‘Ark’ the Royal College of Art Journal from 1950-78.

Mid last year the Royal College of Art’s Critical Writing in Art & Design students produced a celebratory book exploring the College’s historic and influential visual arts journal, ARK.

Ark: Words and Images from the Royal College of Art Magazine 1950-1978, is a wide-ranging anthology of articles and images from the College’s long-running ARK magazine, an influential presence in British cultural life.

There’s a great variety of eye-catching covers, predominantly from the 50’s and 60’s.

Quite a few of the journals seem to use geometric or graphic themes to add that extra “POP”.

These two covers are amongst my favourites.

On a related but totally separate note, whist doing the research for this post, I came across this beautiful collage-illustration from the very talented Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Always great to be reminded just how rich and textural his work is.

A quick vote of thanks, to the very talented Illustrator Colin West, for bringing “Ark Journals” to my attention in the first place.