Film by Ben Brown at Maniac.

These beautiful business cards were printed with black foil onto 700 gsm weight black board (very thick!)

The front side was printed using white foil. They made for a very dramatic keepsake for their new design, build & construction business.

Vaughan Oliver, the acclaimed English graphic designer who defined the aesthetics of a whole post-punk genre via his work for London imprint 4AD amd one of the few graphic designers with an instantly recognisable style has passed away.

Born in Segefield, Durham County to working class parents “the young Oliver spent most of his school days in the ‘art room’ where he developed an interest in Surrealism and the work of Salvador Dali. The local record shop was his ‘art gallery’” writes Vaughan Oliver Archive’s Kickstarter page.

“After studying graphic design at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Polytechnic, he went south to London to work for one of the big design groups. But Oliver wasn’t made for the world of commercial graphic design, and a chance encounter with the record label owner Ivo Watts Russell led to a 30-year marriage between Oliver and the cult indie label, 4AD. ”

“I like to elevate the banal through surrealism,” he has said. “Mystery and ambiguity are important weapons in a designer’s arsenal. I try to make images where you don’t always get “the message” straight away – but these things leave a hook in you. Leaving some space for interpretation is important.”

His enigmatic visuals are his trademarks, a tribute of his to Roger Dean and Dali, who inspired him to follow the path of graphic design and mesmerize everyone.

Oliver was best known for his work with graphic design studios 23 Envelope and v23. Both studios maintained a close relationship with record label 4AD between 1982 and 1998 and were to give distinct visual identities for the 4AD releases by many bands, including Mojave 3, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, The Breeders, This Mortal Coil, Pale Saints, Pixies, and Throwing Muses.

Oliver also designed record sleeves for such artists as David Sylvian, The Golden Palominos, and Bush.

Some things inevitably change while others stay the same. Did you know that in the 1970s, it was still acceptable to talk, kiss and even smoke on the London Underground?

What would that have looked like? Photographer Mike Goldwater spent many years documenting chance moments of intimacy and humour across the iconic network of tunnels that live beneath the capital.

The pictures, taken between 1970 and 1980, tenderly capture special moments, moments we still see today: the kisses goodbye, the buskers, the Friday night revellers, a man cradling a cat, and the commuters deep in thought and desperate to get home. We also see old ticket booths (before Travelcards existed), old school carriages, retro film posters and bell flares.

You can enjoy this fascinating series in a new book, London Underground 1970-1980. Arts writer Lucy Davies says in the book’s introduction: “Goldwater was already familiar with the Tube, though it was quite different from the one we know today. Back then, you had to buy your ticket from a window and show it at the barrier. The advertisements on the wall were unabashedly sexist. You could puff undisturbed on a cigar and tap your ash on the carriage floor.”

Lucy adds: “Some stations were lit only by individual hanging bulbs in white light shades, immersing travellers in a dim, Hades-like gloom. It made taking photographs incredibly difficult, forcing Goldwater to function at the very limit of his film’s capabilities, but it gives his pictures a wonderfully brooding, unearthly cast.”

London Underground 1970-1980 by Mike Goldwater is published by Hoxton Mini Press.

Artist Eleanor Crow’s watercolours celebrating the beauty of London’s classic shopfronts are going on display in the capital.

Arthur’s Cafe, Kingsland Road, Dalston

Arthur Woodham opened his own café in 1948, having previously worked in his father’s cafe of the same name just down the road.

Young Arthur ran his for 70 years until he was 90, along with his wife, Eileen, and in recent years grandson James.

Spotless and serving up home-cooked breakfasts followed by traditional lunches with hand-cut chips, this celebrated destination was frequented by loyal customers for seven decades until its closure in 2018.

Barneys Seafood, Chamber Street, Tower Bridge

Tucked under a railway arch near the Tower of London, this legendary eel, fish and shellfish shop attracts hordes of East Enders, eager for eels freshly boiled on the premises.
The founder, Barney Gritzman, was the brother of Solly Gritzman, owner of the famous Tubby Isaac’s jellied eel stall. Barney opened his business before the start of World War Two and it has been run by the Button family, trading under the name Barneys, since 1970.

C W Tyzack, Kingsland Road, Shoreditch

Cecil Tyzack founded his business in 1936 and his shop, further down the Kingsland Road than Arthur’s Café, is still open, although it is no longer owned by the Tyzacks.

