Andrew Johnson (6 January 1959 – 18 January 2016) was a British artist best known for designing

Some Bizzare Records Some Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of '' Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, The The, Neu Electrik ...

record sleeve A record sleeve is the outer covering of a vinyl record. Alternative terms are ''dust sleeve'', ''album liner'' and ''liner''. The term is also used to denominate the outermost cardboard covering of a record, i.e. the ''record jacket'' or ''albu ...

s for artists

The The are an English rock band from London, formed in 1979 by singer-songwriter Matt Johnson, the only constant member, and often the sole member. achieved critical acclaim and commercial success in the UK, with 15 chart singles, seven reaching ...

, his brother Matt Johnson's band, in the 1980s and 1990s which were produced under the pseudonym Andy Dog. His work often featured tortured, grimacing figures coupled with dark, melancholic themes. His main medium was drawing and he consciously attempted to forge a new connection with the English Neo-Romantic movement of the early to mid 20th century. He trained at

Camberwell School of Art Camberwell College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. The college offers further and higher education programmes, including postgraduate and PhD awards. ...

where he was taught by

Charles Keeping Charles William James Keeping (22 September 1924 – 16 May 1988) was an English people, English illustrator, children's book author and lithographer. He made the illustrations for Rosemary Sutcliff's historical novels for children, and he creat ...

. He contributed to many underground comics and magazines and also worked for the music press. He was responsible for establishing the visual identity of the Some Bizzare record label. As a child, he worked with

Joan Littlewood Joan Maud Littlewood (6 October 1914 – 20 September 2002) was an English theatre director who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and is best known for her work in developing the Theatre Workshop. She has been called "The Mother of M ...

Theatre Workshop Theatre Workshop is a theatre group whose long-serving director was Joan Littlewood. Many actors of the 1950s and 1960s received their training and first exposure with the company, many of its productions were transferred to theatres in the West ...

at the Theatre Royal in Stratford, London. He also appeared in the film '' Bronco Bullfrog'' (1969). In the late 1970s, he fronted

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

outfit

Camera 3 A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

and played alongside the band

Crass Crass was an English art collective and punk rock band formed in Epping, Essex in 1977 who promoted anarchism as a political ideology, a lifestyle, and a resistance movement. Crass popularized the anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, ...

. In later years, Johnson lived and worked as an artist in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

and in

Lavenham Lavenham is a village, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in the Babergh District, Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is noted for its Lavenham Guildhall, Guildhall, Little ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. Johnson was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour in April 2012, and died on 18 January 2016. His brother Matt Johnson's band

released the single 'We Can't Stop What's Coming' the same year and dedicated it to his life and work.

References

External links

* ''

Eye (magazine) ''Eye'' magazine is a quarterly print magazine on graphic design and visual culture. History First published in London in 1990, ''Eye'' was founded by Rick Poynor, a prolific writer on graphic design and visual communication. Poynor edited t ...

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'Shock Tactics'
by

Roger Sabin Roger Sabin (born 1961) is an English writer about comics and lecturer at Central St. Martins. Work Sabin is best known for his book ''Adult Comics'' which has gone through a number of editions, remaining in print for 20 years and is the stand ...

).'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Andy 1959 births 2016 deaths British illustrators British album-cover and concert-poster artists Alumni of Camberwell College of Arts People from Lavenham