James Marsh (artist)
James Marsh NDD - English visual artist, illustrator, Designer & Author. Recognised internationally in Advertising, Publishing, Editorial arenas since the '60's. College: Batley College of Art & Design, Yorkshire, 1960-65. Studied: Design & Display, Awarded NDD and College Diploma. Worked: Pye records 1966, Decca Records 1967, Ink Studios with Alan Aldridge 1967-68, working on high-profile projects like 'The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics' and Andy Warhols 'Chelsea Girls' Poster, both featured in the AA retrospective at the 'Design Museum' London 2008. Formed own Design/Illustration Studio 'Head Office' with RCA graduate John Farman 1968-76, working for Advertising, Publishing & Editorial clients. Freelance since 1976. First one man show: Windsor & Eaton Gallery, Windsor, publishing 2 edition prints. Has exhibited widely since. Founder Member of 'the Association of Illustrators' 1975. 1980's Published 2 Illustrated books: 'Bizarre Birds & Beasts' Pavilion Books UK, 'From the Heart' Pavilion Books UK. Moved from London in 2002 to pursue more personal project and continues to experiment.
Work featured in most leading Graphic Art Magazines, winning numerous awards both at home and abroad; in 2003, the Independent newspaper named him in "the Top Ten Leading British Illustrators". Since the late '60's Marsh has earned international status working for many major companies including: Time Inc, British Airways, London Transport, The Royal Mail, National Express, Bull, BP, Bata, TDK. IBM, Peugeot, Mitsubishi, General Motors, Courvoisier, Seattle Oprea Company, EMI, Polydor, Sony, Imax, Times Newspapers, Penguin Books Harper Collins, Random House... Marsh's surreal art uses a great deal of symbolism and natural motifs, sometimes incorporating optical illusions.
Apart from 'Time Magazine' covers, Marsh is most well known both for the series of 25 neo-surreal cover paintings he did for various paperback reprints of Ross Macdonald books - including 19 'Lew Archer' titles - in the early 1980s for Bantam (U.S.), and as the artist responsible for the cover art of the band 'Talk Talk', designing all their iconic album and singles (one of which, "Such A Shame" recycled a painting from the Macdonald book "Black Money") covers & posters throughout their career. He co-authored 'Spirit of Talk Talk', published in 2012 by rocket88, incorporating all the album covers produced through the '80's. 2 Edition screen prints have been produced from the cover art in 2013, 'Spirit of Eden' & 'After the Flood' by Harwood King, fine Art printers.
Between 2006 & 2013 Marsh has added the skill of 'Font Design' to his repertoire, publishing over 30 fonts under his foundry name 'Artytype', viewable on 'myfonts.com'.
Marsh's personal Fine Art abstract work is incorporated into his design work wherever appropriate, particularly within the music industry on album covers. In 2012 Marsh was invited to create the branding for the 'Transmusicales' Festival in Rennes, France.