Adrian Bailey, who died last year at 96, was an illustrator, designer, painter, photographer, musician, writer and gourmand. It is safe to say he did not waste opportunities. He once shared a flat with Len Deighton and was a friend of Pop Artist Peter Blake and abstract painter Frank Auerbach amongst many, many others. According to The Times obituary, he and Deighton, both excellent cooks, entertained TV entrepreneur David Frost and actor Michael Caine, “Every night was a banquet night.”
Bailey reviewed restaurants and was a good cook himself; he was a “gifted cellist” and promoter of classical music, but witnessed the legendary Beatles concert on the roof of the Apple building in 1969 (that one hurts the most!). He worked as an advertising copywriter and tried his hand at journalism. Bailey also wrote three popular books on photography and one on rock climbing.
So this humble post presents only a tiny sliver of his full life and vast output but it does give you a taste of his work as a commercial illustrator.
Bailey would have to deliver work that was, in many assignments such as these, concise, relevant and punctual. Freelance art was and still is very often rushed so there is obvious pressure to work fast with creative ideas and skilled execution. There are countless stories of illustrators working overnight to complete deadlines – a colleague of mine, Warren Crossett who is a prize winning Australian illustrator, told me that he gave up on freelance work because the stress of overnighters became too much for a normal life.
You can see how concise these Penguin drawings are. The draughtsmanship is professional and shows control over the medium of pen and ink. Bailey has read the books and distilled the narratives down to some essential quality or moment. The reader won’t be tricked by a false image on the cover.
These additional Bailey illustrations were made for magazine clients in the same period as the Penguin covers, the early sixties. They show his facility with painting in colour as well as drawing in black ink as above. There is a sense of visual continuity with the Penguin work.
A gentle, soft-spoken man, Bailey was a gifted raconteur with the knack of striking up conversation with anyone from any walk of life. He always felt most at home in London, and when asked where he would like to be buried replied,“Soho.” Heaven, in his imagination, was “that great cocktail bar in the sky.”
You can read The Times newspaper obituary here.
PENGUIN SERIES DESIGN 