Jamie Reid

Jamie Reid is a graphic designer most closely associated with British Punk scene. He was born in London in 1940. He started his career as a painter at the Croydon School of Art between 1964 and 1968. In 1970 he cofounded the Suburban Press in which he published his own community newspaper amongst other things. 

Managed by Malcolm McLaren who formed the Sex Pistols in 1975, Reid designed all the visuals associated with them: record sleeves, advertising, posters, T-shirts, etc... Furthermore, Reid designed artwork for the group's debut (and only) studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. Some of these designs brought him controversy as some people considered them as aggressive. Reid's artwork symbolised the scene of the English punk rock era in the 70's especially with the cover art of the song "Anarchy in the U.K" and another picture showing the Queen with a safety pin through her lip. His designs are mostly referred to as "the art of plunder".

Throughout the years he collaborated with people like Margi Clarke and Malcolm Garrett as he was involved in a number of film projects in Liverpool. Recently he continued to create artwork and sets up exhibitions in London: photos of such exhibitions  are usually posted in his website.

"Punk was part of a story 

that had been going on 

for the whole of the

century, if not longer."  

                                                          - Jamie Reid 

Jamie Reid cowrote the lyrics of a very popular song of this group called "Anarchy in the U.K." Eventually he also produced the cover art for this same song which is the design shown above: a torn Union Jack flag with a number of safety pins clipped to it. In the empty patch, there is a powerful typographic design showing the name of the song and also the name of the group.

For this poster of "Pretty Vacant" was released during 1977, Reid derived the Situationist buses from his earlier work for Suburban Press. The cover of the single featured a smashed empty picture frame into which he inserted the title. It is totally in black and white colour and such poster seems to be inspired from pop art movement. 

This is a cover of the Sex Pistols album used in fluorescent yellow ink, which apparently it was extremely difficult to print without importing impurities. Such design caused controversy because it did not feature any pictures, but it seems that the impact of the title was much greater. 

Both of these posters; Go Save the Queen, where for Sex Pistols done during 1977. At that time something like this was a bit unacceptable, especially to Britain, when it comes to a significant person such as Elizabeth II's. However, Jamie Reid didn't hesitate to experiment with such things. Both posters includes photography of Elizabeth II, however the left visual shows the usage of ransom-bite typography to obscure her eyes and mouth, while the other one such typography is used outside of the photograph, it also appears to have a safety pin through her lips and the Nazi symbol on both eyes. 

Reference 

Livingston, A. I., 2003. Graphic Design and Designers. London: The Thames & Hudson.

A+E Television Network, LLC, 2013. Jamie Reid Biography. [online] Available at: <http://www,biography.com/people/jamie-reid-20937155?page=2> [Accessed December 2013].