JONATHAN BARNBROOK

Born 1966 in Luton, England. Lives and works in London, England.

Jonathan Barnbrook, A Cock or Two: A Prison, A Gallery, 2010, site-specific typographic phrases, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist

Since graduating in graphic design from St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, Jonathan Barnbrook has developed a multifaceted practice that includes activism, graphic design, typeface design, industrial design and motion graphics. Barnbrook founded his design studio, Barnbrook Design, in 1990 and established his own font company, Virus Foundry, in 1997, releasing fonts such as ‘Bastard’ and the ubiquitous ‘Manson’, which was subsequently renamed ‘Mason’. In 2007, he published a book on his work and practice, Barnbrook Bible: The Graphic Design of Jonathan Barnbrook, to coincide with a retrospective exhibition, ‘Friendly Fire’, at the Design Museum in London.

Barnbrook believes design shapes the environment, changing the way we perceive things and informing our choices. In this sense, design is a ‘culturally valid form of expression’ with something to say. In marking this responsibility, Barnbrook has art directed for the anti-corporate collective Adbusters. He participated in the ‘First Things First 2000 Manifesto’, which published in 1999, reignited a similar 1964 manifesto written by Ken Garland and signed by graphic designers, students and photographers who proposed ‘a reversal of priorities’ in the way graphic design was used commercially. He also created a billboard in 2001 entitled Designers, stay away from corporations that want you to lie for them – quoting influential American graphic designer Tibor Kalman. Barnbrook has also produced copyright-free designs that serve a political or social justice purpose, shown in solo exhibitions ‘Buy Me a Bomb’, Rocket Gallery, Tokyo (2003), ‘Tomorrow’s Truth’, Seoul Arts Centre, Korea (2004) and the aforementioned ‘Friendly Fire’ (2007). During 2009, the exhibition ‘Collateral Damage’ presented a retrospective of Barnbrook’s more political design output, and toured extensively.

Barnbrook has worked with a variety of clientele, from artists to selected commercial and non-commercial clients. He has created complete graphic identities for major cultural institutions, including the Mori Arts Center, Tokyo and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and has been commissioned to create an expansive visual identity for the 17th Biennale of Sydney.

He designed Noam Chomsky’s book cover, Doctrines and Visions (2005), David Bowie’s record cover using his font ‘Priori’ (Heathen, 2002), and collaborated with artist Damien Hirst on his collectable monograph, I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now (1997).

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2008–09 ‘Collateral Damage’, 10th Magdalena Festival of Creative Communication, Museum of Revolution in Maribor, Slovenia (travelling exhibition)
2007 ‘Friendly Fire: The Graphic Design of Jonathan Barnbrook’, Design Museum, London, UK
2004 ‘Tomorrow’s Truth’, Seoul Arts Centre, South Korea
2004 ‘Friendly Fire: The Work of Barnbrook Design’, Ginza Graphic Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2003 ‘Buy Me Bomb Me’, Rocket Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Selected Group Exhibitions

2009 ‘K3 _ Manifestation 1’, Graphic Design & Digital Week in Lorient, France
2009 ‘Embedded Art’, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin
2008 ‘The Posters of Discontent’, Eastern Michigan University Art Gallery, USA
2007 ‘Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary: Optimism in the Age of Global War’, 10th International Istanbul Biennale, Turkey
2007 ‘Music Graffiti’, Space O, Tokyo, Japan

Selected Bibliography

Jonathan Barnbrook and Kim Ran-Young, Tomorrow’s Truth: The Graphic Agitation of Jonathan Barnbrook, Hangaram Design Museum, Seoul, 2004
Edward Booth-Clibborn (ed.), Barnbrook Bible: The graphic design of Jonathan Barnbrook, Booth-Clibborn Editions, 2007
Steven Heller and Elinor Pettit, ‘Jonathan Barnbrook on Experimentation’, Design Dialogues, Allworth Press, New York, 1998
Mark Penfold, ‘Jonathan Barnbrook’, Computer Arts, issue 154, October 2008
Ewa Satalecka, ‘Ju wkrótce … apokalipsa! Jonathan Barnbrook’, 2+3D, no. 31, 2009