The year: 1965
In 1965 I looked like this (above not below!)
The controversial Till Death Us Do Part was first screened. There were still only 3 TV channels and all in black & white
This was finished. The Post Office Tower (now the BT Tower), complete with revolving restaurant was opened by Harold Wilson
The Beatles released their 6th album
My harmonica hero, Sonny Boy Williams died in that year
I bought this album. R&B was my passion back then with frequent visits to the Marquee Club
This was my favourite film of 1965, Repulsion directed by Roman Polanski
Towards the end of 1965 I’d had enough of being forced to use Albertus,
hand-lettering titles on Boy’s Own Paper cover illustrations and endlessly pasting
up pages for a toy catalogue. I’d spend my lunchtimes visiting bookshops to
peruse the book cover designs. I’d also got into the habit of ‘liberating’ book
jackets from my local library and had built up a substantial collection. My
evenings were spent redesigning covers that I didn’t like and I put those into
a little A4 plastic folder with a grandiose but naive view of showing
publishers.
One day while wandering down Farringdon Road I happened on a window that had a
wonderfully detailed illustration placed on a tabletop easel. It turned out to
be the offices of an artist agent that had just opened. I went in to enquire
about the illustration and was told it was by a man called Tom Adams. It meant
nothing to me at the time, but I could tell he was something very special.
This was the illustration in the window for John Fowles The Magus illustrated by Tom Adams
As I was about to leave, a tall, elegant man sporting a pin-striped suite and
flowered tie arrived. He asked me why I was interested in the illustration. I
explained my desire to design book covers but that I didn’t quite know how to
go about it. “Come and see me with your work tomorrow,” said this rather dapper
individual with a cut-glass RP accent. I spent that night hurriedly designing
another sample cover to add to my meagre collection. The next day, I was
sitting in front of him, slightly on edge, while I watched his elegant fingers
turning the pages of my pathetic little folder.
He finished, took a long drag on his cigarette and said: “I can’t make any
promises, but call me tomorrow, and I’ll have a think.” Well, he thought and offered
me the job of in-house designer, responsible for the typography on the book
covers that their artists had produced illustrations for. The agent was called
Bryan Colmer Artists and the man who’d offered me the job was an old Etonian
named Virgil Pomfret. I am indebted to him for recognising something in an
unsophisticated, self-taught, non-art-school-trained kid from Dagenham.
So here’s my job for that year…
My 1965 book cover. Designed, illustrated and Letraseted all for a bumper £12 fee. As you can see I still had much to learn.
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