Prof George Hardie produced the artwork for Led Zeppelin’s debut album (1969). As a partner at NTA Studios, he designed many iconic record covers with the design group Hipgnosis, working on Pink Floyd’s "Dark Side of the Moon" (1973) and "Wish You Were Here" (1975), the beginning of a highly successful career.
Professor George Hardie was born in 1944 and trained at St Martin’s and the Royal College of Art (RCA). A renowned graphic designer, illustrator and educator, he has received many international commissions from a wide variety of clients (from 14 countries to date). George Hardie became a Professor of Graphic Design in 1990. He currently teaches on postgraduate courses. He was elected to the Alliance Graphique Internationale in 1994 and is now its International Secretary. In 2005 was elected a Royal Designer for Industry.
Whilst at the RCA, Hardie produced the artwork for Led Zeppelin’s debut album (1969). After graduation, as a partner at NTA Studios, he designed many iconic record covers with the design group Hipgnosis. He worked on the Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and Wish You Were Here (1975), 10cc’s How Dare You (1976), Black Sabbath’s Technical Ecstasy (1976) and Led Zeppelin’s Presence (1976). His work has been exhibited extensively: with one-person retrospectives at Brighton, Barcelona and most recently in Ljublijana (2008) and exhibitions of his books at the Pentagram Gallery and in Nagoya. He has gained widespread notice through work for the Royal Mail. He won a D&AD silver award for his Millennium stamp, and designed the Channel Tunnel stamps for the Royal Mail and La Poste (1994) and the illustrations for the Magic stamps (2007).George uses an inventive combination of mixed-media and collage techniques, experimenting with perspective and geometry, and is particularly respected for his ability to solve visual problems through careful observation and crafting of graphic solutions. His adaptability and success with both commissioned and non-commissioned work has also been remarked upon. His Manual (2005) is a limited edition work about hands, which acts as a handbook of batch production and ‘hand-made’ techniques.
George enjoys teaching at the University of Brighton where he has learnt only to set problems to which he doesn’t know the answer. His experience of teaching abroad has made him relish working in an educational system that is based on the premise that the teacher is always wrong.
Hardie’s research expertise involves graphic communication. His aspiration ‘to notice things and get things noticed’, which covers both making work and teaching, involves the telling of stories (Visual Narrative), disciplined gathering and categorisation of ideas and objects (Collecting as a design tool), understanding and inventing restrictions, involving audiences. (Rules and Games, Extended metaphors). In relation to rules and games, Hardie quotes Robert Frost; ”I’d as soon write free verse as play tennis with the net down.”
He has been lucky in, and endlessly informed by, working for eighteen years on a course that is based on telling stories by any means: a course cleverly written by old friends and colleagues and excellently taught by new friends and colleagues. The University of Brighton has provided him with an academic home, and base for operations, for some 22 years.
George Hardie offered the following list to the University of Brighton in 2009. He calls it - Owning up to having a bit of a history. The 70s revisited in the early Twenty-First Century.
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
A limited edition book and works about hands that acts as a handbook of batch-production and design techniques.
Five stamps for the Royal Mail illustrations and consultancy from George Hardie.
The poster announced and invited attendance at 'Illustration Today: A Symposium on the State of the Art' at the New School for Design in New York
An illustrative reimagining of measurements involved in 30 of the Olympic and Paralympic sports
Beginning with Hipgnosis and iconic album covers George Hardie became a Professor at the University of Brighton, and Royal Designer for Industry.