Alan Aldridge

Alan Aldridge
Alan Aldridge (1971)
Born	(1943-06-01) 1 June 1943 (age 73) London, England
Residence	Los Angeles
Nationality	British
Occupation	artist, illustrator, graphic designer, creative director
Years active	1965–present
Spouse(s)	Rita Laura Lyons
Children	8

Alan Aldridge (born 1 June 1943 in London) is an English artist, graphic designer and illustrator.

Aldridge was born in East London and now lives in Los Angeles, California. Four of his children are fashion photographer Miles Aldridge and models Saffron Aldridge,Lily Aldridge and Ruby Aldridge.

Aldridge first worked as an illustrator at "The Sunday Times Magazine.'' After doing some freelance book covers for Penguin Books, he was hired in March 1965 by Penguin's chief editor Tony Godwin to become the art director of Penguin. Over the next two years as art director, he especially focused on science fiction book covers and introduced his style which resonated with the mood of the time. In 1968 he moved to his own graphic-design firm, INK, which became closely involved with graphic images for the Beatles and Apple Corps.

During the 1960s and 1970s, he was responsible for a great many album covers, and helped create the graphic style of that era. He designed a series of science fiction book covers for Penguin Books. He made a big impression with his illustrations for The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics book. He also provided illustrations for The Penguin Book of Comics, a history of British and American comic art. His work was characterised by a flowing, cartoony style and soft airbrushing – very much in step with the psychedelic styles of the times. His work includes the 1971 anti-war poster entitled A great place for hamburgers but who'd want to live there!

In the theatre, in February 1969 he designed the graphics for controversial Jane Arden play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven at the London Arts Laboratory, Drury Lane.

He is possibly best known, however, for the picture book The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper Feast (1973), a series of illustrations of anthropomorphic insects and other creatures, which he created in collaboration with William Plomer, who wrote the accompanying verses. This was based on William Roscoe's poem of the same name, but was inspired when Aldridge read that John Tenniel had told Lewis Carroll it was impossible to draw a wasp in a wig. Illustrations produced in collaboration with Harry Willock.