Design for Life

In my last post, I reproduced an article from 2016 looking at the two different sets of opening titles on Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) . Having two or more iterations of a piece of work is somewhat more commonplace in the world of graphic design and, appropriately enough, there was a different set of designs proposed for the R&H Blu-rays which never saw the light of day. As you will see, they came very close to being produced, as I still have fully typeset versions in my archive. This work was all done seven years ago, and I can no longer recollect the reason why the designs were altered. Usually, any amendment to my original designs would be at the behest of Network CEO Tim Beddows, who signed off on everything – usually with no quibbles, but occasionally he'd balk at something. I know he hated the colour pink, so it may have been that the proposed sleeve for Volume Three didn't meet with his approval. On the other hand, I may have taken the decision myself: the idea was

If anyone out there knows me at all, it’s most likely as a designer. But I am also a writer – in fact, my first job was as a copywriter in an advertising agency, forty years ago… As well as designing sleeves for Network’s DVD and Blu-ray releases, I also wrote articles, some of which appeared online, whilst others graced the inner sleeves of various titles. With the Network website now defunct, those articles are no longer accessible, so I’m going to repost as many of them as I can find on this blog, along with a few which never saw the light of day. To start the ball rolling, and following on from my previous blog about designing the sleeves for this series, here is a piece I wrote back in 2016 to accompany Network’s release of  Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)  on Blu-ray. I’d often speculated about the reasons for there being two different sets of titles for the series, and with the help of Tim Beddows, who had access to original prints and paperwork, I was finally able to come up wit