50 Comments

I bought Face magazine when it first came out. I didn't know who Neville Brody was. I probably couldn't even spell tipography then. And this is the first time i've seen an image of Neville. Long live Neville Brody.
Bip
Bip Mistry
2010-03-22 18:27:03

brody is heavy in the game
photoshopate
2010-03-22 21:03:42

I see the RCA is continuing its grand tradition of employing famous people who can't string two words together, rather than employing people who have a proven capability at nurturing talent.

My seven year old is in my opinion more eloquent than Neville Brody – if the quote above and the one time I bothered to listen to him speak (http://tinyurl.com/yznutjj) are anything to go by.
Julie Oakley
2010-03-22 23:55:13

Designer, Educator or Wanker?

LOL
Peter
2010-03-23 10:49:10

I am certainly looking forward to see what Neville Brody is capable of. Will definitely watch this space.
Scarlett
2010-03-23 11:31:34

Julie Oakley - I'm assuming you must have met the man to fully form such an opinion. [Comment deleted by moderator]
Tony
2010-03-23 12:16:00

Wow, some really grown up comments already.
Brody is commercially and creatively successful. He's certainly capable of nurturing great work out of his employees and studio. He'll bring a business acumen that this course needs.
Apologies for the lack of hate.
James Warfield
2010-03-23 12:20:26

He'll do fine I'm sure. I use typeface all the time ATM. He's not the best, but his approach is decent enough, and he's got full clout.

Slightly concerned that having a commercial person run in academia he'll just hoover up all the fresh ideas & profit from them, hopefully he'll hoover up the people too, & pay them properly.

I reckon this is a good thing. Last few RCA shows the graphics work has *sucked*.
da bishop
2010-03-23 12:24:03

Comment deleted by moderator



Jon Morgan
2010-03-23 12:29:00

FANTASTIC...although i do think Julie Oakley would have been fun....HA HA
MICHAEL GEORGE WATSON. MA RCA
2010-03-23 12:29:13

Does this mean that Neville is retiring from design? Is this the end of Research Studios? Hope not.
James
2010-03-23 12:36:45

Julie for president...
Mark
2010-03-23 12:40:05

How can this appointment not be a good idea? Brody is a recognised heavyweight who started off with groundbreaking graphics and has retained his kudos.



[Comment deleted by moderator]
Roger Mann
2010-03-23 12:42:00

lord...enough about Julie, please...

I for one am certainly interested in seeing how someone who runs a multinational design office will manage an MA course concurrently. It certainly begs the question on what role he may be able to play in either. Nevertheless, a shakeup should be fun to watch.
ktz
2010-03-23 12:49:16

I'm all for it. I've always loved his work!
Li
2010-03-23 13:07:18

Comment deleted by moderator
Poynor would have been a great choice
2010-03-23 13:11:00

How will this effect the industry and the day to day lives of people working in the creative sector? Why are we discussing this? Why does anyone care? The RCA ain't that great! It's a deeply sinister and cloistered institution; the graduates from which have far too much influence on design, advertising and, dare I say it, the industry press!

Leave Julie alone. Gratuitously attacking other users this forum is very unpleasant and I am very dissapointed with CR for not disallowing this.
Matt
2010-03-23 13:14:09

It looks like there was some very strong competition for the placement so I believe congratulations are in order. I also agree Brody has created some fantastic work along the way and has certainly heavily influenced the direction of graphic design studies.
Logo Design Monster
2010-03-23 13:25:17

Good call!
Gary Day-Ellison
2010-03-23 13:34:01

"Brody is commercially and creatively successful"

Yes but what are his proven teaching skills?

As a product of the MA RCA course I frankly learned nothing from the famous designers who 'taught' on the course as all of you have been so kind to point out.
Julie Oakley
2010-03-23 15:44:00

comment deleted by moderator
Nathan David Smith
2010-03-23 16:10:00

Tony, Jon, Roger and Nathan where do get off on being so unpleasant and nasty?

