Jamie Ried

Jamie Reid is a graphic designer most closely associated with British Punk scene. He was born in London in 1940. He started his career as a painter at the Croydon School of Art between 1964-68. In 1970 he founded the Suburban Press in which he published his own community newspaper with some other things. Jamie Reid is best known for his work done with the Sex pistols, including the Cecil Beaton silver jubilee portrait of the queen with a safety pin infiltrated up her nose, and the cover for ‘Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols’ which came in at number two in a Rolling Stone Magazine poll of the best rock album sleeves of all time. He also worked on the Sex Pistols film ‘The Great Rock and Roll Swindle’

Managed by Malcolm McLaren who made the Sex Pistols in 1975, Reid designed all the visuals associated with the band: record sleeves, advertising, posters, T-shirts, etc... Also, Reid designed artwork for the group's debut (and only) studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. Some of these designs, made a bit of controversies, as some people considered them as aggressive. Reid's artwork symbolized the scene of the English punk rock era that took part in the 70’s, especially with the cover art of the song "Anarchy in the U.K. His designs are mostly referred to as "the art of plunder".

Throughout the years he collaborated with people like Margi Clarke and Malcolm Garrett as he was involved in a number of film projects in Liverpool. Recently he continued to create artwork and sets up exhibitions in London: photos of such exhibitions are usually posted in his website.




Jamie Reid cowrote the lyrics of a very popular song called "Anarchy in the U.K." He also produced the cover art, which is the design shown above: a torn Union Jack flag with a number of safety pins clipped to it. In the empty patch, there is a powerful typographic design showing the name of the song and also the name of the group.



This is a cover of the Sex Pistols album used in fluorescent yellow ink, which apparently it was extremely difficult to print without importing impurities. the design made a bit of controversy but still it made more a bigger hit


A+E Television Network, LLC, 2013. Jamie Reid Biography. [online] Available at: <http://www,biography.com/people/jamie-reid-20937155?page=2> [Accessed December 2013].