Neville Brody has designed the front cover of the forthcoming V&A Magazine dedicated to its new Postmodernism exhibition. Editor in Chief Thomas Phongsathorn commented “Neville Brody is a designer whose extraordinary body of work has significantly informed my idea of what a magazine should be – and the power of a great cover. The cover that Neville has created for us encapsulates the spirit, dynamism and energy of the V&A’s Postmodernism exhibition, but succeeds in being what Postmodern design, famously,
rarely is – beautiful, balanced and appropriate.”

On his front cover and the postmodernist movement in general Brody notes “For me, Post Modernism felt like a kind of facade built to cover over the cracks of a divided world, a surface of plucked effects and stylistic devices emptied of meaning, an extrusion of hollow traces and flat outlines forcing 2D into apparent depth. I was never a Post Modernist, rather a Modernist exploring humanist lines of enquiry in the collapsing world behind a wall of decoration.” The issue also includes an insightful article on the movement by acclaimed academic and cultural commentator Michael Bracewell

The Magazine is due to land on the doormats of V&A magazine subscribers this coming Friday 7th of October and on the shelves of magazine stores from Monday 10th October 2011.
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Research Studios are pleased to offer a sneak preview of the 3rd edition of biannual art and fashion book Twin which we recently designed and laid out working alongside Creative Director Becky Smith.

The spirit of the third issue is ambition: “We asked Immodesty Blaize, Sloane Crosley, Simon Rich and Kristin Hersh to consider the meaning of female ambition, mega-model Dree Hemingway takes a ride in Simone Rocha’s winter collection, musician Alison Mosshart reveals the secrets of life on the road, set designer and artist Gary Card sculpts an irresistible gang of bijoux-loving sloths, grande dame of fashion photography June Newton discusses life after Helmut, and Gia Coppola – the granddaughter of Francis Ford and niece of Sofia who’s next in line for Coppola fame – shoots an exclusive photo diary.”

You can find out more about Twin, previous editions of the book and keep up to-date with the latest from their world here

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Research Studios and Neville Brody are delighted to announce that we are working on another issue of Arena Homme + with Editor-In-Chief Jo-Ann Furniss, the AH+ Editorial Team and a fantastic bunch of super talented and internationally renowned contributors. We are deep into the final stages of design and layout of this Winter/Spring 10/11 issue 34 which is due to hit the shelves later in the month. We will be posting more on this story here as soon as we can.

Neville Brody and his iconic work within the music sector are currently being featured in the exhibition “UK?OK!!” at the Parco Factory, in Tokyo. The exhibition, which runs from the 6th – 30th August, looks at how music and graphic design are inter-connected and how the links between the two industries have created some of the most important design works in the past 30 years. It also looks at how the spirit of London feeds the graphic design scene and creatives who live and work in it.

Other designers included in the exhibition are Abake, Bravo Charlie Mike Hotel, Bibliotheque, Big Active, Eat Sleep Work/Play, Intro, It’s Nice That, Jonathan Barnbrook, Julia, Melvin Galapon, Micha Weidmann Studio, Mind Design, Neville Brody, Non-Format, Owen Gildersleeve, Studio Myerscough, Studio8, Tappin Gofton, Tom Hingston Studio, Tomato, Wood McGrath and Yes. You can find out more about the exhibition here.

グラフィックと音でＵＫデザインシーンを体感する「UK?OK!!」展に参加

音楽産業と密接な関わりをもっているUKのグラフィックデザインシーン。Neville BrodyとFetish Records、Peter SavilleとFactory Record、1990年代のTomatoとUnderworld、2000年代のTappin GoftonとColdplayなど、多くの優れたグラフィックデザインは音楽を包むビジュアルとして重要な要素を担っている。

同展では、デザインシーンに与えた影響の大きさと今後影響を与えるだろうという期待感の2つの観点から22組のUKグラフィックデザイナーを取り上げ、80年代から現在まで約30年間のUKグラフィックデザインシーンを総括。企画制作をRCKT/Rocket Company*、会場デザインを建築家・谷尻誠が手がけ、過去の作品から本展用の新作グラフィックワーク、取材時のスタジオ写真やインタビュー映像などがひとつの空間に展示される。

