Jonathan Barnbrook

Graphic Designer / United Kingdom / Barnbrook

www.barnbrook.net

Since graduating with distinction in graphic design from Saint Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, Jonathan Barnbrook has developed a multifaceted practice that includes activism, graphic design, typeface design, industrial design, and motion graphics.

Barnbrook founded his design studio, Barnbrook Design (now Barnbrook), in 1990. His typefaces were originally released through the California innovator Emigre. In 2010, his most famous typeface, “Mason” (originally “Manson”), released by Emigre became one of the first digital acquisitions of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Additionally, his stone carving is on permanent display in the 20th-century gallery of the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1997 he established his own font company, VirusFonts, releasing well-known fonts such as “Bastard” and “Tourette.” In 2007, his contribution to British graphic design was recognized with a major retrospective exhibition at the Design Museum in London entitled “Friendly Fire.” A monograph of his work, Barnbrook Bible, was simultaneously published. In 2008 he was given an honorary doctorate by Staffordshire University for services to typography. During 2009, the exhibition “Collateral Damage” presented a retrospective of Jonathan Barnbrook’s more political design output, and traveled to multiple countries, including France, Slovenia, and Croatia.

Barnbrook believes design shapes the environment, changing the way we perceive things and informing our choices. In this sense, design is a “culturally valid form of expression” with something to say. He also has stated that he believes “design can change the world when it works in service of the right people and gets an issue on the mainstream political agenda.” In acknowledging this responsibility, Barnbrook has art directed for the anti-corporate magazine Adbusters. He participated in the “First Things First 2000 Manifesto,” published in 1999, signed by graphic designers, students, and photographers who proposed a reversal of priorities in the way graphic design is used commercially. He created a billboard in 2001 publicizing the manifesto entitled “Designers, stay away from corporations that want you to lie for them”—quoting influential American graphic designer Tibor Kalman. Barnbrook has also produced many copyright-free designs for political or social justice purposes.

Barnbrook has worked with a variety of clientele, from artists to selected commercial and non-commercial clients. He has created complete graphic identities for major cultural institutions, including the Mori Arts Center, Tokyo, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and has undertaken branding for the 17th Biennale of Sydney. He has designed covers for Noam Chomsky’s book Doctrines and Visions (2005) and David Bowie’s record Heathen (2002) He also collaborated with artist Damien Hirst on his collectable monograph, I Want To Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now (1997), which won a series of awards, including the Art Directors Club of New York Gold Prize, the Tokyo Type Directors Club Non-Members Grand Prize, and the New York Type Directors Club best in show. For his film work he has won two D&AD Awards and the Epica Grand Prix. Barnbrook’s work was selected for the 10th Istanbul Biennale in 2007 and he was an exhibiting artist at the 17th Biennale of Sydney.

comments powered by Disqus

Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

Order the book.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

Order the book.

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

Order the book.

Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

Order the book.

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

Order the book.

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

Order the book.