The Art of Ian Clark on Uk Vibe
gone were the flared trousers of a bygone era
The Uk Vibe website has a must visit lengthy and photo heavy article just up. The title 'The Art of Ian Clark' should have you already right clicking and opening in a new window, but if you are still here and not convinced here's a brief preview of what you be getting..
A Soothing ‘Slow Moody Black n Bluesy’ Art Direction by Ian Clark Image taken at a Reggae night in West Ealing sourced from Pictorial Press, Described by Ady Croasdell as ‘The Mona Lisa of Soul Music’ Due to the stare of the young lady in pic.
The Kent section did not resemble your average soul reissues, gone were the flared trousers of a bygone era – out went the in-house design team, and in came a stylish new school with argyle socks and hi rise trousers. These album sleeves were as fresh as fungus in their day (with exception to Factory records Manchester of course). They were in a world of their own visually, unlike anything else in the racks. They held a moth like attraction for this young soul student, you just felt that passion.
Ian Clark was able to draw on his large collection of found images/typefaces sourced in junk shops and dusty markets and travels, this was such an important factor back then. The original intentions were to emulate original soul graphics from old records Like Imperial or King however a new rawer visual language soon mutated.
The first Kent album I owned was ‘Club Soul’, the cover art was a huge decider, ‘Club Soul’ had a Colin McInnis ‘Absolute Beginners’ vibe to it, like a lot of Val Wilmer’s photography. This was a subtle homage to early modernist and all-nighter roots in the heart of the Capitol. I always liked the fact that Kent acknowledged the mod foundations of soul culture that was noted
“The casino winners, that picture came from a guy I worked with at college in Surrey when I ran their graphics unit, he went to Las Vegas came back with some pictures and he said “have you seen these they’re quite nice” I thought Bloody ’ell.” Ian Clark on Winner Takes all LP
Many artists would keep alphabetically filed picture libraries gathered from magazines – images like Atomic Explosions/Apples etc. This also involved filtering through vast archives of imagery like you would record diggin’. This was roots visual sampling – more fun than Google any day.
above preview source credit Mark Wallace and ukvibe.org
get brew, right click now.
http://ukvibe.org/visual_world/the-art-of-ian-clark/
Edited by Mike
Related Soul Source Articles
- 1
Recommended Comments
Get involved with Soul Source
Add your comments now
Join Soul Source
A free & easy soul music affair!
Join Soul Source now!Log in to Soul Source
Jump right back in!
Log in now!