Stephen Mallinder, Richard Kirk and Chris Watson as music entourage Caberet Voltaire (CV) burst onto the music scene in 1973, it was said that the group was more interested in making noise rather than music. Dub House, techno, dance and experimental electronica have a lot to owe CV and Shelfield.

Nag Nag Nag released in 1978 is no exception. One won’t get to heaven with this sound track, yet in terms of noisy music this is paradise. What has this post got to do with graphic design? Answer: Neville Brody’s CV sleeve designs.

Neville Brody came onto the graphic design scene in the 1980s. His graphic design and art direction began with record cover sleeves for music groups like Cabaret Voltaire. At this time his works was a distinctive expression, that encorporated graphic marks, contemporary image making, photography and a customised approach to typography.Brody’s monograph the Graphic Language of Neville Brody was touchstone of the design industy in the late 1980s. It was a publication that began the age of designer = rockstar opening the way for a flurry of graphic design monographs which became more like vanity publishing.

The age of Neville Brody was the toiling bell, so to speak, that heralded a new era for graphic design where the drawing table was soon to make way for graphic design being produce on the desktop computer.

Brody came to Australia in 1989 toured by Australian Graphic Design Association. Brody’s curious presence brought to life the notion of a lowly graphic designer being an edgy youthful global entity. Kevin Wilkins (working at FHA, now freelance) and Robyn Wakefield (working at Ross Barr, now Walter Wakefield) collaborated to design a set of postcard invitations for this tour. The cards were pieces to a puzzle incorporating mixed italic and roman typography, when assembled the collection cards made an image composed with distressed photocopied images. The invitation (well and truly before email) arrived in the post within a tracing paper envelop.

In 1989 at the Sydney event, Brody presented with 35mm slides and video tapes at the Sydney School of the Arts in Balmain. His youthful presence put in the minds of emerging designers – that one can make an impression on the graphic design movement in their youth. Brody was proceeded by a stable of brand like, global designers, including Tomato, David Carson, more recently Stefan Sagmiester and the rise of the designer ego. A legacy this designer is steering clear of.

Twenty years on Brody’s work in type design and image making is not as public as it was back then, never-the-less it remains prolific and very familiar.

Visit Neville Brody, Visit CV here