The family name lives on as a hand- and power-tool manufacturer, Tyzack Machine Knives.

Cecil was born into a branch of the Tyzack family of saw makers who came to London from Sheffield in 1839. They manufactured and sold tools from a succession of shops in Old Street until the beginning of this century.

Today vintage Tyzack tools are popular with collectors.

Daniel Lewis & Son, Hackney Road, Cambridge Heath

This was London’s oldest ironmonger, originally founded by Presland & Sons in 1797, purpose-built as a shop and factory.

In the 1890s it became W H Clark Ltd.

Daniel Lewis, who joined as a junior in 1948, took on the business in 1971 and continued trading under the Clark name.

Daniel’s son, David, worked there from 1992 and renamed it after his father in 2002.

In 2012, he was forced to close when council regulations prevented customers parking and restricted deliveries.

Since I painted it, the shopfront has been replaced by a new replica, which is a close copy of this Georgian original.

Until the end, the original interior, with all its fittings and the manufacturing workshops at the rear, survived, revealing how the business evolved, supplying first the coach-building industry and then metal fabricators, architects and sculptors.

The Cookery, Stoke Newington High Street, Stoke Newington

This drawing shows an uncharacteristically short queue. Often the line of customers extends all the way down the street, which is always a good sign – revealing that the meat is worth the wait.

I cherish this frontage, with its mid-century script in red on a glazed background, red canopy and grinning butcher mannequin, welcoming customers inside.

Sewell’s, Plaistow Road, Plaistow

This florist in Plaistow has been run by the Sewell family since the 1930s and is celebrated for its ingenious window displays.

I painted it during the Tour de France when the window featured two bicycles adorned with flowers beneath strings of bunting – all in yellow and adorned with Union Jacks in support of our team.

The wide pavement allows for a cheerful array of bedding plants outside to greet customers before they enter the fragrant interior, filled with buckets of cut flowers.

Syd’s, Calvert Avenue, Shoreditch

London’s oldest coffee stall has been open for a century and is still run by Sydney Tothill’s granddaughter, Jane.

This mahogany refreshment stall is one of my favourite London landmarks. It has moved from its pitch only once, to feature in the film Ebb Tide, starring Chili Bouchier, in 1931.

The stall opened 24 hours a day during World War Two, when the War Office brought Syd’s son (also Syd) back from a secret mission to ensure the supply of hot tea to the ambulance and fire brigades during the London Blitz, after Syd senior was traumatised by a bomb that exploded nearby.

The work can be seen at the Townhouse Gallery in Spitalfields until 20 October and is published by Spitalfields Life Books in collaboration with Batsford Books.

All illustrations by Eleanor Crow.
Full article on BBC news.

Clive Limpkin almost slept through the defining moment of his career.

Having taken nine hours of pictures with little happening, the photographer – working at the time for London’s Daily Sketch – fell asleep on a settee in the foyer of Derry’s City Hotel.

When the trouble that would become known as the Battle of the Bogside broke out in August 1969, it was a young barman who woke him to tell him the rioting had started.

“I lifted my camera and just started to run towards the Bogside. He ran after me shouting that I hadn’t paid for my drinks. I dipped into my pocket and gave him £1 for the drink and £1 for saving my career.”

Reportage, political photography has always held a fascination with me. The immediacy and spontaneity of the shots capturing moments in time are more powerful than film.

Now aged 81 but still as sharp as ever, Clive will return to Derry next month to discuss the pictures that made him world famous, won multiple awards and were the inspiration for one of the Bogside’s most striking murals.
His picture book ‘Battle of the Bogside’ documenting his time in Derry was first published in 1979 and is now a collectors’ item.

It has been republished to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the three-day battle that followed an Apprentice Boys march in the city.

His picture book ‘Battle of the Bogside’ documenting his time in Derry was first published in 1979 and is now a collectors’ item.

It has been republished to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the three-day battle that followed an Apprentice Boys march in the city.

Recalling that time, Clive said: “When I arrived in Belfast first, my initial thoughts were ‘this isn’t going to happen’. I could see a Woolworths – you don’t have wars being fought in front of a Woolies.”

Great fun at the Community Fest, Finsbury Park, London – got a few decent shots.