Classic_Pop_Issue_30_July_2017

KEN ANSELL

KEN ANSELL’S NAME ISN’T AS WELL KNOWN AS

THE DESIGN WORK HE CREATED FOR SOME OF

THE BIGGEST HIT ALBUMS OF THE 80S. IN THIS

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, WE LOOK BACK ON A

POP PORTFOLIO THAT DARED TO HELP DEFINE

THE GRAPHIC STYLE OF AN ERA.

ANDREW DINELEY

“I can’t quite remember how the handwritten Japan logo came about but the band must have liked it as we ended

up using it on other sleeves.”

KEN ANSELL

C

lassic Pop: How did

you fi rst get involved

in design – did you

go to art school?

Ken Ansell: At school, I was

good at art and, encouraged by

my teacher, I applied to go to art

college, aged 17. I was turned

down by Kingston in 1968, so I

applied for a foundation course at

Guildford and managed to get in.

The course was disrupted by the

student unrest that was sweeping the

country and I was offered a second

year at Farnham. I worked hard at

Guildford but discovered the social

side of being a student at Farnham

and consequently ended up only

applying for a vocational course at

the West Sussex School of Art where

I loosely studied Graphics.

I found the technical side of

the course hard to grasp and in

my last year I was threatened

with expulsion along with two

colleagues. In a wave of rebellion,

we rejected the college curriculum,

formed a company (Ansell,

Birks and Sadgrove) touting for

small, local design projects and

designed our own products which

we screenprinted at college and

attempted to sell in Brighton.

On leaving Worthing in 1973,

Ron (Birks) got a job as a Junior

Creative at J Walter Thompson and

Adrian (Sadgrove) joined the EMI

in-house design team.

I managed to get a job with the

son of the external assessor of our

end of year show and fi nished up as

the sole graphic designer at a small

design fi rm working (mostly) for

Island Records. After several years,

both Adrian and I were offered

62

Ken Ansell’s fi rst

album sleeve was

Seven Seals by

Matumbi in 1978

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