‘I wonder who chose the colour scheme, it’s very nice…’: Mike Coles, Malicious Damage and Forty Years in the Wilderness

A broad range of radical, new art and design approaches came about during the punk and post-punk boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, though as is the nature of the profession, the graphic designer’s anonymity often kept them out of the limelight and away from wider public acknowledgement or recognition. In an age of ‘anyone can do it’, punk inspired not just musicians, but also artists, designers, filmmakers, photographers, writers and a whole array of new creatives. Some simply took the opportunity to make something immediate and of the moment, without the need for any kind of formal education, training and guidance, while others found their way into a new career as a result. A colossal new book by Mike Coles, Forty Years in the Wilderness: A Graphic Voyage of Art, Design & Stubborn Independence, charts a pictorial history of the designer’s work under the Malicious Damage banner, from early record sleeves, posters and flyers promoting Killing Joke alongside label-mates Ski Patrol and Red Beat, to the ambient house experimentation of The Orb, and more recent music graphics for Shriekback, Headcount and Vertical Smile. Part autobiography, part personal reflection, part celebration, this publication may lead to a critical reappraisal of the designer’s work alongside more widely acknowledged contemporaries, though such considerations are far from being a driving force for the project, and the title ironically sums up Coles’ attitude towards independent and autonomous production.