About

Russ Bestley is a graphic designer and writer, and currently Reader in Graphic Design & Subcultures at London College of Communication. His areas of specialist interest include graphic design, popular culture, alternative music scenes and subcultures, comedy and humour. He is Lead Editor of the academic journal Punk & Post-Punk, Series Editor and Art Director for the Global Punk book series published by Intellect Books and a founding member of the Punk Scholars Network.

In 2013, he established the Graphic Subcultures research hub at the London College of Communication, before going on to form the UAL Subcultures Interest Group in 2022.

Russ has written a number of books including Turning Revolt into Style: The Process and Practice of Punk Graphic Design (forthcoming), Action Time Vision: Punk & Post Punk 7” Record Sleeves (Unit Editions 2016), Visual Research (AVA 2004, 2011, Bloomsbury 2015, 2022, further editions in Germany 2006, Korea 2007, France 2013, Italy 2013, Brazil 2013 and China 2022), Up Against the Wall (RotoVision 2002, Spain 2003) and Experimental Layout (RotoVision 2001, Spain 2002). His book The Art of Punk, was published by Omnibus Press (UK), Voyageur (North America), Hannibal Verlag Gmbh (Germany) and Hugo et Compagnie (France) in 2012. The Art of Punk was republished by by Schiffer Books (US and UK) in December 2022.

He also contributed chapters to The Intellect Handbook of Popular Music Methodologies (2023), The Oxford Handbook of Global Popular Music (2022), The Oxford Handbook of Punk Rock (2022), Trans-Global Punk Scenes: The Punk Reader Vol.2 (2021), Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die: Punk and Post-Punk Graphic Design (2020), Punk Now!! Contemporary Perspectives on Punk (2020), The Routledge Companion to Popular Music and Humor (2019), Ripped, Torn and Cut: Pop, Politics and Punk Fanzines from 1976 (2018), Hard Werken: One for All – Graphic Art & Design 1979-1994 (2018), Comedy and Critical Thought: Laughter as Resistance (2018), Punk Pedagogies: Music, Culture and Learning (2017), The Aesthetic of Our Anger: Anarcho-Punk, Politics, Music (2016), Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (2014) and Classic Rock Posters (2012) among others.

He has written articles for a number of journals including Punk & Post-Punk, Cadernos de Arte e Antropologia (South America), The National Grid (New Zealand) and Design 360° (China), and acted as consultant for the Design Museum, Channel Four television and Radio France. He has also written for a range of graphic design and music publications, including Eye, Zed, Emigré, Street Sounds and Vive Le Rock.

He has designed and curated exhibitions on punk and punk graphic design in London, Southampton, Blackpool, Leeds, Oxford, Birmingham and North Shields, and designed books, posters, record covers and other material for Omnibus Press, the Punk Scholars Network, Active Distribution, the Hope Collective, PM Press, Itchy Monkey Press, Viral Age Records and many other DIY and independent labels, publishers and producers. He recently designed a critically acclaimed autobiography by Pauline Murray, Life’s A Gamble, for Omnibus Press.

His band, Watch You Drown, formed in Portsmouth in 1987. They continue to play live and record new and original material.