David Anthony King was an English American artist, (graphic) designer, and musician, a "significant figure in design history" best known as the designer of the symbol for the band

Crass Crass were an English art collective and punk rock band formed in Epping, Essex in 1977, who promoted anarchism as a political ideology, a way of life, and a resistance movement. Crass popularised the anarcho-punk movement of the punk s ...

, "one of punk’s most recognizable and powerful designs".

Life and career

King was born on 10 April 1948 in Ilford, Essex and grew up in

Gants Hill Gants Hill is an area of Ilford in East London, England, within the borough of Redbridge. It is a suburb east northeast of Charing Cross. It lends its name to a central roundabout where five roads meet. History The name likely originated f ...

and

Chigwell Chigwell is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England. It is part of the urban and metropolitan area of London, and is adjacent to the northern boundary of Greater London. It is on the Central line of the London U ...

, Essex. At sixteen he enrolled at South East Essex Technical College in Dagenham to study Graphic Design, where in 1964 he met

Penny Rimbaud Penny Lapsang Rimbaud (born Jeremy John Ratter, 1943) is a writer, poet, philosopher, painter, musician and activist. He was a member of the performance art groups EXIT and Ceres Confusion, and in 1972 was co-founder of the Stonehenge Free Fes ...

and

Gee Vaucher Gee Vaucher (born 1945 in Dagenham, Essex, England) is a visual artist. Biography Vaucher met her long-lasting creative partner Penny Rimbaud in the early 1960s when both were attending the South-East Essex Technical College and School of Ar ...

, who went on to form the band Crass. After graduating from South East Essex Technical College in 1967, for the next ten years King worked for a succession of London advertising agencies, first as a graphic designer and later as an art director, including for the firms

DDB Worldwide DDB Worldwide Communications Group LLC, known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies. The international advertising networks ...

(Doyle Dane Bernbach) and Blackburn Daley. In the 1970s King went to live at

Dial House, Essex Dial House is a farm cottage situated in south-west Essex, England that has been a self-sustaining anarcho-pacifist open house since 1967. The house is located in the countryside of Epping Forest in Ongar Great Park. It has been used as a base f ...

, the commune set up by Ratter and Vaucher on an isolated farm in the middle of an airfield in rural

North Weald North Weald Bassett or simply North Weald is a village and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex, England. The village is within the North Weald Ridges and Valleys landscape area. A market is held every Saturday and Bank Holiday Mo ...

, Essex. There he designed the logo for their band Crass. Originally a logo for Rimbaud's pamphlet ‘Christ’s Reality Asylum and Les Pommes de Printemps’, the symbol was designed as a circular piece that seemed to include a Christian cross, a snake, the Union Jack, and a swastika. King has said the symbol was inspired by Japanese family crests and says it was created as “a reflection of Pen’s anger at what he felt were these destructive aspects of Christianity.” During this time he also performed with

EXIT Exit(s) may refer to: Architecture and engineering * Door * Portal (architecture), an opening in the walls of a structure * Emergency exit * Overwing exit, a type of emergency exit on an airplane * Exit ramp, a feature of a road interchange A ...

at the International Carnival of Experimental Sound in 1972. In 1977 King moved to the SoHo neighborhood of New York, where he became part of the burgeoning Punk / No Wave scene, first as the drummer for The Gynecologists, leaving to form Arsenal (later known as Sleeping Dogs and Brain Rust) with Charlie Nash and

Rhys Chatham Rhys Chatham (born September 19, 1952) is an American composer, guitarist, trumpet player, multi-instrumentalist (flutes in C, alto and bass, keyboard), primarily active in avant-garde and minimalism, minimalist music. He is best known for his "g ...

in 1978. (When Chatham left to pursue solo efforts he was replaced by

Howard A. Rodman Howard A. Rodman is a screenwriter, author and professor. He is the former President of the Writers Guild of America, West, professor and former chair of the writing division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, alumnus of Telluride Association ...

.) King met his wife, Dione Hemberger, when she joined the band as the bassist that year. At the same time, King continued his graphic design practice, creating logos and posters for SoHo nightclubs such as

Danceteria Danceteria was a nightclub that operated in New York City from 1979 until 1986 and in the Hamptons until 1995. The club operated in various locations over the years, a total of three in New York City and four in the Hamptons. The most famous locati ...

Peppermint Lounge The Peppermint Lounge was a popular discotheque located at 128 West 45th Street in New York City that was open from 1958 to 1965, although a new one was opened in 1980. It was the launchpad for the global Twist craze in the early 1960s. Many claim ...

, Pop Front, and Pravda as well as flyers, logos, and album covers for bands such as

Ut (band) Ut was an American band which originated from New York City's no wave scene, forming in December 1978. The inheritors of the fertile collision between rock, free jazz, and the avant-garde that first manifested itself in the Velvet Underground, U ...

, Mrs. Machinery, Raining House, and Arsenal, as well as a series of Christmas cards for the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York. In 1982, King and the rest of Arsenal (now Charlie Nash and Dione King) moved to San Francisco and Arsenal changed their name to Sleeping Dogs, and then to Brain Rust in 1985 with King continuing to play drums and to design their flyers and album covers, usually credited as 'Dirty Dog'. In 1990 King enrolled at

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

, where he studied drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, and poetry. He continued his graphic design work and expanded into photography, sculpture, and garden design. His work has been included in many shows, including ‘Art into Landscape’ at the

Serpentine Galleries The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery, ...

, ‘The Art of Punk’ at the MOCA LA, and ‘Punk Graphics’ at

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Roy ...

. Several collections of his work have been published by Colpa Press, &Pens Press, and Gingko Press. King was interviewed extensively in the 'Art of Punk' video series produced by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA), for the episode 'Crass - The Art of Dave King and Gee Vaucher' (MOCAtv 2013). David Anthony King died in San Francisco in 2019 at the age of 71 after a long battle with cancer.

Publications

*''Secret Origins of the Crass Symbol'', &Pens Press, 2013 *''Scrapbook'', Colpa Press, Edition of 50, 2017 *''Still'', Colpa Press, 2018 *''The Journey'', Colpa Press, 2019 *''David King Stencils: Past, Present, and Crass!'', Gingko Press/Kill Your Idols, 2020 *''Walking Photos'', Colpa Press with foreword by Glen Helfand, 2020 *''Happy'', Colpa Press, 2020

External links

Dave King: Free the Crass SymbolDave King Estate on InstagramPunk News: Dave King, designer of Crass logo, has passed awayLouder Than War: ‘RIP Dave King’Juxtapoz: In L.A.: David King "The Secret Origins of the Crass Symbol" @ & Pens PressWe are the Mutants: Crass Logo Circa 1977Exclaim: Crass Logo Copied by UK Fashion HouseSF Chronicle: Dave King ObituaryCrass a History, a Guide to Crass Records: The Crass Symbol

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Dave 1948 births 2019 deaths British expatriates in the United States British graphic designers Crass Logo designers People from Ilford