi.

Photos: Donald Smith.

Today Process received a visit from a very special group of students.

They are on the foundation graphics course at south-west London’s Kingston University. “The exhibition has particular resonance for us,” says lecturer Andy Cade.  “We run this course from a studio in Richmond Upon Thames College, formerly Twickenham Art School.”

It is here that Barney Bubbles (then Colin Fulcher) studied for his National Diploma in Design (NDD) between 1958 and 1963.

I and Chelsea Space director Donald Smith angled our talk about the show around the vocational course Bubbles undertook and how this helped form his practices when he came to problem-solve on behalf of his mainly music business clients later in life.

With some of Bubbles’ fellow Twickenham students coming in for their own private view next week it has been great to connect with different generations from his alma mater.

Photos: Martina Gonano

Conversations with students, lecturers and practitioners over recent days have confirmed how the show is surfing the current desire for “analogue” approaches to design.

During presentations yesterday to students from London College Of Communications and Chelsea we set Barney Bubbles’ work in the context of the golden age of vinyl record sleeve design.

“Our students found the presentations really inspiring,” says Monica Biagioli of LCC’s design faculty. “Many will be coming back on their own to explore the exhibition further.”

They and other visitors have responded with delight to the hand-crafted nature of the preparatory artwork on display.

Of course, this was by way of necessity; Barney Bubbles died just two months before the introduction of the Apple Mac (and before the widespread application of desktop publishing in the 80s), but nevertheless such practices are not only back on the curricula but also again filtering into contemporary graphic design.

This has been noted in a comment on the Creative Review report on the show: “Don’t let anyone at Mother see this – they think they discovered the ultra-retro feel,” writes “Devilgate”.

On a page in the Chelsea Space visitors’ book, New York designer Aleksandar Maćašev sums up the reaction to the show we’ve received this week from a flood of visitors, including waves of graphics students, a major British artist, Ian Dury’s biographer, the owner of the country’s biggest spoof news site, one of rock music’s leading record sleeve designers (who has incorporated a section on Barney Bubbles in a new book), and, of course, Billy Bragg.

Maćašev wrote that a visit to the exhibition was the top of his to-do list while in London, and, judging by his response, we did not disappoint. Artist Daniel Sturgis, who has openly acknowledged his debt to Bubbles, was similarly complimentary, as were Will Birch and Paul Stokes, one of the men behind The Daily Mash.

Studying the ramp wall exhibits with Will Birch.

Will Birch asks about the book and magazine display.

With Paul Stokes (far right) and Chelsea students.

And designer Richard Evans, who has been art director for The Who for more than 35 years, came along for a viewing, bringing with him his exciting new book Art Of The Album Cover, which has a section dedicated to Barney Bubbles’ achievements in this sphere.

Richard Evans discusses process with Chelsea Space assistant curator Barbara Elting and assistant Martina Gonano.

Richard Evans with his new book open at the section on Barney Bubbles’ album sleeve designs.

Students from courses at Chelsea, Hastings, London College Of Communications and the Vienna International School took their time to absorb the insights into Bubbles’ working methods provided by the exhibits in the main room.

Students from the Vienna International School.

Students from London College Of Communications.

Students from Chelsea College Of Art & Design.

“I found it fascinating and informative (more than most of the LDF and ADF!),”  writes Jonathan from Sussex Coast College Hastings. “Because of the layout, you get the sense of ‘this is his work’ and then you walk round the corner and…’this is how it was done’. It’s not just a show of his finished pieces – it goes deeper than that.”

Process is on until October 23.

Photos: Donald Smith.

Billy Bragg dropped by the exhibition today; here he is with the rug he contributed (featuring, of course, one of Barney Bubbles’ Masereel-quoting designs for the front of 1984’s Brewing Up).

Bill wrote in the visitor’s book:”Beautiful, hand crafted, timeless, exciting. Barney Bubbles lives!”

Drumhead 1982.

One of the most satisfying aspects of staging Process has been engaging with visitors who knew Barney Bubbles personally.

Film producer Linda Gamble dropped by last week; she worked at Virgin Records in the 70s and 80s and knew Bubbles via her then-boyfriend Will Birch.

Touchingly, Linda brought a thank-you note Bubbles sent her and Birch in 1982 for a record player they had given him. The note – in an envelope proclaiming “Bring Back The Birch” – accompanied a painted drumhead which Bubbles suggested could either be used in performance or placed on the wall as an artwork.

“I kept this note all these years because Barney was such a great guy,” says Linda.

As detailed in Reasons To Be Cheerful, around this time Birch commissioned sleeve designs for his band The Records as well as a cover for a compilation of tracks by his previous outfit Kursaal Flyers. While working together he and Bubbles had entertained themselves by creating an imaginary beat group, The Blue Genes.

In his note, Bubbles recommended referring to Merseybeat or Andrew Lauder (who had reissued such gems as The Merseybeats’ Beat & Ballads via F-Beat’s catalogue wing Edsel).

12″ sleeve. Front cover, Chocs Away, Kursaal Flyers, UK Records, 1975.

Back cover, Chocs Away, Kursaal Flyers, UK Records, 1975.

Credit details, back cover, Chocs Away.

Left: Fry’s packaging, 1968. Right: Fry’s 5 Boys 1902.

Birch first met Bubbles in 1975, when the designer produced the sleeve for Kursaal Flyers’ debut album Chocs Away.

Developing the chocolate aeroplane theme of the cover, Bubbles cast the five Kursaals on the back as variations of Fry’s 5 Boys (who appeared on the confectionery company’s packaging from 1902 until a marketing overhaul the year after Chocs Away’s release).

For his credit, Bubbles chose “Grove Lane”, after the street/neighbourhood where Kursaals’ manager Paul Conroy shared a flat with photographer Adrian Boot.

By the early 80s, the designs for Music On Both Sides, In For A Spin and their attendant singles captured Bubbles during his final reductive phase, relying on repetition of primary shapes and restricted palettes.

Thus The Records designs centred on jukebox lozenges and stars, while that for In For A Spin arose from a visit of Birch’s to Bubbles’ studio in January 1983.  “The title came out of a discussion I had with Barney,” says Birch. “I remember him alternating between sketches of a ‘spin dryer’ and aeroplane propellers,  as in ‘taking a plane up for a spin.”

12″ sleeve. Front cover, Music On Both Sides, The Records, Virgin, 1982.

Back cover, Music On Both Sides, The Records, Virgin, 1982.

7″ sleeve. Front cover, Imitation Jewellery, The Records, Virgin, 1982.

12in sleeve. Front cover, In For A Spin, Kursaal Flyers, Line, 1983.

7″ sleeve. Front cover, Radio Romance, Kursaal Flyers, Line, 1983.

Thanks to Linda Gamble for bringing in the note and providing us with an opportunity to present yet more fantastic designs which we were unable to include in Process.

The show is on for another three weeks (until October 23), open Tues-Sat, 11am-5pm.