Terry Jones (i-D)

Terry Jones was born on 2 September 1945 in Northampton, England.[2][3] He was a student of commercial art at West of England College of Art in Bristol. During college Jones was already working on two magazines: Circuit and Hip Hip Bullshit Dip. After his first two-year diploma, he was persuaded by the head of graphics Richard Hollis to continue studies, but soon after he left without a grade in solidarity to Hollis who had resigned due to a lack of support from the school. Hollis suggested Jones should apply to the Royal College of Art, but being reluctant during the interview he wasn't accepted.[4][5]

Jones then worked as an assistant to the graphic designer Ivan Dodd, until becoming assistant art director at Good Housekeeping, from 1968 until 1970, and art director for Vanity Fair from 1970 until 1971.[1]

From 1972 until 1977 Terry was the art director for British Vogue.[6][7] Terry was present at the magazine under the direction of then-editor, Beatrix Miller, stating: "Beatrix Miller was amazing. She let me get away with breaking all sorts of rules – covers, notoriously." [8] One of his most notorious covers was the "Green Jelly one"[8] from February 1977. Created by Terry and Grace Coddington and shot by Willie Christie, the cover was deemed adventurous for the time – even for today.[9] Terry has admitted in an interview with SHOWstudio that the cover was nearly taken off the press, even after it had been approved by Vogue's board at the time (which included Terry Jones, Beatrix Miller and the-then managing director of British Vogue).[8]

In 1977 Jones had commissioned the photographer Steve Johnston for a head-to-toe-portrait series of punk youth on London's King's Road. The series was considered too radical for publication in British Vogue, so Jones used it for his book Not Another Punk Book (Aurum Press).[10] This kind of documentary approach to fashion photography, then labelled the Straight-up, became one of the trade marks of Terry Jones' own upcoming publication i-D.

He spoke in an interview with Lou Stoppard the moment Steve had returned to Vogue to show Terry what he had produced:

So [Steve] came back and showed me these contacts, and on each contact he would have at least 16 people that looked brilliant. I thought that would be great for Vogue. [Beatrix] Miller came in and I hadn't realised how much Steve had changed in three months: he suddenly dyed his hair orange; he was wearing this jacket with safety pins; he had a swastika on his forehead; and Miller came in and saw him – like one of these guys she had just been reading about in the Daily Mirror – and just walked out. She couldn't enter the discussion. And so I realised that Vogue was such an institution that it couldn't recognise what was going on in the streets.[8]

Having left British Vogue Terry Jones worked as a freelancer all over Europe until 1979, as a consultant for the German edition of Vogue, for the magazines Donna and Sportswear Europe, for selected issues of Italian Vogue, as well as a creative director for the Italian fashion label, Fiorucci.[11][12][13]

He also designed and edited books, worked on advertising campaigns, and is credited as graphic designer and photographer on several record covers.[14]

In 1980 Terry Jones, his wife Tricia Jones, and Blitz kid Perry Haines founded the magazine i-D. The first issue was hand-stapled photocopies in the style of a fanzine with little distribution. But over the years i-D developed to a glossy fashion magazine with global impact, while still keeping its cutting-edge view on fashion and youth culture.[15][16]

From its launch in 1980, to the summer of 1985, when the magazine moved to Covent Garden, i-D was produced from the top floor of Terry and Tricia Jones' terraced house in West Hampstead.[16]

Pioneering the 'straight-up' street-style portrait, the magazine presented an alternative, grass-roots view of fashion, which contrasted greatly with the rarified glamour of mainstream fashion at the time. The winking cover-star, from Madonna in 1984 to Cara Delevingne on recent issues, has since become a cheeky trademark for the i-D brand.[17]

Previous editor of i-D, Dylan Jones, has often spoken fondly of Terry and his irreverent approach to magazine publishing, saying that Terry felt that the best way to reflect the creativity he admired in street-style was through 'immediacy': through visual imagery – rather than just text – so the magazine used typewriter-face print, ticker-tape headlines and wild, often perverse, graphics. Although this was a style born out of necessity – due to financial constraints during the time – as much as any ideology, it gave the magazine an identity, which it preserves to this day.[6]

Dylan mentioned once that "[he] returned from New York, walking into the West Hampstead office to discover Terry slicing off the bottom four-inches of one of [his] articles. When [he] asked what [Terry] was doing – [his] eyes on stalks as if drawn by a demented cartoonist – [Terry] shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Well, it wouldn't fit.' "[16]

