Social Awakenings blog post

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George Hardie is an English illustrator and graphic designer who was born in 1944 near Chichester. Hardie’s father was in the Navy and his grandfather, Martin Hardie, was a watercolour painter and print maker in Barcelona. Through his grandfather, Hardie admired the city of Barcelona and its flea markets, artworks, and exhibitions. Hardie’s main influences are painters and printmakers such as Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious and Paul Nash. Hardie began his art education at St. Martins School of Art and then later at the Royal College of Art in London where he received his Masters in Design in 1970. After graduating, Hardie joined a design firm called Nicholas Thirkell Associates which was also the design department of Macmillan Publishing. There, Hardie would design book jackets and work with other illustrators and designers such as Bob Lawrie, Malcolm Harrison and Bush Hollyhead; Hardie and the three would become close friends. Hardie left the firm in 1973 to spend some time in India. He later returned to London where he and the three designers started a new studio in Covent Garden called NTA Studios. The four men would share the studio together and would work on projects and provide comradeship together. The studio moved to Smithfield in 1978 but the members of the studio would eventually leave to focus on their own goals, and thus the studio went on hiatus in 1992. During the 70s, Hardie collaborated with an album cover design group called Hipgonosis. While Hardie was studying at the Royal College of Art, he became friends with an art photographer named Stephen Goldbatt, who commissioned Hardie to an album cover for the band Led Zeppelin. Initially, the band’s guitarist, Jimmy Page, rejected Hardie’s designs and instead gave him the famous photo of a zeppelin burning down which Hardie would use to for album. Hardie was only paid 60 pounds but he later went to work with Hipgonosis again and was able to get in contact with someone who works at RCA. Through an agreement, Hardie would do freelance illustration and design for album covers for famous bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Black Sabbath. Hardie would continue to do his work and even do stuff for publications and magazines. He later decides to become a professor and pursue a passion for teaching. In 1990, he became a professor at the University of Brighton’s Faculty of Arts where he teaches Masters courses in design and teaches various fundamentals about graphic design. Hardie is also the International Secretary for the Alliance Graphique Internationale.

Hardie’s style is known for his use of simple geometric shapes to create complex compositions while applying strict rules to himself. This style mainly comes from his time learning latin where Hardie would study geometry and mechanical drawing. Hardie utilizes a variety of different tools for his illustrations and designs such as ellipse guides in various sizes, a Lightbox for tracing, rulers, and French curves. When Hardie looks for inspiration, he would listen to quotes on the radio, using Google, books, catalogs, and encyclopedias. I personally love George Hardie’s work. His style is both simple and complex in the sense that he uses very basic shapes and uses them to layer complex designs and illustrations. Even though his work comes from the 70s and 80s, his illustrations look very modern to the point that they look like they can be used today, and I think the reason for that is his simplicity. Lines are very bold, use of colour is minimal, and most of the detail(or lack thereof) is mostly just plain shapes. Because of that his, style is timeless and can be used for almost anything which is impressive considering that this was the time before computers were widely used.