As soon as I decided on which lyrics to use for my Follow the Rhythm project, I figured one of the best people to research for inspiration would be Jamie Reid.
I have been interested in his work for a couple of years and have already done a little bit of research about him for my ixd102 group project, so accumulating more information about him and combining both for this post was easy to do.
Here are some quick facts about Jamie Reid:
- Jamie Reid was born in 1947 in London.
- He’s an artist & designer, most well-known for his “anarchist” views and projects.
- His style was predominantly post-modernism, using his work to question society and the Government.
- Reid’s most widely recognised designs are probably those he created for Sex Pistols. These pieces essentially defined the image of “punk” in the UK.
- Most of his designs include letter cutouts collaged into words, and other “torn paper” elements – mimicking a ransom note.
- He came up with this design whilst designing the Suburban Press, which was his own political magazine that exposed local corruption.
I have included some of his pieces that have inspired me most, especially for my “Follow the Rhythm” project below. The features that stick out to me most within Reid’s designs is his repeated use of the neon yellow and bubblegum pink colour combo. I think these colours compliment eachother really well, whilst also representing punk really well. To me, these colours together have now become associated with punk.
I also really like the chaos to his work, making it feel manic in a way. When there’s too much going on in a design it can appear haphazard and be quite hard to decipher, but Reid does it so well that it looks well thought out. This makes his style of design easy to appreciate.