CR Blog
Haircut 100: it's all their fault
Graphic Design, Type / Typography
Posted by Patrick Burgoyne, 26 November 2009, 10:27 Permalink Comments (27)
Among the many theories advanced by Neville Brody at his D&AD President's Lecture last night was that 80s popsters Haircut 100 are responsible for the decline of popular culture in Britain today...
Brody placed the exact point at which he became disillusioned with popular culture at the moment when Haircut 100, all tucked-in Aran jumpers and perfectly coiffed, entered the charts. "After that," he said, " it all became about how you were styled, what clothes you wore and not what you had to say." And from then on he never designed another record sleeve. Looking at the above picture, you've got to admit he had a point...
In a wide-ranging, if at times slightly dislocated, discussion with Adrian Shaughnessy, Brody touched on education, politics, culture and even graphic design. If at times it felt a bit like a Ben Elton gig circa 1986, with Brody blaming Thatcher and Reagan (alongside Nick Heyward's mob) for society's ills, it was a welcome change from the usual conference fare of "and here's a project we did for x". Brody is that rare combination of a designer with something to say about the world and the ability to articulate those thoughts.
On his landmark V&A exhibition in 1988, which propelled him to a certain level of 'fame' (famous, at least, in graphic design terms), Brody claimed that "it was absolutely not about a desire for celebrity" but "about trying to bring people to the ideas [behind the work]". The exhibition was a commercial disaster for Brody's studio in that it scared off potential clients. "People reacted to the profile and didn't look beyond that to the work itself," he claimed.
He was particularly forthright about design education, claiming that the whole system needed to be torn up, there is too much focus on training for a career (something that many would dispute given the constant complaints about graduates' work-readiness) and that students are denied time with tutors and the freedom to experiment (a less contentious view).
Shaughnessy did a good job in trying to work in the questions Tweeted ('Twat'?) in by CR readers and others which were displayed on a screen next to the two of them, but one of the more memorable came from an audience member who challenged Brody on the apparent "disconnect" between the views that he had been espousing on politics, the need to be 'dangerous' and his apparent oppositional stance and the work for the likes of News International, Kenzo and Dom Perignon that was playing on the screen behind him. Brody, who had earlier admitted that his "hypocrisy was plain to see" argued that "design is fundamentally a compromise". That he needed to take on paying clients in order to fund work such as his Freedom Space installation for the Design Museum (poster shown below). Shaughnessy queried whether, back when he was designing record covers for Throbbing Gristle, Brody ever imagined himself working for Rupert Murdoch (his studio redesigned The Times), to which Brody replied "we'll all be working for Rupert Murdoch eventually" and that, somewhat unconvincingly, it's "all in the same space" of conveying and explaining information.
Brody was on firmer ground when discussing the role of the designer. He compared it to that of an artist in that " you start with the end result and then manufacture the process to get there". In other words, an artist may start with an idea about the world or a particular sensation that they wish to convey and then figure out what physical form could deliver or express that. Same with design. "The difference between art and design is that art is based on a commodity - what you end up with has a value in itself," he said. "Design is a service industry."
The designer, he later said, sits between information and understanding, being the vital conduit between the two. Thus, he said, designers had a vital role to play in the world, even if they sometimes failed to realise it.
He also touched on what he termed 'design hooliganism' - the ad hominem abuse that he and others have been subjected to online on blogs such as this one. Brody admitted that he found it hard to take at times, when people who had never met him made personal remarks that, had they made them to his face may have resulted in some physical confrontation. He traced it to the kind of 'tall poppy syndrome' that is a facet of public life whereby anyone with any degree of public profile is considered fair game.
It's also something that we dicsuss in the new issue of CR, aptly summed up in this venn diagram
And what of the vote? The audience had been issued with A4 cards (above) with 'genius' on one side and 'wanker' on the other and were asked to vote on which they thought Brody was at the end of the evening - something of a ludicrous choice, of course but I think Brody's point was that public discourse encourages such extremes. You are either one or the other. Hero or villain. Lauded or derided. He has known both.
