creative director Lee Swillingham ON THE ART OF STAYING ONE STEP AHEAD

Lee Swillingham’s unique creative direction brought high energy and glamour to British fashion in the 1990s. With Tom Ford he transformed the Gucci fashion brand, making ad campaigns sexy again. His innovative, maverick vision, and deep knowledge of music, fashion and design culture redefined the aesthetics and photography of magazine culture, pioneering the use of gaming and Photoshop within it. Currently steering creative direction for Harper’s Bazaar Italia, his work continues to have a profound influence on future-facing fashion and design today.

Sascha Behrendt: Let’s start by talking about your early experiences in Manchester and how that shaped your work.

Lee Swillingham: I was there during Manchester’s late ‘80s music scene, with emerging bands like The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, and I went to the Haçienda club for the first time when I was fifteen. My favourite graphic designer at that time was Neville Brody at The Face because everything was a logo to him, he created his own typefaces, and the way he channelled Russian Constructivism was just brilliant. I also loved the graphics associated with the Haçienda; the club posters by designers 8v0 were incredible. All Factory Record’s stuff, including Peter Saville’s New Order record sleeves. Duran Duran’s Rio artwork by Malcolm Garrett is one my favourite covers of all time. I remember while at St. Martin’s College seeing the New Order Technique record sleeve by Saville and Trevor Key, with bright purple and orange coloured lighting on a stone garden cherub, and thinking that was really clever art direction because it was basically rave classicism.

SB: Why did you choose to study graphic design and how did working for The Face and Arena come about?

 LS: I went to the BA graduate shows at the Manchester Polytechnic, which were very exciting, because I saw there, how graphic design covered lots of different areas. You could create your own typefaces, illustrations, and photography. I wanted to do graphic design because in my mind it was close to what a magazine was about. I met a graduate student called Patrick Glover at his show, which was the best one that year, and because he was freelancing at The Face he introduced me to the art director, Phil Bicker. I then went on to assist various people at Arena magazine, which was the same publisher, whilst at the same time studying at Central St. Martin’s art college in London. 

Arena was only six issues a year, so I could kind of disappear from St. Martins for two weeks to work on it, because the college had this charmingly slightly disorganised setup. After Phil Bicker left The Face I ended up working across both Arena and The Face. I was pretty driven, and then a year after graduating college, The Face owner and publisher Nick Logan, offered me the job of art director. I was really surprised, but in retrospect, I guess they saw that I was pretty confident, had a point of view and good at dealing with the contributors. Especially photographers, where obviously being collaborative is important.

Within a year I had taken the magazine through a massive transformation. I had previously worked on the front section of The Face which is where new photographers were tried out, like Elaine Constantine and Norbert Schoerner. I always thought they were more interesting than those chosen for covers and important features, so I immediately gave them big shoots and the covers.

SB: They ranged widely in style, from Elaine Constantine, who took very natural and fresh photos, to Inez Van Lamsveerde, with her glossy, surreal, manipulated images.

LS: Yeah, people have called the latter style, ‘Hyper-Real’ photography’. I think I pretty much started that photography movement at The Face, though where it ended up later was horrible. Norbert and Inez & Vinoodh had not shot for proper big magazines yet.

They used computers to assemble their pictures, and I saw where the technology was developing a long time before Photoshop appeared. I would collaborate on ideas and put together concepts for shoots, driving things forward, and help execute those ideas, which is now basically how the advertising world works. Though I was expanding into a Creative Director role, I preferred the title Art Director, because it reminded me of those amazing guys from the sixties and seventies – Alexander Liberman, Henry Wolf, and George Lois from Esquire. 

I was lucky to be given a lot of freedom by Nick Logan, owner of The Face. When I commissioned Inez & Vinoodh, and the images came in, I was really pleased, but also thought this is pretty out there. The visual language was shocking with strong colours and clashing, juxtaposing elements between the models, the styling and backgrounds, and I thought there was a big chance people would hate, or even be offended by it. It was a risk-taking moment, but one more exciting than scary. But, after I realised no one was going to stop me, I just went ahead, and all credit to the magazine who didn’t pull it.

When the issue came out, people were surprised. They were used to seeing lots of black and white, low-key photography, and then out of nowhere these images appeared, heavily manipulated in post-production to a highly finished degree. It was conceptual, dare I say, art? One of the images that stays in my memory is of a model all styled up, sitting on an office chair on the freeway. It was as if Helmut Newton and J.G. Ballard had gone off to work on a fashion shoot together. They were absurd, satirical, and political. Some people at the time disliked those shoots, and then the same people, six months later, were making very, very similar work. That was my first lesson in how transient making fashion imagery is, and how something can feel wrong, and then feel right.

SB: Can you talk about technology and your love of sci-fi in your work?

LS: I am interested in how the creative industries and culture are being transformed by the internet and digital platforms. It all ties in with my fascination with speculative fiction, authors like Phillip K. Dick, Anthony Burgess and J.G. Ballard. And how their ideas are manifesting in real life. We did articles on virtual worlds in The Face way back then. Another creative risk early on, was when we did our fashion shoot starring Lara Croft, the video game character. I asked designers, Alexander McQueen, Ann Demeulemeester and Tom Ford at Gucci to provide the clothes for her, and then they were rendered in 3D by an artist at the game studio. That story was published in 1997 and was a very unusual thing to do at the time. I remember Tom Ford thought I was crazy. I wanted to push the boundaries of what was technically possible in image making. We are slowly starting to see these things happening in real life now. There are Instagram accounts with virtual influencers, but they are not presenting TV shows or really permeating the mainstream consciousness just yet. I’m very interested in this stuff, not just culturally but also from a theory perspective. However, be careful what you wish for – the Metaverse as envisioned right now by some companies looks pretty dire.

SB: What are some of the unique qualities you’ve discovered you need as a creative director?

LS: What has attracted me to working on magazines since way back, is the idea of being connected to the zeitgeist. Are you connected, plugged into it, or making it happen?

That’s the million-dollar question. The job of a creative director is being connected to the culture, not just specifically typography, design or photography. I was always interested in journalism, the news, so generally aware of what was going on in the wider world. 

In the fashion industry, especially with advertising campaigns, you have to make fairly quick decisions and then get them out there. Early on, the big learning curve for me was working with the clients and brands, and while often the best ideas come from following one's own gut instincts, it’s also important to understand what their needs are as well. 

SB: Has your visual taste and style changed over the years? 

LS: I think my taste evolves all the time. Fashion and music are what this country is good at, slamming styles together, and mixing it all up. That is what I try to do subconsciously, to bring together the idea of high and low culture. When you are young and you suddenly discover that all this stuff you like is weirdly connected and that it’s a cultural network that you plug into. My journey began working at The Face and led to Vogue. You start your career almost trying to subvert the idea of publications like Vogue, and then evolve into working for them. There’s a nice symmetry that Edward Enninful, who was the fashion editor at i-D magazine when I was at The Face, was the Vogue editor I ended up working with.

SB: My last question is, on a purely creative level, is there anything left that you still would love to do?

LS: Can I come back to you on that one? There are too many I can think of…

SB: Ha ha, yes…the true answer of a creative person!

All art direction and design Lee Swillingham and Stuart Spalding at @suburbia_agency