You have no concept of the briefs I received when I did the work on my website, you have no idea of the budget that was available and you have no idea whether my clients were satisfied or not with the work. I'm sure that you're all far too important to dirty your hands with such things but you know some businesses welcome working with the kind of designer that does their very best for them even though they have barely any money to pay for design or god forbid original high resolution photography.

Some businesses welcome working with a designer who can spell and tell the difference between 'complimentary' and 'complementary'.

I merely criticised Brody (as a teacher not as a designer) because he pissed me off because I forked out money for babysitting and trainfares and gave up a day's work to listen to him talk and he couldn't be arsed to prepare - see my description here – http://tinyurl.com/yznutjj

Neville Brody is a big boy and can stick up for himself, but because you all like to think you're Neville Brodys you lot think it's acceptable to bully another designer. I feel like I'm back at the RCA.
Julie Oakley
2010-03-23 16:39:03

I suspect that Brody will do as good a job as anyone.
At the level of Departmental Head, his task will be as much about paperwork as it will teaching. I studied there when Dan Fern was head, but mainly drew inspiration from the students around me, and not just from Communications. It isn't a one-man show, and never really could be. You do go there to learn, but not necessarily to be taught.
Paul
2010-03-23 17:11:19

Julie (and others), if you want a little insight into how this blog thread will turn out, check Paula Scher's "Diagram of a Blog" which can be seen here…

http://www.personism.com/2007/04/05/paula-scher-diagrams-the-blog/

Hopefully this handy guide will nip the thread in the bud before we go through the whole predictable and boring process…
Jeff
2010-03-23 17:36:18

to all the people who suddenly went on the offensive after Julie Oakley's comments that Neville Brody's lectures didn't impress her SHAME ON YOU. I hope you read back what you wrote and feel like school yard bullies (pathetically hiding behind your internet anonymity), reeking of Brody fanboy-ism, not least because Ms. Oakley at no point referred to Brody's actual design work. Criticism of work is important, but only if youre going to be constructive. May i also recommend that some people should reconsider throwing stones when in glass houses.
R. Scott
2010-03-23 17:36:29

I think you'll find that Brody has himself criticised the use of the CR blog in his recent D&AD lecture as an inappropriate platform for people to be offensive, make uniformed opinions and personal attacks - doesn't matter who you are, well known or not, let's cut it out.

@Julie and R Scott If you actually knew Brody you would know he's certainly not a bully or into this kind of abusive behaviour.

So lets get back to the point - his appointment to the RCA as Head of Design and Communications - I'm saying good thing will certainly shake things up.
Tom
2010-03-23 18:09:44

Urgh. This is horrible. I feel like I'm at school again. I'm watching someone getting bullied while CR sits back and does nothing.

Good for you, Julie for sticking up for yourself and (god forbid) expressing a relevant opinion about a lecture you went to.

And to the haters, as R. Scott rightly puts it, SHAME ON YOU. This sort of snide bullying gives us all in the creative industry a bad name.
Hard Candy
2010-03-23 18:20:23

@Hard Candy, Matt



I think Julie has demonstrated that she is perfectly capable of sticking up for herself. However, personal attacks on one another are not what this site is about and the comments attacking Julie and her work, rather than taking issue with her views on Brody's appointment, have been deleted. This debate is getting sidetracked - any more off-topic comments will be deleted
 PatrickBurgoyne
2010-03-23 18:30:00

Well said patrick, I would post delete the previous chiff chaff as well…
jeff
2010-03-23 19:52:06

Time will tell...

I am lecturing about Neville Brody to a class of french design students tomorrow,
today I lectured about Nick Bell !

