2. As long as art stands aside
from the problems of life it will
only interest a very few people.
Culture today is becoming a
mass affair, and the artist must
step down from his pedestal
and be prepared to make a
sign for a butcher’s shop…
The designer of today re-
establishes the long-lost contact
between art and the public,
between living people and art
as a living thing. Instead of
pictures for the drawing-room,
electric gadgets for the kitchen.
There should be no such thing
as art divorced from life, with
beautiful things to look at and
hideous things to use. If what
we use every day is made with
art, and not thrown together
by chance or caprice, then we
shall have nothing to hide.
Design as Art
Bruno Munari 1966
Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder
The book charts a course through the other
worlds, future visions and altered states
of sci-fi film and television. Taking us from
the magical invention of early cinema and
onwards past the flying saucers, forbidden
planets and Martian invaders of 1950s Cold
War sci-fi and the adventures in space and
time of Doctor Who. We journey deep into
the virtual realities of cyberspace, meeting
advanced artificial intelligences, biological
mutations and alien lifeforms, and on to
the special-effects-laden, galaxy-spanning
entertainments of today. Through a range of
lavishly illustrated new essays ‘Sci-Fi: Days
of Fear and Wonder’ shows how sci-fi is as
much about ideas as spectacle, and how it
expresses our sense of fear and wonder like
no other genre.
Electric Shadows:
A Century of Chinese Cinema
An introduction to the long and illustrious
history of Chinese cinema, from the earliest
silent films through the glamour and
invention of Shanghai’s golden age in the
1930s, from the restrictions of the Cultural
Revolution to the grand renaissance of the
‘Fifth Generation’ directors in the 1980s,
and from the underground, independent
spirit of the 1990s to the booming multiplex
cinema of the present. Along the way it
tells the parallel stories of Hong Kong and
Taiwan’s cinema, and, of course, China’s
great genre cinema, from ‘wuxia’ swordplay
epics and kung fu spectacles to crime
thrillers and eerie ghost tales.
3. Sight&Sound
‘Sight & Sound’ magazine, which was first
published in 1932, is the UK’s original
magazine for fans of film. Born as a
quarterly publication, the journal quickly
became a highly influential element of
the activities of the British Film Institute
(BFI), which came into being in 1933.
‘Sight & Sound’ is critically and historically
authoritative, and at the same time wide-
ranging and cutting edge. It covers as wide
a range of moving-image experiences as
possible, looking at films and filmmakers
from all over the globe, plus artists’ film/
experimenta, film festivals, TV, DVD and
Blu-ray, film books, and film history and
theory. It has a comprehensive review
section combined with in-depth features,
along with news, views and interviews with
the most important people in filmmaking.
I have been the magazine’s designer
since 2001 and its art director since 2005.
4. Black World
A 32-page supplement to ‘Sight & Sound’
magazine, and part of the British Film
Institute’s major project dedicated to
celebrating black creativity in film. With
contributions from Melvin Van Peebles,
Nelson George, Michael Mann, Charles
Burnett and Anthony Minghella.
39 Steps to the Genius of Hitchcock
From his humble beginnings as a
greengrocer’s son in East London, Alfred
Hitchcock rose to become the most
celebrated film director the world has ever
known. Comprising 39 lavishly illustrated
new essays – many written by some of the
world’s foremost authorities – ‘39 Steps to
the Genius of Hitchcock’ offers a complete
portrait of the man the world came to
know as the ‘Master of Suspense’.
Chaplin
A 16-page supplement to ‘Sight & Sound’
magazine. Sponsored by Warner Bros
to mark the re-release of ‘The Chaplin
Collection’ on DVD, with text by Chaplin’s
acclaimed biographer David Robinson, the
supplement introduces ten key Chaplin
films, and combines some of the most
iconic images of the filmmaker at work
with rarely seen archive material.
Open Asia
Open Asia was an exhibition by
photographer Kris Dewitte and part
of The Open Doek Film Festival, which
is held annually in Turnhout, Belgium.
Focusing on Asian Film, the book
features a foreword by Thai film director
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, four on-
set film photography, plus a section of
portraits of prominent film actresses.
5. Contact details
e: chris.brawn@bfi.org.uk
m: 07957 484731
To view more of my work, visit
www.chrisbrawndesign.com
Phaidon Books
Phaidon Books is an international
publisher of books on art, photography,
architecture, design, travel, fashion,
food and more. To date, I have
completed the layout of three books.
Ingres
A 240-page monograph, with 60 colour
illustrations and 20 black-and-white
illustrations, charting the career
of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
(1780–1867), one of the most influential
painters of the French neoclassical period.
Géricault
A 232-page monograph, with 195 colour
illustrations and five black-and-white
illustrations, exploring the life and works
of painter, draughtsman and lithographer
Théodore Géricault (1791–1824), a pioneer
of the French Romantic movement.
The Art Museum
The finest art collection ever assembled
between two covers, this revolutionary
and unprecedented virtual art museum in
a book, features 992 oversized pages of
nearly 2,700 works of art. It is the most
comprehensive and visually spectacular
history of world art ever published. Ten
years in the making, this unique book was
created with a global team of specialists
in all fields of art, including museum
curators and educators, who have collected
together important works as they might
be displayed in the ideal museum.