Enjoying the freedom that an independent publication brought, Terry could often be perverse in his art direction and design.[6] If a picture suggested that it be used full-frame, full-bleed, then Terry's inclination would be to crop it in half and print it upside down with a 30 per cent cyan-tint. The best picture from a session would be used small, while the worst one would be used across a spread. When asked why he did it, he'd cut back with, "Why do it like everyone else?" Video-grabs and TV-stills were used to provide a sense of speed and the unexpected. Body copy and headlines were unflinchingly distorted while computer-type became one of the magazine's defining characteristics a decade before it arrived in publications such as Wired and Dazed.[6]

Terry and Tricia Jones' ability to pick out young talent is well known in the fashion industry.[17] Nick Knight owes his career to Terry Jones, as do Edward Enninful, Judy Blame, Simon Foxton, Robin Derrick, Caryn Franklin, Juergen Teller, Helmut Lang, Craig McDean, David Sims, John Galliano, Kate Moss, and hundreds of other journalists, photographers, graphic designers, fashion designers, stylists, make-up artists and hairdressers. i-D gave Sade her first cover, gave Madonna her first cover, gave most people their first cover.[16]

Terry's intentions and direction of i-D have always been well-focused, exemplified in his interview with Hint: "[British] Vogue will look at i-D and think, 'We'd like a bit of that photographer.' Some photographers have that in mind when they shoot for us, but their work in i-D will have more soul. That's the difference. We've become a virus, which was kind of intentional. The idea was to infiltrate."[18]

Besides of the abbreviation for 'identity', the name i-D refers to 'Informat Design', Terry Jones' studio, later on re-branded as 'Instant Design'.[5][19]

Jones is author and editor of books related to the magazine like i-D Covers 1980–2010 (2010), SMILE i-D: Fashion and Style: the Best from 20 Years of i-D (2001), SOUL i-D (2008), or i-DENTITY: An Exhibition Celebrating 25 Years of i-D (2006); as well as a curator of travelling exhibitions, and furthermore running a (probably now defunct) record label under the eponymous name.[14]

In 2013 at the British Fashion Awards Terry and Tricia Jones were honoured with the "Outstanding Achievement Award" for their work on i-D.[17]

Jones was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to fashion and popular culture.[21]

In 1980 Jones and Perry Haines directed the video Careless Memories for the band Duran Duran.

(as author or editor, and graphic designer)

• The Tree with John Fowles, and Frank Horvat (1979)
• Women on Women (1979)
• Not Another Punk Book (1980)
• Private Viewing: Contemporary Erotic Photography (1983)
• Getting Jobs in Graphic Design (1989)
• i-Deas of a Decade (1990)
• Wink instant design: a manual of graphic techniques (1990)
• Family Future Positive with Tony Elliott (1985)
• Catching The Moment (1997)
• SMILEi-D: Fashion and Style: the Best from 20 Years of i-D (2001)
• Fashion Now with Susie Rushton (2003, paperback edition 2006)
• i-DENTITY: An Exhibition Celebrating 25 Years of i-D (2006)
• Fashion Now 2 with Susie Rushton (2005, paperback edition 2008)
• SOUL i-D (2008)
• i-D Covers 1980–2010 (2010)
• SOUL i-D: Chinese Edition (2012)
• Vivienne Westwood (2012)
• Yohji Yamamoto (2012)
• 100 Contemporary Fashion Designers (2013)
• Rei Kawakubo (2013)
• Rick Owens (2013)
• Raf Simons (2013)

• Family Future Positive (1995, London)
• 2001 minus 3 (1998, at Florence Biennale)
• Beyond Price (1999ff)
• SMILEi-D (2001ff)
• i-DENTITY: An Exhibition Celebrating 25 Years of i-D (Fashion & Textile Museum, London, São Paulo Fashion Week, Chelsea Art Museum New York, Cultural Centre Hong Kong, Spiral Hall Tokyo, Long March Space Beijing) (2006ff)[22]
• Soul i-D (2008)
• Soul i-D: Beijing (2012)

Terry Jones was born in 1945, Northampton. Moved with his mother and his sister Mavis Elizabeth (born 1946) to the countryside in the West Country. His father, an RAF soldier, left the family before Mavis Elizabeth was born. In 1962 Terry attended Art School in Bristol.

In 1968 Terry Jones married Tricia. They have two children, Kayt Jones and Matthew Jones, who both are working as photographers. The Jones reside in London and Wales.[3][7][23]

• Jones' contributor page on Showstudio.com
• Interview with John L. Waters for Eye
• Terry Jones on Vice.com (owner of i-D since 2012)
• Jones, Terry. (1 of 10). Oral History of British Photography