I would be interested to see what Neville Brody does !
Scott Caulwell
2010-03-23 20:43:36

Congratulations to The RCA staff for having the vision in making such an important appointment. 'Neville Brody has been confirmed as the new Head of the Department of Communication Art & Design'. Nothing short of an inspiration. Our generation of creatives totally support your forward thinking and appropriate choice. Hope he is allowed the freedom to expand the boundaries in communication design. A fantastic choice.
Christopher Morris
2010-03-23 20:47:02

In my honest opinion, a tutor at that level of the RCA is to guide, not really to teach. I think if we all got "taught" design and how to creative, we would all be throwing out the same work instead of thinking out of the box.

That said, I think Neville brody is a fantastic choice to guide and to nurture creativity. There has been many disscussions over should it be a graphic designer, a fine artist, an illustrator etc and I think Neville brody is perfect in that he doesn't really live in a box and will push boundries.
vicky walsh
2010-03-23 22:44:56

agree with Chris there...i've had the pleasure of listening to Neville impart knoweldge and wisdom in design forums and one thing for sure is that he will be a well-needed breath of fresh air to the academic world.

commercial or otherwise, his approach will surely nurture a new generation of inspired designers. a great choice for RCA and another great achievement for Neville Brody.

kudos.
Jayemmcee
2010-03-24 04:23:59

Great choice. Makes me want to go back to college.
Tim Spencer
2010-03-24 11:35:26

This is a really smart move by the RCA. The work of Brody along with Peter Saville, Malcolm Garrett and Barney Bubbles inspired and informed me of the wider contexts and possibilities Graphic Design and Typography can offer.
John Rooney
2010-03-24 13:32:56

An excellent choice. I remember being totally inspired by his 'Graphic Language' books in the early 90s, and again by 2007's Adobe Live talk (which I wasn't really expecting, truth be told). Looking forward to seeing what he does.
Paul Bunting
2010-03-24 14:30:06

Same old players.
Moeed Mohammad
2010-03-24 15:58:48

"Our generation of creatives totally support your forward thinking and appropriate choice."[@Christopher Morris]

I'd be interested to know what generation that is? I personally am from the youngest generation of designers, I will be graduating from university this year, and to be honest, Neville Brody doesn't do much for me. I've heard him speak about design and I'm familiar with some of his work, and I just don't understand what all the fuss is about. I see him as a good, but not a great, influence on design, and certainly not worthy of this God-like status that he has acquired.
MY MY MY
2010-03-24 20:58:33

MY oh MY oh MY.
Christopher Morris
2010-03-25 08:59:45

Good for the RCA. Smart move. Brody will inspire. I'm surprised by CR's reporting of the other names in for the job.
Vaughan Oliver
2010-03-25 09:03:04

MY MY MY what you need to appreciate is that sucking up to the great and the good is very good for your career.

However, to be fair, if you'd been around in the 80s there were a number of designers including Neville Brody who did shake up ideas about what graphic design could be. And for that he does deserve serious attention by design historians.
Julie Oakley
2010-03-25 09:33:01

Im impressed by this appointment. I think its brave, fresh and inspired. I hope he does well.

I studied at the RCA when there was an illustration course, just before it became Communication A&D. Dan Fern had already been there a long time and I felt he was tired and in the domain of empired building for himself. The last few years have proved that. For Brodys sake and that of the course and its students I hope the RCA council wont let him stay too long. The world moves quickly and so should these institutions.
Rob
2010-03-25 11:33:23

Back in the late '80s I was a student behind the Iron Courtain, in Prague, Czech Republic. I was designing flyers, tape covers, posters for the underground culture movement. I even did not know, this is called GRAPHIC DESIGN (we called it here "Propaganda"). An English friend of mine brought me a book The Graphic Language of Neville Brody (vol I.) on her trip to Prague. I have realized, well this is it. I started hard working on it ... and today, well I am one of the best graphic designers in the country. Thank you Neville, thanks for showing me the Path! Vojta
vojta Vojtisek
2010-03-25 12:26:18

I studied graphic design in the 1960s which dates me more than most on here. We were lucky enough to have a lecture by Bob Gill, founder member of Pentagram who rattled all sorts of cages with his groundbreaking design work and upset half the audience - it was priceless. Then during the 1980s along came Neville Brody, another breath of fresh air in our navel-gazing industry who was entirely comfortable in the digital age and shook up expectations about how things should look.

