NEW FIND: Clubbed: a visual history of UK club culture
Fabric to Ministry of Sound: the new book on the graphics of clubbing
Designer Rick Banks has compiled Clubbed, a book exploring the last 35 years of graphics used on the UK club scene, and launched it through Kickstarter. Banks talks to us about how he hunted down so many printed relics and his obsession with dance music.
- Design Week
Recently I picked up a copy of Clubbed for myself, I knew that the book was published a year ago and was pondering if i 'really' needed it among my ever expanding 'wish list' on amazon. But I quickly found myself jumping on the price of £30 for about 200 pages worth of clubbing identity, poster and promotional curated materials. This book is one of the highest recommendations to anyone that is interested in pursuing graphic identity and expressive graphic design, even if you aren't familiar with the subject matter of clubbing the history and back stories are included to give an overall in depth sense of the clubbing scene from the late 80s onwards. + if your into house, techno or just a clubber THIS BOOK IS A NEED TO BUY.
Visually this book is immense within its source material and attention to detail as to how the work is curated and shown within the book. Early days of Hecianda to current London club house Print Works is in this. Just to give you scope, the book includes: Logos, Posters, Stickers, Tickets, Cover Art, Menus (yes actual food menus), Signage, Lanyards, Fonts and of course club flyers. Documenting clubs scenes all the way from Manchester to London, this book is ram packed with work.
Design Week: How did you source all the print material?
Rick Banks: It was relatively easy to get hold of the imagery for the newer clubs. The Hacienda was really hard; it took the longest to source. Peter Saville has been amazing, he put me in touch with Peter Hook, who owns the Hacienda brand, and who also co-founded Joy Division and New Order.
A book called Factory Records by Thames & Hudson was also really useful, and I also visited Manchester-based graphic designer Trevor Johnson, who has an amazing archive. I also scoured the Manchester Digital Music Archive (aptly, MDMA). There’s also a massive sub-culture of flyer collections online. I had to contact all the designers to ask their permission to use them of course.
If you ever get the chance to pick this up, then please do so. Not only is this a great 'coffee table book' but also a great visual reference and inspiration for layout and identity design.
A BIG THANK YOU to Rick Banks for getting this backed on kickstarted and putting the whole thing together!!
Here's links to Design Week Interview, Amazon book page, Rick Banks Instagram.