Jon Wozencroft

Date & Place of Birth: 1 June 1958, Epsom, England

Work Experience:
Numerous print related jobs during school holidays from 1973–76... a platemakers, sheet-fed litho printers, web
offset printers, an ink laboratory. On going to university, soon became Social Secretary arranging and promoting
concerts, leading to holiday jobs in music business related areas.

On leaving the LCP, first full time job was art writer and researcher for The Reader’s Digest.

I left this job after six months to set up my own publishing company, Touch.

From 1982–86, released around 15 products, concentrating on producing interactive, audiovisual magazines such as Feature Mist and Travel, both of which sold over 5000 copies without any advertising (which we could not afford).

The company was started with a small bank loan and for the last 14 years has survived without any other financial
support or advertising revenue. As Managing Editor, during this period I worked directly with the following artists,
musicians and institutions, to name a few:

New Order, Simple Minds, Robert Wyatt, Hipgnosis, Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, Malcolm Garrett & Assorted Images, Neville Brody, Peter Saville, Riverside Studios, Audio Arts, Derek Jarman, Russell Mills, Test Department, Jah Wobble, The Commonwealth Institute, The Residents, Cabaret Voltaire, Einstürzende Neubauten, Electro Acoustic Music Association, Joseph Beuys, Gilbert and George, Jamie Reid & Margi Clarke, Greil Marcus, The Royal Academy of Arts... numerous record companies.

Also a strong emphasis on the later-to-be-called World Music, including a 3 month recording project in Indonesia
(1983, published as Islands In–Between, 1984). In 1984, invited by The Commonwealth Institute to document their ‘African Music Village’ (published as Drumming For Creation, 1985). Projects also involving music from Macedonia, Croatia and Serbia (1987), Albania (1989–90), and the late Egyptian musicologist Soliman Gamil, with whom we worked since 1982, winning a US Grammy Award in 1993 for his contribution to the CD Global Meditation.

In 1986, I co-curated a major exhibition at the Camden Arts Centre in London called Interaction, which covered the
history of collaborations between (pop) artists and musicians. The exhibition featured material from Peter Blake and The Beatles, John and Yoko, to Jamie Reid and the Sex Pistols, Brian Eno and Russell Mills etc. A sizeable section of the space was devoted to Touch work. I wrote the catalogue with David Toop. Other Touch exhibitions at Cuts Gallery in Kensington (1985) and The Cut, Waterloo (1987), plus group exhibitions in New York, Köln, Berlin (1985–87).

Also in 1986 I was commissioned by After Image Productions, working for Channel 4, to direct a short film (6 mins.) which was broadcast in the summer of that year. In 1987, I was asked to make a short film and soundtrack and was interviewed about Touch for The Tube on Channel 4.

Following the setting up of Touch, the next major step in my own work experience was to be asked by Neville Brody to be the author of a book based around his work, commissioned by Thames and Hudson in 1986.

In 1987 set up London design studio with Neville Brody. I continue to work on numerous projects with him at the same time as I direct Touch’s design and editorial , with my partner Mike Harding running the business/ distribution side from our company HQ in South London. We formed Touch into a limited company, Incunabula Ltd., in 1988.

The Graphic Language of Neville Brody was published in April 1988. A major exhibition of the same name was held at The Victoria and Albert Museum in April and May, which I co-curated with Brody, wrote the catalogue for, and for which I designed and created an eight-speaker sound installation. The book has since sold in excess of 80,000 worldwide.

In 1988, having been rated “Art Book of the Year” by the Guardian, Brody and I were asked to produce a full front page for the paper’s Review section. I wrote a critique of the state of the Design Industry at that time, and its involvement in the hyped financial boom and privatisation policies of the late–80s. The piece caused a controversy that persuaded the paper to run a full page inquest 10 days later.

> Other major projects with Neville Brody, 1987–89:

Annual Report and Brochure for The Body Shop, 1987–88. A four month project for which I was editor, researcher and co-designer. The Body Shop had seen the Touch magazine I had published in 1986 which had experimented with the use of recycled paper (the first to do so in this context) and, having recently floated the company on the Stock Exchange, they were keen to produce their first Annual Report in the same way.

Greenpeace, Breakthrough, 1988–89. Another long and involved project. Greenpeace wanted to set up an operation in the USSR, and had persuaded various rock stars to contribute tracks to a fund-raising double LP, which was to be the first ever official release of Western rock in Russia. They wanted an image far more incisive than the usual round of whales and baby seals. Neville and I designed the cover and promotional items for the LP. I worked directly with Greenpeace Books to write, design and produce an accompanying magazine that highlighted environmental issues – its print run was 500,000.

Wire, Manscape, Mute Records 1989–90. Commissioned by the group (whom I had known for some time in relation to Touch) to create a special CD package, a series of which Touch had already produced. Brody and I created a different design for each format of CD, cassette, LP and singles. This work is featured in a number of design books.