I didn't personally witness the vote having had to make an early exit, but, for the record, I believe that 'genius' won out.
And talking of genius...
27 Comments
great lecture!
2009-11-26 11:52:40
I'd like to disagree with his point about education. Actually how many universities has he visited? All this finger pointing and blaming is fine but what is he doing to address this issues?
The course I have graduated from this year didn't focus at all on career readiness, it was about developing a visual language and a working practice. To follow our own ideas and initiate our own projects. We only got tasked with around 5 briefs in the whole 3 years.
I think there is a dis-connection with education and the industry. Sometimes it feels like the industry has closed it's doors on us. We feel we need to know certain skills and practices in order to compete with 100's of other applying for the same jobs.
I would like to see designers take a more active role in design education. I loved my 3 years of exploring and experimenting and following my own projects, it will stand me in good stead for the future but I feel I have a portfolio that most companies don't know what to do with. Hopefully they will see something in me and others with a similar portfolio
2009-11-26 12:18:27
Good lecture.
I appreciate Mr Brody's work, but I agree with the audience member who noted the 'disconnect' between his stated beliefs and his work.
There was a lack of substance to Neville's politicising, but then again, he is only a graphic designer. He didn't put himself on his pedestal — it takes followers to make a god.
That said, some of his views on design education are bang on the money — although I got the impression he would only become more than a commentator if someone was willing to sign the cheque.
2009-11-26 13:03:51
I love that song
2009-11-26 13:07:10
Also just to note that these D&AD lectures are gradually becoming the 'Adrian Shaughnessy show' — not sure it's a sustainable format.
2009-11-26 13:22:51
I enjoyed the lecture, and liked that it didn't solely focus on the work, but considered more social concerns.
I agreed with much of what he did say about education. I work as a Graphic Design educator and often what we really want to be teaching in terms of ideas, and being conceptually creative is restricted by 'the powers that be' that see education as a 'sellable', efficient, commodity. There needs to be a definite balance between technical skills and the ability to switch away from that to allow for creative independence. This goes hand in hand with contact hours being cut at many institutions year on year as monetary savings are made on lecturers, as well as tightening on facilities (some may say traditional facilities) that are seen as not profitable. Also there is greater pressure on lecturers to make sessions rigidly structured and formulaic, which can be dangerous when you are trying to foster creativity and reflection. Part of design education is not just about how to handle a client brief, set up a spot varnish or work html, but often more to do with how a designer uses his or her abilities to communicate ideas that are socially aware, psychologically responsive and visually articulate. This takes time and nurturing.
I think often Art and Design subjects are viewed at institutional management level to be the same as other more academic courses. The results of trying to fit a 'round' art peg in to a 'square' academic hole. A&D inconveniently does not fit the mold. What really should be happening is that creative courses should be viewed differently, individually and separately. There should never be a one size fits all policy to art and design education. I do think art and design education needs to be re-thought, unfortunately the challenge (horrible brair-ite word) will be on changing the attitudes of the bodies up top that control the finance and dictate the policy.
For many years creative subjects have been sidelined by the Government in favour of those courses that reap the most headlines: science, maths, engineering etc etc. I completely agreed with Neville that this view is culturally damaging to us as a nation. It is about balance, and perhaps a reappraisal of just what our creative heritage has produced in the past. I would like Art to be instated as a core subject at GCSE level. Again we have to get the balance right between academia and creativity.
2009-11-26 13:25:50
I am going to be seeing the xylophone player's pants in my nightmares for the rest of my life now.
That is my pensée for the day.
2009-11-26 13:44:10
My favourite part of the whole night was Paul Brazier's introduction for "Adrian Shaun-Essy" and Neville Brody – "a very difficult person," apparently (in fairness I don't think that came out quite as he'd intended). It was almost as good as his introduction to Paula Scher, where he read the biography from her website from cue cards. He appears to have no idea of who the people he's introducing are, which is pretty shocking for the D&AD president!
