Old School
05.13.10
The Face magazine, 30th anniversary
This month marks the 30th anniversary of the first publication of legendary UK style and culture magazine The Face. Art directed by Neville Brody from 1981-86, it was groundbreaking both in its content and its design, and spawned countless imitators. The Face was home to many talented art directors over the years, but for me it was Brody's covers and design that remain most memorable for their imaginative use of imagery and creative typography. Sadly, there's no graphic archive of The Face. We've cobbled together a small collection of our favorite covers of The Face, most designed by Nevile Brody. If you have more favorites, please send them along and we'll add them on!Many of these covers and much more good work has been collected in the book The Graphic Language of Neville Brody, available here.
(Above): Issue #1 of The Face, May 1980, featuring Jerry Dammers of The Specials. This cover was art directed by Steve Bush, the founding art director.
(Left): June 1981. (Right): Terry Hall of The Specials, July 1981.
(Left): November 1983. This image appeared on over a dozen European magazine covers at the same time as part of a celebration of the European Union. (Right): Elvis Costello, August 1983.
(Left): March 1985. (Right): May 1984.
(Left): Sade. (Right): Annie Lennox, January 1985.
(Left): June 1984. (Right): Isabelle Rossellini, February 1987.
Links:
Related stories:
post-brawl dammers with the half smile. jerry, show off your gap!
There is a (incomplete) Flickr pool of pages and covers from The Face:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/thefacemagazine/pool/