In 1967 while operating a light show for an underground venue, he created a bubble effect by mixing oils and water on projection slides and from then on he was known as Barney Bubbles by his colleagues. The name stuck. Two years later he set up a graphic art studio on Portobello Road working primarily for the music industry. There he formed an association with Hawkwind and became responsible for a run of their album sleeves, including In Search Of Space. He also worked on their visual identity, designing posters, adverts, stage decoration and performance plans. 

In 1977 he was asked to join the newly formed Stiff Records as a designer and art director. Along with his prodigious output for freelance work he designed for The Damned, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Ian Dury, Generation X, Billy Bragg and Dr. Feelgood. His signature style was colourful, loaded with geometry, jokes, cryptograms, symbols and references to music history and art history.

He liked to work in different media and aside from graphic design, stage decoration, furniture design and directing videos (including the Specials’ Ghost Town and Is That Love for Squeeze), he also created the new look and logo for New Musical Express (NME). 

However, his style began to fall out of fashion by the early 1980s and he started to display increasingly erratic behaviour. He had considerable financial worries including being investigated by HMRC for unpaid taxes going back several years, and at just 41, he committed suicide. He gassed himself, trapping the fumes in a plastic bag which he had placed over his head. Since his death he has been recognised as a pioneering designer in the music industry and his work has been prominently featured in many exhibitions as well as in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Buy his artwork from mainstream galleries here.