2009-11-26 14:14:44
It seems to be the same speech he made at OFFF'09. Definitely a genius.
2009-11-26 14:21:31
A great discussion and amazing lecture
2009-11-26 16:36:36
Photos from the lecture now online: http://www.researchstudios.com/2009/11/24/wanker-or-genius-its-time-to-tweat/
2009-11-26 16:51:05
Does anyone know if there is a video of this lecture anywhere?
2009-11-26 16:57:31
@Alex
There will be and we will post excerpts here as soon as it is available
PatrickBurgoyne
2009-11-26 16:59:49
They say 'never meet your heroes, you'll always be disappointed', so I didn't go last night.
Neville Brody made me want to be a designer - his work was brilliant. But from interviews I have read he is also a conflicted man, not comfortable with the commercial nature of the design business but nevertheless earning a crust doing what was once called commercial art. The same could be said of Adrian Shaughnessy, who probably made a good living through Intro by working for big recording companies and who now lectures us on the evils of selling our souls.
The area between being vegan and eating dolphins is very grey. We all make up our own rules, non of which are truly logical But if you're not a vegan, don't lecture others for eating meat, you're not really any better!
2009-11-26 17:21:32
A fascinating evening, not necessarily for all the right reasons, but definitely enjoyable and has prompted plenty of discussion, which is what it's all about.
For what it's worth, my thoughts on the lecture are here:
http://www.holster.co.uk/blog/neville-brody-wanker-or-genius
I'll go with wenius.
®
2009-11-26 20:21:59
Brody's comments about the following paragraph below...
.Has he ever met any members of Haircut 100 and told them to their faces that they are responsible for the decline of popular culture today?
Forgive me but I had not realised the impact they have had over the last 25 years.
He also touched on what he termed 'design hooliganism' - the ad hominem abuse that he and others have been subjected to online on blogs such as this one. Brody admitted that he found it hard to take at times, when people who had never met him made personal remarks that, had they made them to his face may have resulted in some physical confrontation. He traced it to the kind of 'tall poppy syndrome' that is a facet of public life whereby anyone with any degree of public profile is considered fair game.
Pot calling kettle........................
2009-11-26 21:00:28
The simple fact that it's called 'Wanker' or 'Genius' says it all — call me a Genius please everyone.
2009-11-27 08:53:53
I totally agree with Brody's lament (can it be hereafter known as 'Brody's Lament'?). I came into graphic design as a result of Neville Brody, and at that time the people who were admired and who inspired (of which Brody was just one) had a body of work that communicated something and wasn't just an attractive drape over a retail brand or service intended to pull money out of punter's pockets.
Now, the 'best' designers and creative studios are considered the best because they have worked for 'impressive brands'... but to my mind, brands are not impressive. Is Vodafone 'impressive' in any cultural sense? or Nike? or are they just clever enough to use trends to flog more and more bits of kit?
A nostalgic flick through Brody's first book (Graphic Language of) will reveal how much things have changed. Brody was published, no mean feat at the time, and the book was a massive success, and yet you will see no retail brands or company logos on those pages. Its a testament to his work that he became iconic without such 'validations' and I'm almost certain no graphic designer today would ever get that recognition without having a bunch of 'impressive' brands as clients.
Its almost like the question is "This work LOOKS okay, but I can't be sure, because Nike, Orange, Reebok, Vodafone, British Airways or Coca Cola haven't used it".
And don't forget, its known as 'Brody's Lament' from now on.
2009-11-27 11:03:18
I enjoyed the Neville and Adrian show the other night and will agree on some views, and disagree on others. That's human nature. I'd challenge any designer not to be a contradiction of the person they were 20 years ago, we grow, we change and our environment around us changes. I'm sure we'd all love to work for free, but we can't, and I doubt many commenting on any design blog would turn down a pay cheque from some of the large brand Brody now works with.
