Jonathan Barnbrook

12/02/2026

Some images from the launch of the Bowie show ‘You’re Not Alone’ – we worked with them and the Bowie estate, creating the logos and imagery. These include the main logo (there are others with a similar concept which will be revealed later), which takes the typography from various periods of Bowie’s creative life. And yes I am some of you can guess exactly where each piece of lettering is from.

The emphasis for the images, in contrast, was very much on ‘performance’. This is a show about Bowie in his own words, featuring a huge range of his creative output, but there are also some incredibly recreated live performances. Last night they played ‘Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide’ from the last Ziggy Stardust gig at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1973, a line of which is used for the show’s title. It is almost impossible to match the excitement of a live gig on film, but this is one of the closest I have seen – I’m very excited for people to experience what a fantastic job they have done.

08/01/2026

27/12/2025

We’ve had a lot of messages about these particular posters, so we thought we’d explain them a bit more clearly. All of them were made specifically for fly-posting and were never sold at the time. There were (we think) three rounds of fly-posting before the album was released. These posters are from the first round, and went up in New York, LA, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago in February 2013. We deliberately chose not to feature any image of David Bowie. Because they relate to a forthcoming release, they deal instead with ideas of consumer desire and anticipation. The white square interrupts that process, and the words The Next Day suggest that desire is never quite satisfied

All the images in this series are library photographs. Part of the concept was that there should be nothing individual about them at all – they weren’t specially shot, they already existed, ready for use in advertising. Each image symbolises an aspect of aspirational consumerism: the woman spraying perfume suggests increased attractiveness through purchase; the interior represents the promise of a beautiful home or holiday and a happier future; the tablet stands for the consumer device that makes leisure time more absorbing; and the hyper-real, almost Pop image of the drink symbolises the promise of consumer ‘abundance’.

A limited number of these very rare original flyposters available at shop.barnbrook.net

07/12/2025

We’ve are consolidating the studio archive and have just released a small batch of original 2013 flyposters from ‘The Next Day’. There are two series. Series 1 focused on objects of consumer desire. Series 2 is directly connected to Bowie – featuring lyrics and the photography from the album’s package design. These were created as teasers for album launch and appeared on the streets of New York. They’re extremely rare, and we only have a handful left.

Each poster is an original production piece from 2013, not a reprint or later edition. They were never meant for sale, so this is a rare chance to get one.

They’re priced at £250 for the less-rare designs and £400 for the scarce ones – we know that’s not small money, but they’re genuinely hard to find and we’ve kept pricing as modest as possible. You can choose to have it signed by Jonathan Barnbrook or left unsigned.

Available now in the shop at barnbrook.net.

26/06/2025

‘Hidden Realms: Korean Artists Today’ is the third in the series we have designed for which looks at the creative practices of nine artists from South Korea. The visual concept takes on the themes of mystery and obscurity, with the front and back cover images representing inner spirit and introversion. The main typography follows the visual style of the series with a prominent capital letter on the cover. In this book, the letter ‘S’ is highlighted on the cover to create an interplay with the images. The two fonts selected for this publication are created by female designers only as the book contains only female artists.

04/03/2025

Yes, talking in my hometown. Always get a sense of pride when doing something in Luton. Lived there until 17 and still support the football team (not doing so well at the moment). One of my proudest moments was creating a mural in the centre with Mark Titchner, in a space I used to walk past with my mum when I was a child. I’ll be talking about Bowie, typography, culture, and politics with local designer Ed Smith. Please come along.

09/02/2025

As many of you may know, my wife, Anıl Aykan, and I have a band called Fragile Self. We have just finished our second album, ‘OCD’, which will be released on 12th May.

It’s a chance to express ourselves through music and to create visuals and design with our own content in its purest form, which makes this project so important to us.

The first single from the album, ‘Existence Against Existence’, will be out this Valentine’s Day.

www.fragileself.com
www.instagram.com/fragileself
https://www.tiktok.com/

08/01/2025

The Bowie equation symbolises the evolution of David Bowie’s artistry, innovation, and cultural influence across his career, from 1969’s ‘Space Oddity’ to 2016’s ‘★’ . It captures the continuous contributions he made to music, fashion, and identity over time, represented by the variable ‘t’ for time.

For this equation three key components define Bowie’s legacy: ‘Persona’, ‘Innovation’, and ‘Cultural impact’. The function reflects his ever-changing artistic identities—Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, and the Thin White Duke—each tied to specific eras and themes. measures his groundbreaking contributions to music, from glam rock to electronic experimentation during the Berlin Trilogy and genre fusion in his later works. represents his broader influence on societal norms, gender fluidity, and artistic expression, which extended far beyond music.

The coefficients adjust over time, reflecting which aspect dominated during different phases. For example, ‘Persona(t)’ peaks in the 1970s, ‘Innovation(t)’ during the experimental 1977–79 period, and ‘Cultural impact(t)’ in his mainstream 1980s success.

Happy birthday David Bowie we miss you.

This diagram & artwork ©Barnbrook.

06/11/2024

This Sunday 10th of November is a very special moment for Jonathan Barnbrook, as he is in conversation with John Foxx at Kings Place in London. Foxx, mainly known as a pioneering electronic musician, is also an accomplished visual artist in his own right. Of all the visual influences on Jonathan, he would be the first to agree that John Foxx is probably the most important, greatly impacting his typographic and visual style.

It’s often difficult to say why a particular artist resonates with us so much, but for Jonathan, it was the complete creation of a whole universe using music, visuals, and writing – an understanding which he took forward when designing record covers for people like David Bowie. Indeed Jonathan has now collaborated with John Foxx on his record covers now for several years.

The talk coincides with the publication of a book Jonathan designed and co-edited about John Foxx’s visual work called ‘Electricity and Ghosts’, which is now available through Rocket88 Books. Links to the book and talk can be found in the Linktree above. We hope to see you there.

01/11/2024

The Book Cover Review is a website run as a labour of love by David Pearson – one of our favourite book cover designers. He asks a notable person in the field of design to talk about a book cover that means something to them. Longer in form than the usual for this kind of thing there are some great pieces of writing from people such as Rick Poynor, Catherine Dixon, Marian Bantjes, and Andy Altmann.

Jonathan chose a ‘Reader’s Library’ edition of ‘The Time Machine’ by HG Wells – something which, rather strangely, doesn’t have a designed book cover at all, as it part of a series of books published to collect. However, the clue is in the name with this one; this book about cheating time has become unique as it has travelled through the passage of time. (Text edited by Mark Sinclair)

https://bookcoverreview.co.uk