Neville Brody
Neville Brody was once a student of Wolfgang Weingart and was very influenced by his teachings. This Londoner is recognized as the leading typographer and brand strategist in graphic design history. Initially he received a lot of criticism from his own school because they rejected traditional art and were not open-minded to new and current designs.
For a period he worked for the ‘fashion bible’ also known as The Face Magazine who had contacted Brody as they were impressed with his modern approach. In his designs he sought for something unpredictable, something nobody would expect as well as sensible designs that people can relate to.
He mainly identified his style with Dadaism and Constructivism like Rodchenko, he tried to apply it to his style which consisted of:
Heavy text designs
Geometric
abstract imagery
sans serif typefaces
Barney Bubbles also had a significant role in inspiring Neville Brody’s art, he had created an album cover called ‘Music for Pleasure’ for the Damned which possessed a musical and flowing effect, much like the Russian artist Kandinsky. You could compare it to almost any of his works both shared the same expressionistic form of communication through shapes and form as if the music is oozing out.
There was a short period in which Brody altered his style in the opposite direction, this was most probably only an experimentation to see what he could produce with only limited methods such as non- decorative font. Thankfully this did not last and he returned to his style.
Brody was often referred to as the ‘star typographer’ because he had started designing his own typefaces’, he has a bout twenty, which were described as incredibly striking and original.
The period in which he was raised in was the punk era and in his teenage years it was at its very peak. The music especially influenced him to develop his own style. It encouraged him to rebel against the rules and explore other possibilities instead of always following the principles.
Pop art was also a major inspiration because it was quite abstract, unusual, possessed boldness and made use of vibrant colours.
If I had to mention a popular work by Brody, it would have to be the Nike Advert. He incorporated their famous line ‘just do it’ in about three different versions that all possess a common link with sports. The words you say are like visual onomatopoeia meaning, ‘bounce’ looks like it is actually bouncing and ‘slam it’ and ‘smash it’ are vertical which are sayings you’d usually hear that are tied to basketball and volleyball. He made use of different sized font of Helvetica but, same weight to grab our attention even the black on white layering and vice versa is contrasting which creates a strong impact. This is a genius advert because he is indirectly telling us about Nike shoes; he mainly focuses on the purpose of their function.
Neville Brody is a strong force, and that he even though he did not receive the guidance and support for his art when he was a student, he has a made it valid point to accept anyone’s vision, nurture them and raise the next generation of graphic designers which I am grateful to learn that there are people who were rejected of their style but eventually proved them wrong.