Ziggy, spiders, Rex Ray and The XX

"A blue plaque has been unveiled in the West End of London to honour the singer David Bowie. The 1972 album helped make David Bowie a world famous singer.  It marks the spot where he was photographed for the cover of his album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Photographer Brian Ward took the picture of Bowie in Heddon Street in 1972".

"Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp said the album's influence was about more than music. Kemp, who unveiled the plaque, said: "It's really about this character Bowie created. "It was a conceptual art piece he was trying to sell through popular culture - and it worked. "Ziggy came out of a much darker impoverished London - it offered a great means of escape for an adolescent generation that was still in the shadow of the Second World War." Music critic Pete Paphides said: "Bowie was a self-made creation and the attention to detail is amazing. "He created this character and it was so startling at the time. It was very forward looking”. BBC news

Bowie was at the margins of music at the start of his career. He was unusual because he invented characters and stories around his songs. His performances were theatrical, events and installations, blurring the edges between performance art and rock / pop culture. His album covers are always interesting.

David Bowie and Twiggy pose for the cover of Bowie’s album Pin Ups. The iconic photograph was taken by Justin de Villeneuve, who managed super model Twiggy.

Jonathan Bambrook designed this cover using the artwork of Rex Ray. Bambrook collaborated with Damian Hirst on the design, layout and typography his book, “I Want To Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now”.

Cover designed by the graphic artist Rex Ray

I love the work of Rex Ray, I am interested in the processes and techniques he uses to make it. The link to YouTube shows how produces and sells it.  

 

Rex Ray explains his graphic style

"Because I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands, I always used a lot of hand-done stuff in my graphic design work – woodblock printing, table top staged photographs of hand-made objects, painting and drawing –- and then I’d incorporate that work into the digital realm. So I was always going back and forth between the digital and the handmade. In the current collage work, I’ve taken the aesthetics and principals of computer graphic design with me –- hard edges, flatness, layering, bright solid colours, and the symmetry – I just do it all by hand now".

The XX

I saw a big X for The XX at Glastonbury when searching YouTube, then realised it was my fave dance tune, an old one (You got the love) featuring the brilliant Florence and the Machine, what a voice. Like Bowie, she is singer / writer, whose work merges music and visual performance. She is interested in Renaissance art which influences her song writing and video images.  XX are brill too.