Judging an Elusive Artist by His Distinctive Covers

Our friend Paul Gorman has a new book out on influential graphic artist, Barney Bubbles entitled Reasons to be Cheerful: The Life and Work of Barney Bubbles. Here's a great story on it from today's NY Times:

LONDON — After years of scraping by on a pittance from designing record covers for indie labels, Barney Bubbles had turned 40 and needed to make some money. He did the rounds of the big London record companies, only to be told by several executives that they had met with younger designers who were passing off his work as their own.

Shameful though that was, it was not entirely surprising. Shy, introspective and fragile, Barney Bubbles shunned publicity and seldom signed his designs. On the rare occasions that he did, it was mostly under an alias. He credited himself on one record sleeve by drawing a dog, and cited his tax code on another. When the magazine The Face asked him for a portrait to illustrate the only interview he ever did, in 1981, he gave them fragments of different photographs. Continued here.

Here's a slideshow of some of Barney's work.