Date:         Thu, 17 Apr 1997 18:13:05 +0100
From:         Andrew Massey <andie@AMASS.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject:      Vaughan Oliver article in Design Week

Th below article is on the back cover of this week's Design Week for
those of you who are interested.

Andie

Ps. Sorry for the OCR crapness. There was a picture of the Big Yin right
in the middle of the article hence the reason the lines appear shorter in
two places.


Starts:

--------


>
>The French think that Vaughan Oliver is rather
>good looking; and, given the adulation heaped
>upon him as a result of his work with some of the
>defining bands of the past ten years, "God-like"
>might also be an appropriate description My first
>contact with the man who danced with skinned
>eels tied round his waist to fulfil a childhood
>vision was no more than a woeflllly pedestrian
>voice mail.
>Oliver has been the subject of much attention
>from both the specialist and general press, and is
>set to make an appearance as part of the British
>Design and Art Direction Presidellts Lectule
>series on ~ April. He has been coined a master
>collaborator, enthllsiastic commissioner, reluc-
>tant speaker and, with his physical descriptions
>pieced together, a genial Post-Moderll prop-for-
>war(l. This Rimy River - the title of his talk and a
>poem by Victoria Mitchell
>- is a paraphrase for the
>joullley he has enjoyed
>since the beginnings of his
>career wllich has COIII-
>bined frustratioll and
>serelldipity in equal mea-
>SUI e.
>Born in 195/ in County
>Durham, he studied
>graphic design at Newcas-
>tle Polytechnic under the
>tutorage of influential
>illustrator Terry Dowling.
>Oliver side-stepped the
>technical side of design to
>pursue illustration. On
>leaving college, despon-
>dency set in as he experi-
>enced poor fortune, both
>in job hunting, and the
>realisation of his graphic
>ideas.
>It fell to the packaging
>specialists Michael Peters to recognise his design
>ability, and to whisky labels to spark the beginning
>of his typographic odyssey. Not long after joining
>Peters he met the owner of IAD records, Ivo
>Watts-Russell, and within three years Oliver went
>from executing initial freelance projects for the
>progressive music label to become its in-house
>designer. He prefers the company of musicians,
>and still listens to at least 75 per cent of the label's
>output. His work for the Pixies, Cocteau Twins,
>I !Itra Vi~,id Scene and the Breeders acquired cult
>status while sales of bedsit-bound Blu Tac sky
>rocketed. His work, much of it determined by the
>~inyl format, is a passionate swan song.
>Collaboration with other disciplines, both for
>~IAD and other clients, has been the hallmark of a
>continually evolving aesthetic. Through manifes-
>tations as ~3 Envelope and v ~3 Oliver has worke~
>most notably with film maker Nigel Greirson,
>photographers Simon Larbalestier, Kevill West-
>enberg and Domonic Davies and forlllel Stylor-
>ouge designer Chris Bigg. Noll-music projects
>hav e included opening titles for the BBC' anc
>Spain's Canal Plus, posters for the Yo~mg Vic The-
>atre, and the design of Huh magazine for Raygun
>Publishing. By 199G he had been the sul)je(t of
>nearly ;30 exhibitions worldwide, of whi( h the
>accompanying programllles have become best
>sellers independellt of the shows.
>Olivel's apl)roach to type, whicll he OllCe
>believed got in the u-ay of a desigll. remaills intu-
>itive as oppose(l to scholal ly. The influellce of his
>packaging Wol k remaills cleal with his balance(l
>couplings of classic forms sucll as Bodoni w ith
>obscure proprietorial
>script and display faces
>(such as Empire of Iris and
>Atlantida) markillg his
>work witll an almost ~'ic-
>torian charlll - an iml)res-
>SiOll givell fultiler weight
>by the oc c asional IlSe of
>stuffed animals and sepia
>washes. It is these choices,
>alongside the work of his
>many collaborators, thal
>gives IAD such a distinc-
>tive brand personality.
>His design is as much the
>result of the interrupted
>process as it is a conscious
>seeking of a particular
>form. Breaking into photo-
>graphic development,
>piecing together c ollages
>of type or found objects,
>he discovers what most
>usllally avoid. The effect of
>this non-representational approach is, in his own
>words, "seductive", allowing interpretations to
>change in a way appropriate to those who seek out
>new forms of music and desig~
>This is not design in the classic problem-solv-
>ing tradition, but the organisation of dramatic,
>idiosyncratic imagery to create a subjective form
>of graphic art. It is this same multi-layering of
>semi-developed imagery, which art critic Rick
>Poynor described as "nightmarishly intense", that
>is the hallmark of Oliver and his collaborators'
>work. In the end, Oliver is very much the SUIII of
>his parts.
>
>Vallg12al1 Olivev Ivill be speaki~lg at t11e Ro~al
>Geogvap1l ical Society o)l 24 Ap~ il at 715p~