Keith Breeden RP (born 25 March 1956) is a graphic designer and portraitist. He is a member of the

Royal Society of Portrait Painters The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a charity based at Carlton House Terrace, SW1, London that promotes the practice and appreciation of portraiture art. Its Annual Exhibition of portraiture is held at Mall Galleries, and it runs a commi ...

Early life

Keith attended St. Wilfred's Primary in

Northwich Northwich is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. It lies on the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane, east of Chester, south of Warrington and south of Ma ...

from 1962 to 1967 before attending

St Ambrose College St Ambrose College is an 11–18 Christian Brothers' Roman Catholic boys' grammar school in Hale Barns, Altrincham, Greater Manchester, England. It was founded in 1946 by Joseph Robertson. In 2012 the school became an academy, and was complete ...

from 1967 to 1973, where he was in the same A-level art class as Peter Saville and Malcolm Garrett of a class of just six pupils. Around this time he lived in Wimpey housing estate. At times he played truant to go to the Manchester

Free Trade Hall The Free Trade Hall on Peter Street, Manchester, England, was constructed in 1853–56 on St Peter's Fields, the site of the Peterloo Massacre. It is now a Radisson Hotels, Radisson hotel. The hall was built to commemorate the repeal of the Corn ...

and help carry in equipment for concerts by

Free Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, the ability to act or change without constraint or restriction * Emancipate, attaining civil and political rights or equality * Free (''gratis''), free of charge * Gratis versus libre, the difference betw ...

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard ...

, among other bands. This rebellious attitude extended to breaking school uniform rules through wearing shoulder length hair and flares. Ultimately he left St Ambrose prematurely without taking any public examinations. After a challenging foundation year at technical college in

, in 1974 he applied to study fine art at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, but found the course to be 'dull and pointless' and left during the first year.

Early career

By 1974 Keith was working as a cellarman in a casino in Berkeley Square. Malcolm Garrett learnt of this from Keith's sister and so got in touch with Keith, offering him to design the sleeve for a reissue of 'I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)' by the

Electric Prunes The Electric Prunes are an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. Much of the band's music was, as music historian Richie Unterberger described it, possessed of "an eerie and sometimes anguished ambiance." ...

. During this time, Breeden designed covers for bands like

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes due to th ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

Angelic Upstarts Angelic Upstarts are an English punk rock / Oi! band formed in South Shields in 1977. AllMusic calls them "one of the period's most politically charged and thought-provoking groups". Angelic Upstarts Biography AllMusic. accessed 3 July 2006 The ...

, and The Photos. In 1979, Garrett and Breeden moved into a studio in Tottenham Court Road. In 1984, Garrett and his partner, Kasper de Graaf, suggested that Breeden become a formal partner in Assorted Images, their company. This disturbed Breeden, who had always been wary of anything to do with business, so he moved out. He continued designing sleeves and set up DKB (Design KB) in 1984, where he was joined by Peter Curzon and Martin Jenkins. Continuing as a graphic designer for sleeves, he worked with

Scritti Politti Scritti Politti are a British band formed in 1977 in Leeds by singer-songwriter Green Gartside, who is the sole remaining member of the original band. Initially formed as a punk culture, punk-aligned underground act influenced by leftist poli ...

Roxy Music Roxy Music are an English rock music, rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry (lead vocals/keyboards/principal songwriter) and Graham Simpson (musician), Graham Simpson (bass). By the time the band recorded their Roxy Music (album), first albu ...

, and

Fine Young Cannibals Fine Young Cannibals (FYC) are an English pop rock band formed in Birmingham, West Midlands, in 1984 by former The Beat band bassist David Steele and guitarist Andy Cox with singer Roland Gift (formerly of the Akrylykz). Their self-titled ...

. Breeden's logo work with ABC would display nuances of usage as the group reinvented itself from album to album. His various concepts for Scritti Politti would range from disarrayed wildflowers to chocolate bars and boxes to the many visual ways to reference

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Honored as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Soul", she was twice named by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as the Roll ...

, all suggesting elements of modern love at a period when Scritti was strongly establishing a transition to urban romance from a more DIY aesthetic that had previously distinguished their sound. The band was all Caucasian and on one cover of an early soul-inspired single a white chocolate bar is featured. Other noteworthy pieces include his work on the covers of Duran Duran's ''

Seven and the Ragged Tiger ''Seven and the Ragged Tiger'' is the third studio album by the English pop rock band Duran Duran, released on 21 November 1983 through EMI and Capitol Records. Co-produced by Alex Sadkin, Ian Little and the band, recording sessions took p ...

'' album (along with Malcolm Garrett), The Mission's ''

Carved in Sand ''Carved in Sand'' is the third regular studio album by The Mission, released in 1990. It reached #7 in the UK Albums Chart, making it the second of two top ten albums and overall best-selling album in the band's career. Four singles were releas ...

'' album and related singles, and

The Cult The Cult are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Bradford in 1983. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band had performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead vocalist Ian Astbury ...

's 1987 ''

Electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

'' album (along with

Storm Thorgerson Storm Elvin Thorgerson (28 February 1944 – 18 April 2013) was an English art director and music video director. He is best known for closely working with the group Pink Floyd through most of their career, and also created album or other art f ...

) and its first two singles ("

Love Removal Machine "Love Removal Machine" is a song recorded by the British rock band the Cult. It was the first single to be released from the group's 1987 album ''Electric''. First recorded during a radio session, it had a different arrangement when it was recor ...

" and "Lil' Devil"). In 1996 he gave up sleeve design when he decided to concentrate on painting.

Graphic design awards

* 1985 First Prize, Single Sleeve (

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

Awards). * 1986 First Prize, Single Sleeve (Music Week Awards). * 1986 First Prize, Album Sleeve (Music Week Awards). * 1986 Third Prize, Album Sleeve (Music Week Awards).

Portraiture

Breeden took a new direction in 1995 and is now professional portraitist. Commissions have included Sir Brian Smith, Vice Chancellor of

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

, Sir

Dominic Cadbury Sir Nicholas Dominic Cadbury (born 12 May 1940) is a British businessman and member of the Cadbury chocolate manufacturing dynasty. He was the sixth chancellor of University of Birmingham, stepping down in 2014. Early life Cadbury was born on ...

Chairman of

Cadbury Schweppes Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational corporation, multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International (spun off from Kraft Foods, Inc., Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second-largest c ...

, Professor John Temple, President of the

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) is a medical royal college in Scotland. It is one of three organisations that set the specialty training standards for physicians in the United Kingdom. It was established by royal charter i ...

and Professor Roger Williams, Vice Chancellor of the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

Portraiture awards

* 1996 Visitors Choice ( BP Awards,

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

). * 1998 Elected to the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. * 2000 First Prize (Kodak FotoKalender awards, Kalenderschau,

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

)

Personal life

Breeden is married with three children. He lives in Wales.

References

External links

Keith's Portfolio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breeden, Keith 1956 births Living people British graphic designers People educated at St. Ambrose College