> Main freelance projects, 1986–90:

Sudden Sway, Spacemate, Warner Bros. Records 1986. An extraordinarily eccentric and ambitious project that somehow the group convinced WEA to release – an interactive game, double LP, book, poster, set of cards and instruction manual, packaged in a soap box container. I art directed, designed and organised the print production for everything.
Tape Delay, SAF Publishers, 1987. A 250 page book about the influence of independent music on the mainstream during the 1980s. Editor and designer.
The Mill, London W1, 1988–9. Complete corporate identity, signage, promotional print, and business stationery for this large digital post-production house in Central London.
Kudos Productions, London W1, 1989–90. Corporate identity, signage, promotional print, business stationery, and
station ident animation for this TV production company working for Channel 4.
In 1988 I worked on the translation, design and publication of an English language edition of Xerox and Infinity by Jean Baudrillard, in consultation with the author – a seminal text on artificial intelligence and virtual technology. This we distributed through Touch channels.
1988 D&AD award, having written for Blueprint May 1988 which won “Magazine of the Year”Having been involved in organising the transfer of the Neville Brody exhibition from the V&A to museums and galleries in Edinburgh, Germany and Austria, (for each a new catalogue and soundtrack), in 1990 we were given the chance to mount the biggest exhibition of the work so far at the Parco Department Store in Tokyo, as part of the ‘UK90’ Festival.
In 1990 Brody and I developed the idea of FUSE – an interactive disk and poster package that publishes experimental typefaces in a digital format, “The magazine of the future” according to Creative Review. First issue, May 1991, myself as editor, Neville as art director, published by FontShop International. Eighteen issues so far, involving collaborations with many designers inc. Erik Spiekermann, Malcolm Garrett, Peter Saville, Gerard Unger, David Carson, Phil Bicker, Cornel Windlin, Ian Anderson & The Designers Republic, Margaret Calvert, Vaughan Oliver, Fuel, Tomato, Tibor Kalman, Rick Vermeulen, Lo Breier, David Berlow, Bruce Mau, Matthew Carter...
1992 – XYZ Digital Typography Award
1993 – Permanent collection, the 20th Century Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum
1993 – International Design Graphics Award, first place.
1994 – Design Week Magazine of the Year
In 1991 I produced a new magazine, Vagabond, with the writer Jon Savage, who was co-editor. I designed the 100 page publication and organised the print production through Touch.

1992–93 Organised and performed in multimedia events in London and Vienna called ‘I Saw You’ with the group Wire, performance artists Dome and others.
1993> Art director for Swim, independent record company and studio in London.
1994 Essay and artworks published in Eye magazine.
1994–95 Regular reviewer of books on information technology for New Scientist.
1995> Art director for Piano, independent record company and studio in London.
1995 Main speaker at Apple Computer’s “Stay Tuned” festival in Vienna.
1995 Contributor to Communicating Design, published by Batsford Books.
1996 Curated and created original artworks for Touch/FUSE exhibition for ELECTRA96 at Henie Onstad Art Centre, Oslo.
1997 Main contributor to Fax Art, published by Booth Clibborn Editions.
1997 Contributor to G1, published by Kalman King.
1997 Editor, designer and photographer for Joy Division’s boxed set, Heart and Soul, London Records.
1998 Broadcast of 8 minute film for Scala on Sky Television.
1999>2000 “Acoustic Dislocation” year long sound installation in the Mind Zone of the Millenium Dome, London, with Ryoji Ikeda.
1994 Publication of The Graphic Language of Neville Brody 2 by Thames and Hudson, with simultaneous US and German editions.
1994 Fuse94 conference and exhibition held in London at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College...
Organiser, curator, editor, speaker. Set up StudentFuse competition at the Royal College of Art.
1995 Fuse95 conference in Berlin.
1998 Fuse98 conference and exhibition in San Francisco.
CD–ROM of Fuse editions 1–10 to be published Autumn 1999 (Editor, designer, sound designer).
1999 Publication of Touch & Fuse, in association with Belas Artes, Porto, Portugal

Teaching experience:
Between 1986 and 1992, invited to give one–off lectures at the following institutions:
Camden Arts Centre, Bristol Watershed Gallery, Oxford Polytechnic, Kingston Polytechnic, Royal College of Art, Düsseldorf Kunst Academie, Coventry Polytechnic, Manchester Cornerhouse Gallery, Berlin Kongresshalle.
1991 Set brief and judged Student Design Awards for D&AD
1992 Lecturer in Cultural Studies, Ist Year Graphics programme, Central St. Martins School of Art & Design
1993 Course director of Cultural Studies, Ist Year Graphics programme, Central St. Martins School of Art & Design
April 1993 Appointed 0.5 Lecturer. Created new course for BA Graphics , validated through the London Institute in
May 1993. Course director and main tutor for Years 1, 2 & 3, involving lecture programmes, project briefs, seminars, one-to-one tutorials, thesis supervision.
1994 to 1997: Main Tutor & Assistant Course Director for MA Interactive Multimedia at the Royal College of Art and London College of Printing.
1996> Senior tutor in The School of Communication Design, Royal College of Art.
1994 Created 10 week lecture programme for MA Independent Film and Video at the London College of Printing, “Film and Modernism”.
1995 Created 10 week lecture programme for BA Media Studies at the London College of Printing, “The Image World of Postmodernism”.
1995 Main speaker at ‘Text and Image’ conference held at Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre, London.
1996 Guest lecturer at the DTI’s Emerging Technologies 96 showcase in Whitehall.
Lectures in Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Portugal.
1998 Lecturer/presenter of 3 day conference at Belas Artes, Porto, Portugal, “The Power of Transitions”.1998 Speaker at The School of Sound conference, London
1999 Speaker at The School of Sound conference, London
1999 Director of 3 part project btwn. April and July at Belas Artes, Porto, with Heitor Alvelos, Len Massey and Peter Saville, “Listening to the Future”

Foreign languages: French (fluent), German (understood)
Computer programmes: QuarkXPress, FreeHand, Photoshop.
Excellent experience in digital artwork to print production.