I’m a young man at odds with the Bible…
Designer Jonathan Barnbrook has been in touch with further details of his excellent tome: Barnbrook Bible: The Graphic Design of Jonathan Barnbrook.
I didn’t have much detail when the book was first published back in June, (06.25.2007 NEWS: BARNBROOK BIBLE INCLUDES CONTRIBUTION FROM DB) but Jonathan has since cleared things up.
Despite conflicting publish dates on Amazon.co.uk, the book hasn’t been re-activated or re-published, and it’s now apparent that the cover we used in the June news piece wasn’t the finished article.
However, if you’ve not already checked it out, it is worth a look, if not only for the ten pages dedicated to the design of Heathen, not to mention eight pages regarding the Priori font, which was the type used for the album.
As I mentioned in that earlier piece, Jonathan worked on both the Heathen and Reality album covers. Here’s a bit from his intro to the Heathen section…
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“No doubt this section will be of interest to David Bowie fans, as many of them often hijack my lectures in the question and answers section and try to change the main topic of the discussion onto him. I liked David Bowie before I started working with him but I was not obsessive. I hope that meant I had enough distance to see whether what I was doing was good enough or appropriate for him, his target audience and the music. I was a bit nervous at first ? how can this person who has been so famous all of his life, that has possibly spent most of the time being told how fantastic he is, be a rewarding person to work with? Well, by keeping a sense of humour about himself. He has been respectful, funny, self-deprecating and generally a pleasure to work and engage with.”
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Here’s some comment from David regarding the image below from Heathen, which I’ve enhanced for legibility….the image I mean, not DB’s words!
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The three book covers that are featured within the album art are what I consider to be pointers to the new way of thinking, a kind of manifesto, at the beginning of the 20th century. Firstly, ?The Gay Science? by Nietzsche wherein he pronounces his famous ?God is dead?, secondly ?The Interpretation of Dreams? by Freud from where we began to view ourselves in a completely new light and lastly, The General Theory of Relativity presented us within a new way of ?being?. As Max Born observed, ?The theory appeared to me then, and still does, the greatest feat of human thinking about nature, the most amazing combination of philosophical penetration, physical intuition, and mathematical skill?.
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Of course, the 320 page hard back is filled with other interesting and informative stuff, not to mention the brilliant design throughout and Jonathan’s philosophies that flavour the whole thing. Barnbrook Bible: The Graphic Design of Jonathan Barnbrook is available now, and has been since June, and you can even purchase a signed copy by clicking on either of the above images.
To celebrate (ie, we still have a load in the vaults) we’re giving away ten copies of the limited edition Heathen CD in 12″ packaging.
All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning, is decide which of the ten anagrams of the title track: Heathen (The Rays), below, isn’t one.
The anagrams are made up of fourteen letters each, and obviously you should ignore punctuation, I just left it in to make things harder.
Hey, Heathen star!
He has entry heat.
She hath ten year.
He, he. Nasty Earth.
Harsh teeny hate!
Rehash any teeth.
Ha! He say: “rent hat”.
Yeah. He’s art then.
Ah, sheathe entry.
The hyena’s heart.
When you have your answer, e-mail it to me here.
Usual BowieNet rules apply: Only one entry per BowieNet account, and please remember you must enter using your BowieNet e-mail, or at least supply your BowieNet user name.
If you’re making the effort to enter the contest, I can’t stress how important it is to use your BowieNet e-mail, or supply your BowieNet user name. So many entries with correct answers are being disregarded because they supply neither.
The contest ends at midnight NY time on Saturday October 13th, with the ten winners being notified shortly thereafter.