会場：PARCO FACTORY　パルコファクトリー、渋谷パルコ　パート1／6Ｆ

期間：2010年8月6日(金)－2010年8月30日(月)※会期中無休

参加クリエーター：Abake, Bravo Charlie Mike Hotel, Bibliotheque, Big Active, Eat Sleep Work/Play, Intro, It’s Nice That, Jonathan Barnbrook, Julia, Melvin Galapon, Micha Weidmann Studio, Mind Design, Neville Brody, Non-Format, Owen Gildersleeve, Studio Myerscough, Studio8, Tappin Gofton, Tom Hingston Studio, Tomato, Wood McGrath, Yes

www.parco-art.com/web/factory/ukok1008/
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Research Studios are excited to be working on the next edition of art and fashion bi-annual TWIN. The team has been collaborating closely with Editorial and Creative Director Becky Smith on layout and design of the forthcoming edition, which blends high-end fashion photography with art, culture and feminist features.

You can find out more about TWIN from their blog here and we will post more on the story when the book hits the shelves of all good magazine and art book retailers later this year.
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The Times front cover

While we are on the subject of newspapers, we wanted to show one of Research Studios’ more iconic newspaper projects of recent years – The Times London.

Research Studios completed a twelve-month task in 2006/7 of designing a new visual language for The Times as it moved from broadsheet to tabloid format, which included the creation of a new font called Times Modern, a major restyling of the navigation of the newspaper, a new masthead, new crest, iconography, new weather icons, style-sheet layouts, suggestions for picture use/editing and creating a total tool-kit with which the editorial team could continue The Times’ tradition of telling breaking news stories in a compelling way and continuing to set the visual and typographical agenda.


The new Times Modern typeface (worked on by Brody and other Research Studios’ employees) encapsulated the paper’s heritage while adapting to the demands of the new compact format. Like The Times’ previous typeface, Times Classic, Times Modern was designed as a bespoke type family. The Times is the only newspaper to create and use bespoke fonts, all other UK newspapers purchase ready-to-use fonts.


The project was led by Ben Preston, then Deputy Editor of The Times, in partnership with Research Studios’ founder Neville Brody who acted as Art Director. Neville was formerly art director of The Face, and lead designer on Actuel, City Limits, Arena and several issues of the recent Arena Homme + magazines. He also worked on the redesign of Times2 supplement in 2005.

The new Times masthead

Times modern

Newspaper spread

The Times Comment

The Times World

The Times Register

The Times Sport

Sport spread

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Neville Brody and Research Studios have collaborated on the 33rd edition of mens’ fashion title Arena Homme+ with Editor in Chief Jo-Ann Furniss and her team.

The inspiration for this edition came from the notions of time and travel. In her editor’s letter Furniss comments “The initial premise of this edition of Arena Homme+ was ‘Home and Away’ – not the cheap Australian soap sponsored by BrightHouse, but the notion of where many of the contributors began and where the have travelled to, both in their lives and their careers, both literally and metaphorically.”

Brody has designed a custom font ‘RS Champions’ for this edition which is juxtaposed with supporting font Mercury to create Neo-Classical layouts and story introduction pages. Cover star Oliver Sim of the XX was shot by David Sims and resulting image combined with simple, clean and structured typography. Brody reinstated the original Arena logo as a personal nod to his point of beginning as the original Art Director of the sister title in 1986.

Brody was supported by Research Studios’ designer George Sheldrake and project manager Phil Rodgers in the design and production of the magazine.

Edition 33 features work by an eclectic mix of internationally renowned photographers, stylists and writers including Don McCullin, David Sims, Bruce Weber, Juergen Teller, Panos Yiapanis, Alasdair McLellan, Willy Vanderperre, Olivier Rizzo, Angelo Pennetta, Jane How, Jon Savage, Paul Morley and Laura Houseley.

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Front Cover

New book designed by Research Studios for ModaFad, a Barcelona based organisation who passionately promote emerging fashion designers on a local and international stage through their shows and publications. ModaFad also forms part of Barcelona fashion week.

Book Spreads

Neville Brody has been appointed by Editor-in-Chief Jo-Ann Furniss as Creative Director of Arena Homme +

Issue 32 (Autumn Winter 09) of the magazine will launch in September. Whilst we are keeping the details of the collaboration between Arena Homme +, Neville Brody and Research Studios closely under wraps, more details and sneak previews may appear on this blog soon.