Annals of design: Marchbank archive worth a look

(This has nothing to do with Canada, except for those who like excellent magazine design.) Pearce Marchbank, a well-known London designer, has put up a new website showing his work in various media, including some stunning magazines. He did everything from Architectural Design to Oz and much in between. (In fact, when the three editors of Oz were jailed for obscenity in 1971 after a landmark trial, Marchbank stepped in and designed and edited the next three issues...even while art directing the weekly Time Out magazine.)

While a lot of his magazine work hails from the '60s and '70s, its boldness stands up pretty well today. Look at the site and see the elegant little design for a private wine club's newsletter, and his various covers for Marxism Today (which ceased publication in 1992 -- its last issue is shown).

Marchbank designed the iconic Time Out logo and continued to design for the magazine for many years. He went on to do art direction for music publishers, restaurants, you name it. In the 1980s, he became design director for Virgin Records. For many years, he has done his work under the brand of Studio Twenty. The esteem with which he's held in art direction circles was indicated in 2004 when he was named Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) the highest award possible in the field.

[Thanks to MagCulture for alerting us to this.]