I sense there will be a more universal agreement however on his views of education. Many designers over 30 will recall class sizes of 15 students, yet it seems that college's now have to teach 50 in a class with the same resources. Something has to give and it is quality. (this is my experience from part-time lecturing and having friends and family within design education).
I remember when a Grant wasn't just a friends name.
In closing, every design lecture I attend I find fascinating and inspiring, and this was no different. Thanks D&AD.
2009-11-27 15:51:38
what a load of rubbish. shall we forget for a moment all the bands that preceded Haircut 100, (an innocuous and rather charming pop band who sent less time styling themselves than it took steve strange to gel his hair) from Spandau Ballet to Visage to Duran Duran who didn't have a massive amount to say - unless there's a hidden and provocative political subtext to Paint me down and Night Train I've not yet grasped - who made styling the centrepiece of their admirable careers . .. and let's also conveniently forget how Brody, so disgusted was he with style over substance ,chose to design for the Face magazine which, though a voice of radicalism in some senses, lovingly embraced the louche and narcissistic style of the era and counted on this to shift copies. And wow, it must have smarted a little when having decided to turn your back on record sleeves because of the evils of Heyward and his trumpetting minstrels, he had to see the politically vacant villains foisted on the cover of his magazine (June 1982). ouch!
Oh well... who would have thought little Nick would have caused such ripples in the world as we know it. Talk about a butterfly effect!
2009-11-27 16:04:18
Prior to Haircut 100 clothes and styling played no part on popular music?
2009-11-27 16:35:51
I too went into design because of Nevile Brody - not because I thought he was a great designer - I'm not at all sure he is, but because he made it possible for me to see design as a career, growing up in a tiny village in North Wales cut you off from the rest of the world, being able to see how one individuals 'handwriting' could influence and improve the world - even if it was only a magazine or a record cover.
He has some points to make about design education, from a superficial perspective - those of who do teach work very hard to get results and serve the needs of our students within the confines of the educational structures we now need to work in - but then I don't remember time 80's at Camberwell and the RCA being any great shakes.
The V&A show was the point that I fell out of love with Brody - it had become bland and bloated, but that's OK - it was 'my turn', and now - it's the turn of my students, one of them was at this lecture...I feel a de-brief coming on.
Brody was of his time, as were Haircut 100...as was Thatcher - who really can't be blamed for EVERYTHING that is wrong in the world...FOREVER... I think that time is gone.
I have never forgiven Brody for one particularly stupid comment in the past that he was 'proud' to employ nobody over 40 - an age he was well past at the time. He was
2009-11-27 16:47:44
sorry Neville ...you have done some great designs (note the past tense...)but you need to put the lid back on the glue as it appears to be seriously affecting your judgement...if you take a little time to listen to Haircut One Hundred you will find it to be superbly written and performed pop- although slightly irrelevant to your postulate. What is " Graphic Design " if not the ultimate bit of styling? We live in an age when you can largely judge a book by its cover...and a band by their clothes..graphics ....et al.
2009-11-27 19:53:39
One 1980's has-been kicking another! How pathetic!
Actually, Haircut 100's music still sounds fresh, poppy and fun over a quarter of a century later, whereas Neville Brody's work looks dated, tired and only applicable to the era in which it was produced.
2009-11-28 11:42:47
Lets be honest, we all have a band that we hold up as an example of the moment when good things went bad. Attacking Neville Brody for citing Haircut100 is missing the point I feel. The point, it would seem, is that intention and application began to mutate from a discipline that could communicate and be the author of meaning (and was also able to lend it's skills to the twin beasts of advertising and marketing but was not exclusively dependent on them for its reason to be) into an industry that only exists to support the promotion of products and services for sale via brands.
