Graphic Journey Blog

Ben Kelly: Interior life

Ben Kelly

Every designer knows that if you create something iconic for the music world, especially if you add into the mix Manchester and Factory Records, you’re guaranteed to be well represented on the Wikipedia pages. But if you go a little further and include in that company The Haçienda, three-quarters of a million references pop up. Such is the power of the music world.

The Haçienda designed in 1982.

 

Peter Hook and Stephen Morris of New Order at The Haçienda club in Manchester in 1985.

Ben Kelly was the man who created that Manchester landmark, which surfaced in the late eighties and changed the club scene forever. Since those heady days of acid house and rave music, Ben Kelly has clocked up an impressive body of work, always coming from left field. Here are some examples.

The Howie shop in Covent Garden 1970's.

 

 

Above The Sex Pistols’ rehearsal space on Denmark Street 1970's, for which Ben simply lined the walls with unpainted MDF. Just a few months later, Johnny Rotten (now John Lydon) had graffitied them. Apparently, they have since been listed by the V&A. 

 

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark album cover designed by Ben Kelly and Peter Saville 1980 base on Kelly's fascia at the Howie shop.

The Design Council’s offices in Bow Street, London 1997.

Children's basement area at the Science Museum, 1995.

Gym Box at Old Street, London, 2014.

JP Apartment 1999.

 

Garman Ryan Collection 2001.

 

 

The Whitworth Museum 2015.

I recorded an interview with Ben earlier this month to find out more about the man who worked for Vivienne Westwood, Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols and was on the chaotic 1977 Jubilee boat trip, which resulted in Ben spending a night in prison for intervening in the arrest of McLaren.

Malcolm McLaren escorted from the Jubilee boat party 1977.

 Listen to the recording with Ben Kelly click here.

 

Things I like

These delightful little covers for a Balzac series were produced in 1939 by the Swiss publishers Albert Skira using illustrations by Andre Masson, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso and Andre Derain. I love their stripped back simplicity, a single colour overprinted onto a brick coloured stock. Perfect.

Road rage

To sync with and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the British Road Sign System created by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert in 1965, Made North invited 50 designers to create their own version of the now famous signs in any way they wished.

My one is above and another I designed that got away is shown below.

There will be an exhibition of the signs at the Design Museum running from the 19 September to the 23 October.

You can also hear a recorded interview that I made with the co-creator of the original road sign scheme, Margaret Calvert here.

Arnold Varga: Homespun perfection

Arnold Varga was one of America’s multi-talented creatives. He illustrated, designed and art directed. And he did all three to supreme perfection. 

His work had an impeccable beauty that was highly individual and timeless. He was playful with type, often making witty interplays with his illustrations. Those illustrations could be dense and meticulous or reduced down to starkly minimal and clean graphic lines. 

He was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, and kept close to his birthplace throughout his life. A childhood friend, the great American photographer Duane Michals, said of him: “He worked in this little steel town, without any real nurturing, and he bloomed into a major talent. He made it happen on his own energy.” 

Varga also had another obstacle: being almost blind in one eye. But it didn’t stop him. He would draw and take his portfolio around local department stores, which would often result in a commission. 

In the 1950s, he took on a job as a messenger at the Sterling Lindner Davis department store in Cleveland, Ohio. Eventually, it led to him becoming head of advertising there. He moved on into the world of advertising, joining the agency Ketchum, MacLeod & Grove, Inc. He later landed a job at BBDO in Pittsburgh. 

During the late 1950s, he began to produce some outstanding freelance work for several department stores, including Horne’s, Cox’s, Wanamaker’s and Higbee’s, often collaborating with copywriter Alan Van Dine, whom he’d met at BBDO. Describing Varga’s working process, Van Dine said: “It was completely backwards. Arnold would say ‘I want to do a watermelon’. Or ‘a baby carriage’. My job was to come up with something lively to connect the visual. We didn’t know at that point which client was going to see it.”

In 1959, the National Society of Art Directors named Varga Art Director of the Year, which included former recipients Saul Bass, Charles Coiner, Walt Disney, Leo Lionni and Bradbury Thompson.

In 1967, he produced a memorable Christmas advertisement for Horne’s department store (below). It depicted an immaculate portrait of Dickens’ Scrooge. 

It was so successful that the store had to produce postcards and Christmas cards to give away. Milton Glaser said that Varga’s images were “impeccably rendered and beautiful... One of the main tests of these things is their durability, and they are still very fresh, very innovative.” 

From the late 1960s to the early ’70s, he had an agent who said that Varga was very picky about what he would take on, often turning down high-paid jobs in favour of a small one that paid next to nothing because he felt it had more potential. 

Arnold Varga moved to Pleasant Hills, a suburb of Pittsburgh, where he ran a sort of one-man agency from home. He worked on various commissions from mainstream clients until he retired in the late 1970s to look after his elderly mother, who died at the age of 96. After which he became increasingly reclusive living alone. He wasn’t as long-lasting as his mother and checked out at the relatively young age of 68. 

Arnold Varga 1926 - 1994

You can view a short video on Varga's work presented by Rick Landesburg at an AIGA event in Pittsburg a few years ago. Click here.

Out & about

No matter where I am, looking is my natural default.

Here are two things that took my fancy.

A bit of typographical history spotted close to the Oval.

And the strength of nature to inhabit the urban environment, on my walk to the supermarket.