CR Blog
David James: Out of Print
Graphic Design, Magazine / Newspaper
Posted by Patrick Burgoyne, 16 March 2010, 10:16 Permalink Comments (22)
Designer and art director David James has steadfastly refused to step into the limelight, until now. An online exhibition presents his 20-year portfolio for the first time
Born just outside Manchester, originally made his name designing record sleeves, worked with the late great Trevor Key and Nick Knight before moving to fashion and establishing himself as one of the leading art directors of his generation: no, not Peter Saville but a designer with a somewhat less developed public persona, David James.
James has resolutely shunned the public eye. He routinely refuses interview requests, there's no glossy monograph and he has never set foot on a conference stage.
But his career has reached a point where it is about to make a major change of direction and James has decided to say a public goodbye to his work in print. As we mentioned in our March issue, James's work for Prada is shifting toward moving image, with even the print ad campaigns being stills taken from the moving image footage. Over the next year, James will reposition his studio toward working in this way and away from print.
David James: Out of Print is an online exhibition of highlights from James's career to date. Beginning with his first solo project (a catalogue for clothes brand Moto printed on plastic, shown top) it charts his early career designing record sleeves for the likes of Soul II Soul and, notably, System 7, the electronic outfit named after the Apple Mac operating system for whom James created a series of memorable sleeves with photographer Trevor Key (Limited Addition shown below).
In 1995 James moved into editorial with A Be Sea, a large format newsprint 'visual paper' which he designed with long-term collaborator Gareth Hague. Each issue was named after a consecutive letter of the alphabet: for Issue I (below) all the headlines were shot on Super 8 film then re-photographed
While Issue G featured a series of abstract forms
James is probably best-known for his work for Prada for whom he has been art director since 1997. He first got involved with the brand at the invitation of photographer Glen Luchford. The pair pitched some ideas which became the Spring Summer 97 ad campaign (below).
For each Prada show James produces exquisite invitations, mixing materials to create lavish pieces of communication.
While, under his creative directorship, Another and AnotherMan magazines have been notable for their typographic experimentation
Because he has shunned the 'celebrity designer' route, James has become almost the forgotten man of British graphic design. This online exhibition, which will come down on 15 May, is a welcome opportunity to view a beautiful body of work.
David James will be profiled in the April issue of Creative Review, out March 24
22 Comments
Breathtaking.
2010-03-16 11:29:05
Beautiful work.
Good on David for shunning fame too.
2010-03-16 12:40:07
how slow is the site?
2010-03-16 14:19:35
very poor optimization on the site, generic look and feel. I wish there was a little more thought when representing print work on the web, this is like a printed page within a printed page. Horrible performance and not a great web experience.
2010-03-16 14:51:15
breathtaking preloader
2010-03-16 14:51:27
Site may have issues, but the work in my opinion is truly beautiful, and would have more impact in a 'real' exhibition, web isn't the future for everything it seems.
2010-03-16 15:09:13
I really like the 'Idea Evolution' section. To be able to read through his concepts is great and something that you don't find on too many sites, maybe due to a lack there of.
2010-03-16 16:10:15
Amazing work : ) Frustrating website : (
2010-03-16 17:10:02
Fabulous work! I agree with Matt, the 'Idea Evolution' is a real treat and something lacking from most online portfolios. Not sure what frustrations are being referred to - loaded super quickly and it has a simple, intuitive navigation - loved it!
2010-03-16 17:49:42
Had no trouble with the website.
Enjoyed the 'Idea Evolution', getting that perspective allowed me to enjoy the work more
2010-03-16 19:28:50
Loved his early Prada work.
2010-03-16 19:50:10
Great website and work - worth browning!
2010-03-16 20:32:42
Fascinating history of this guy's work, illustrated with beautiful images. Very slick site with logical layout. I just loved that little black arrow. Congratulations.
(No issue here with speed - loads instantly and glides effortlessly along.)
2010-03-17 08:05:15
Some lovely work (Buffalo Stance!)
(It's slow because it loads EVERY one of the 300+ images at the start... very lazy action-scripting... hope they have plenty of bandwidth on their hosting....)
2010-03-17 14:08:55
Dear viewers.
We apologise for any frustrations experienced in trying to view the site. This was due to a much higher level of interest than we had anticipated. We have now moved to a much faster service and hope that everyone will be able to enjoy the exhibition.
2010-03-17 15:46:57
There are some serious issues with the speed of the site. Completely unusable on my Mac Pro with 6GB running Chrome.
2010-03-17 15:47:48
Works fine for me, i like it.
2010-03-17 17:59:05
That is incredible work. I had no issues with the load speed of the site.
2010-03-19 14:21:18
love it! shows simplicity is key!
2010-03-22 21:17:08
Lovely.
Very interesting to see the archive and read the inspiration.
Would be good to sell as a DVD once the site comes down David!
2010-03-29 07:25:18
Very inspiring and beautiful work.
Does anyone know what plastic the catalogue for the clothes brand Moto was printed on?
2010-04-07 19:43:47
Managed to miss the exhibition. Would have been very useful for my A2 Graphic Design coursework.
I'll just have to find the most interesting stuff around the internet!
2011-04-16 15:21:22
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