Two things though: Firstly Haircut100 is just NB's bette noir... for me it was the arrival of Bros that signalled the downhill turn, for you, someone else, possibly the Spice Girls or Ladio Gaga. Secondly there is still great work going on that isn't directly plugged into the big marketing machine, its just that recognition of that work is hard to garner because these days we are all tuned to believe that the only work that is worth praise is the stuff that gets done for big retail brands and plasters our high streets, the press, computer screens and TVs in an attempt to sell us something.
I think its always been that way though, and its a subtle shift that's taken place. The shift is that you can't survive as a respected designer with a formidable reputation unless you have a client list of big names, and crucially; nobody ever questions whether they should do that work or not. Its the ethics that have changed... nobody ever says "I wont work for this brand on ethical grounds" any more. Everyone seems to be running around desperately trying to woo these big brands. The industry has lost its credibility in that sense, and the work we admire often boils down to a bit of fancy moving graphics, of no depth or meaning, just bright colourful 3d blocks pasted over live action footage, attempting to dazzle the target audience as though they are still infants bamboozled by the big colourful shapes bouncing around. "Look, look at the big colourful blob that just came out of the floor and gamboled over to that 3d typography, isn't it fun! buy this phone/sneaker/hair gel, quickly". Lets be honest, half of the work that is admired today is admired for its technical newness, and if you took away the logo you could apply it to almost any brand, product, or lifestyle service. To my mind that doesn't equate to good creativity or good communication. Technical Newness has a life span of about a week too, before everyone else sees it and copies it for their own client's projects. We're not trading in valuable commodities any more, we're trading in fast food graphics with painfully short sell-by dates. We're all market stall barkers now.
That's not what graphic design was traditionally there for. This is the hybridised 'graphics for promotion' industry, and I think its okay for an old dog to disapprove of these vapid tricks. Its not going to go back to the way it was, so maybe people could just respect the fact that a past master disapproves and appreciate the opportunity to get a bit of historical context on an industry that is no longer even concerned about what happened yesterday.
2009-11-30 10:24:31
Grand Neville! He was always one of my heroes/ muses.
I couldn't agre more with the way society is moving in regards to art and culture. They both simply have little room in this world we have ended up with.
I kind of liked Haircut 100 back in the day, so I guess I am also to blame. I say it with no irony. We made the world what it is, so, if we don't like it, it is up to us to change it. And elitism is not the way.
'always loved ya, Neville.
Keep it up
2009-12-02 17:41:07
You rarely see indifference on these pages but he's neither genius nor wanker in my opinion, just a guy creating stuff the same as the rest of us.
2009-12-14 04:02:24
Get the RSS Feed
Related subjects and keywords
Subject:
Keywords:
More like this
Articles:
- Crit: Freehand Anonymous
- Feature: Harry Beck: The Paris Connection
- Feature: Self Help Graphics
- Crit: Hope and Hokum
- Crit: Me, myself and I
- Feature: Barney Bubbles - A true pop hero
- Feature: Lambe Lambe
NEVILLE+BRODY.DESIGN+MUSEUM.MUSEUM.STUDENTS
13051
Most recently commented
| Say hello to Eurostar (33) |
| CR August issue: Dress Up Designer (8) |
| Beer + taxidermy = packaging innovation (10) |
| Stamps of Approval (45) |
| CR's incredible dissolving bag (97) |
Most read
| Carnovsky's RGB wallpaper |
| Nice Record Sleeves |
| Carmichael's tummy text |
| Mexican skaters burn for Burn's new campaign |
| Beer + taxidermy = packaging innovation |
Subjects
| Advertising | (705) | |
| Art | (221) | |
| Books | (145) | |
| Digital | (232) | |
| Graphic Design | (634) | |
| Illustration | (319) | |
| Magazine / Newspaper | (109) | |
| Music Video / Film | (525) | |
| Photography | (213) | |
| Type / Typography | (144) |