Like it or not these people are superstars and are a beacon for those hoping to cut a swathe through the tedious plethora of print and web design that we are all invaded by.

Maybe he's not the best speaker but I can think of few individuals who embody Brody's track record and heavyweight status. I'm guessing also that the RCA has a much better idea than any of us who is right for this appointment. For me they made the right decision.
Roger Mann
2010-03-25 15:06:03

@ dabishop:

"I reckon this is a good thing. Last few RCA shows the graphics work has *sucked*"

Nice constructive appraisal you've made there.. RCA graphic designers might not be interested in landing a job at Interbrand but you're an ignorant fool if you can't see that they have talent.
Jim
2010-03-27 00:03:22

I think the appointment of Brody is an interesting move. I studied Communication Art & Design at the RCA under Dan Fern, and found it to be very biased towards illustration and fine art. The only real experience of what I would call graphic design, was to be found in the letterpress department. They should split the two again, and get one foot in the real world.
Graham Mansfield
2010-03-27 16:17:59

This talented man was the pivotal push that inspired me to jump from "web hack" to information designer, to graphic designer. I remember the day I bought his book. Outstanding.
Giles Dickerson
2010-03-30 15:46:50

All Universities have the same desire to attract / court attention from potential students. This course makes them a lot of money. The cynic in me sees this as nothing more than PR spin.
turd
2010-04-08 10:17:26

I was a graphics student at the RCA way back in the late 'sixties when Bob Gill was a visiting lecturer. Under his inspiring tutelage, 'ideas' ruled. Since then, the Department's reputation for creative excellence has arguably been in steady decline (apart from a brief period when Derek Birdsall was at the helm). Interestingly, this period of decline roughly co-incides with Dan Fern's professorship.



When DF was appointed Head of Communication Arts (as it's now known) in '94, I had doubts about his suitability. Yes, he was undoubtedly a highly talented and internationally recognised artist/illustrator, and yes, he would be ideally suited as Head of Illustration. But Head of Graphics as well? It just didn't make sense. I feared the worst.



Sure enough, he opened the door to various trendy, high-falutin', avant-garde, visiting lecturers (representatives from the enigmatic 'Tomato' team being typical examples) and out went ideas, wit and, perhaps most significantly of all, any leanings towards the various creative disciplines of communication problem solving.



While DF and his colleagues were focusing on the rather more esoteric aspects of graphic design, other courses such as those at Preston, St. Martin's, Norwich and, more recently, Falmouth, gradually began overtaking the RCA in terms of reputation for producing enthusiastic, 'ideas-led' designers. Significantly, these four colleges have strong ties with D&AD and its student award programmes and creative workshops. As far as I know, the RCA doesn't. And maybe it should. Maybe then its graphics students would become less elitist, have greater opportunity to broaden their outlook by interfacing with award-winning creatives in design and (dare I say it...) advertising, and, by doing so, be better prepared for the harsh realities of life after college.



Needless to say, it was with a sense of relief that I read of DF's impending retirement. Here at last was an opportunity to appoint someone capable of getting the RCA Graphics course back on track; someone more in tune with the wacky world of design and advertising; someone with greater leanings towards ideas rather than style.



Sadly, Neville Brody got the job.



His tenure begins on New Year's Day. Out with the old and in with the new? I don't think so. More a case of in with the same old stuff: another trendy stylist; another 'wallpaper' designer; another famous name whose creative roots go back to the boring old Bauhaus; another dumb Mac monkey who wouldn't recognise a good creative idea if it bashed him over the head.



It's a disaster. I feel sorry for the students.
gordon thompson
2010-11-23 10:23:00

The move signals the College’s intention to maintain its vitality, influence and relevance both within the discipline, and beyond.so i think important for us ...................
Sathi2000
sathi2000
2011-01-03 16:04:58

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