Anarchist Jamie Reid, anarchist, artist, and graphic designer who pioneered the cut-and-paste punk design aesthetic, has died. He was 76. Reid is best known for his influential Sex Pistols record covers for Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols and God Save the Queen, and Pretty Vacant. From The Guardian:
His lettering mimicked the cut-and-paste style of an anonymised ransom note, a style he first developed with the countercultural publication Suburban Press, which he began in 1970 alongside Jeremy Brook and Nigel Edwards. He was inspired by the alternative politics of the late 1960s, and did graphic design for the 1974 book Leaving the 20th Century: The Incomplete Work of the Situationist International, which compiled translated texts by French situationist writers.
Reid explained his ethos in 2015: "Our culture is geared towards enslavement – for people to perform pre-ordained functions, particularly in the workplace. I've always tried to encourage people to think about that and to do something about it."
His website described his work as blending "gnosticism and dissent", with spirituality also a major component.
