Richard Adams
Managing Art Director & Senior Designer
Adams Associates
BORN
18 iv 1947
BIRTHPLACE
Birmingham, England
EDUCATION
1963 – 65 Bourneville College of Art, Foundation and pre-Diploma
1965 – 68 Birmingham College of Art, Graphic and exhibition design, Dip AD
WORK EXPERIENCE
1968 – 69 Charles Hurlston Advertising, Birmingham
1969 Assistant art director Decca, South Bank, London
1969 –74 Designer Oz magazine, assistant art director Ink newspaper, designed and contributed to wide range of underground magazines and publications: art director, Time Out magazine; International Times; Friends; Paladin Publishing; Picador Books; illustration and designed record covers, posters in freelance capacity
1974 – 75 Founding art director of Dennis Publishing, international and independent magazine publishing company
1975 Travelled widely in Poland and United States of America, contributed illustrations and collages to a number of New York and San Francisco publications, Rolling Stone, Yipster Times, Straight Arrow Press and other west coast publishers
1975 – 82 Formed independent publishing partnership with writer, Heathcote Williams, Open Head Press. Began designing widely for most of the leading fringe and West End theatre companies as well as mainstream publishers. Clients include: Wildwood House, Pantheon Books, Penguin Books; Thames & Hudson, Secker & Warburg
1982 – 92 Established AdCo Associates, a design partnership with Nigel Coke, designer and photographer Took on a more commercial direction but concentrated on the arts and publishing, theatre and music, designing ‘across the board’ - posters and publicity, programmes and accompanying literature, illustrated books, poetry, book jackets, record covers. Clients include: Royal Court; National Theatre; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh; Paines Plough; Everyman, Liverpool; LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre); Notting Hill Carnival; Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Elephant Fayre; LIOF (London International Opera Festival); ENO (English National Opera); Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; The Groucho Club; Greenpeace, Portobello Contemporary Art Festival
1992 – Formed Adams Associates in partnership with Sam Adams. Consolidated work within the wider arts and publishing media whilst also extending into education, science and charitable organisations, stock and specialist photo libraries. Clients include: British Council; Science Photo Library, National Portrait Gallery; World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Geneva; Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press; Chatto & Windus; Hutchinson Publishers; Harcourt Brace; English National Opera; Royal Opera House; Edinburgh International Festival; John Moores Foundation; Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain; Portland Place School; Davies Laing & Dick College; Virgin Records. The period since 1992 has seen the company expand, in a controlled way, to include an additional design assistant and frequent collaborations with a fellow designer, Edwin Belchamber and the internationally renowned Polish illustrator, Andrzej Krauze
Richard Adams is a member of the Artworker’s Guild and has taught and lectured in several art colleges in the south of England.