Over the summer, I was very excited to be invited by John Rooney to take part in ‘I Shout for the Fall’ a project to celebrate the words of Mark E Smith, the contrarian maverick and singer with The Fall who sadly died earlier this year.
Designers and image makers were tasked with creating an original design which used a line from a song by The Fall. As John noted in his brief, “this is a visual celebration of, independence, individuality and language disruption!”
The finished show includes an amazing roll call of designers and it was an honour to be included. And it was also an interesting challenge as The Fall often had an anti-design aesthetic which was always creative and appropriate to Mark E Smith’s abstract world view.
I worked with the song ‘New Big Prinz’ from the LP, I Am Kurious Oranj and the repetitive chant throughout the track inspired my design. Throughout the project, the Studio playlist was exclusively The Fall which was essential to the design process. In particular the 1983–1990 era was an inspiration. But then there is always more to discover.
Here are The Fall in 1988, checking the record.
‘I Shout for the Fall’ is part of Design Manchester 18 and on show at Bury Art Museum, 22 September – 24 November