Steven Thomas (born Harry Steven Thomas, 30 October 1944) is an English designer and visual artist best known for his interiors and graphic design work for the
Biba fashion brand.
With design partner
Tim Whitmore, Thomas led the small team which generated numerous designs and branding for the company's ambitious seven-storey department store known as "Big Biba" in London's Kensington High Street in the early to mid-1970s.
In the 1960s, Thomas represented groups including
Peter Frampton
Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English musician and songwriter who was a member of the rock bands Humble Pie and the Herd. As a solo artist, he has released several albums, including his major breakthrough album, the live ...
's group
The Herd and went on to create designs for such music business clients as the
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
and
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
as well as brands such as
Levi's
Levi Strauss & Co. () is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's () brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, to o ...
,
Lucky Strike,
Subaru
( or ; ) is the automaker, automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate (company), conglomerate Subaru Corporation (formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries), the Automotive industry#By manufacturer, twenty-first ...
and
British American Racing
British American Racing (BAR) was a Formula One constructor that competed in the sport from 1999 to 2005. BAR began by acquiring Tyrrell, and used Supertec engines for their first year. Subsequently, they formed a partnership with Honda which l ...
.
With
Alwyn W. Turner, Thomas is the author of Welcome To Big Biba.
In 2008, Thomas was the subject of the exhibition Big Biba And Other Stories at London gallery
Chelsea Space.
Early life and education
Thomas was born in Chipping Norton. He attended
Latymer Upper School in
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
...
, west London, and studied painting at
Chelsea School of Art, supplementing his grant with work as a male model and waiter at restaurants on the adjacent King's Road. He also helped realise the
psychedelic
Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...
design by art collective
Binder Edwards & Vaughn for the façade of Chelsea boutique
Dandie Fashions
Dandie Fashions or sometimes Dandy Fashions was a London fashion boutique founded in 1966, following a chance encounter at the Speakeasy Club between Freddie Hornik and Alan Holston, who then got together with Australian John Crittle, the Gui ...
.
Among Thomas's art school teachers were the prominent British artists
Patrick Caulfield
Patrick Joseph Caulfield, (29 January 1936 – 29 September 2005), was an English painter and printmaker known for his bold canvases, which often incorporated elements of photorealism within a pared-down scene. Examples of his work are ''Po ...
,
Allen Jones Allen Jones may refer to:
*Allen Jones (Continental Congress) (1739–1798), Continental Congress delegate
*Allen Jones (artist) (born 1937), British pop artist
*Allen Jones (record producer) (1940–1987), American record producer
*A.J. Styles (Al ...
, and
John Hoyland
John Hoyland RA (12 October 1934 – 31 July 2011) was a London-based British artist. He was one of the country's leading abstract painters. , from whom he developed a "love of
Pop Art and my obsession with the complexities of colour".
Design work for music
On graduation, Thomas formed a design practice with fellow student Whitmore. Among Whitmore-Thomas Design's early commissions was the back cover of the Rolling Stones' 1970 live album
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!
''Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!: The Rolling Stones in Concert'' is the second live album by the Rolling Stones, released on 4 September 1970 on Decca Records in the UK and on London Records in the US. It was recorded in New York City and Baltimore in ...
, which was completed within 48 hours to meet the record company Decca's deadline for the record release. Thomas later related that this was given Mick Jagger's seal of approval with the utterance "I dig your work, man." Thomas also created a record sleeve for Three Week Hero, an LP by
PJ Proby
P. J. Proby (born James Marcus Smith; November 6, 1938) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor.
Proby recorded the singles "Hold Me (1933 song), Hold Me", "Somewhere (song), Somewhere", and "Maria (1956 song), Maria". In 2008, EMI releas ...
and a rare cartoon cover for the obscure progressive rock outfit Rumpelstiltskin scripted by journalist/columnist Angus McGill.
Biba Cosmetics poster and Big Biba
In the late 60s, Thomas designed a poster to promote a new range of cosmetics from Biba, the boutique operated by
Barbara Hulanicki and her husband
Stephen "Fitz" Fitz-Simon, at that stage situated at 124-126 Kensington Church Street. The poster, featuring a wistful portrait of the veiled actress
Ingrid Boulting taken by
Sarah Moon won a 1970 British Design Council award.
Whitmore-Thomas restyled the children’s department within the Biba store and, with the launch of Biba Cosmetics, designed display units installed in concessions around the country.
In 1971, as Hulanicki and Fitz-Simon set about planning the expansion of their business into the large block previously operated as
Derry & Tom's at 107-111 Kensington High Street, Whitmore-Thomas was commissioned to handle the designs for the entire store, including interiors, signage, giant display items and graphic designs for the hundreds of own-brand product lines. The distinctive department logos were designed by illustrator
Kasia Charko
Kasia () a Polish diminutive form of given name, a shortened version of the name '' Katarzyna.'' Notable people
*Kasia Cerekwicka (born 1980), singer
* Kasia Domanska (born 1972), painter
* Kasia Haddad (born 1979), British actress
* Kasia Kowalsk ...
. On opening in September 1973, Big Biba was described by
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
as "the most beautiful store in the world".
Big Biba closed in August 1975 after falling victim to a combination of over-ambition, in-fighting between the company's executives and the backers, property developer
British Land and the UK's mid-70s economic recession.
Paul McCartney
The work for Big Biba drew a fresh set of commissions for Whitmore-Thomas, including Paul McCartney, who appointed the practice as in-house designers for his domestic and business interests, including the headquarters of McCartney's company PML in central London's
Soho Square (complete with a recreation of his favourite Abbey Road studio in the basement), as well as recording studios in Sussex and on the Mull of Kintyre and private residences in London, Liverpool, Sussex and Scotland.
Whitmore-Thomas
As well as creating the livery for 25 buses on the Number 77 route, which passed Buckingham Palace in the Silver Jubilee year of 1977, the design practice serviced such clients as
Danone,
Guinness
Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...
,
Harrods
Harrods Limited is a department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It is currently owned by the state of Qatar via its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The Harrods brand also applies to other ...
,
Lucky Strike,
Pepsi Cola
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
History
Pepsi was ...
,
Virgin
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
, and
Wrangler. The company became WTA when designer Chris Angell, who had worked with Thomas and Whitmore on Big Biba, became a director in 1993.
V&A acquires Whitmore-Thomas archive
In June 2020, London's
Victoria & Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
acquired the entirety of the Whitmore-Thomas archive, with materials relating to 35 years of commissions.
This follows the V&A's 1995 acquisition of material relating to Whitmore-Thomas's design work for Biba, including interiors, graphics and packaging. Subsequently, the V&A took possession of WT's Biba photographic archive, which contains work-in-progress & record shots of the completed project taken by Tim White and Tim Street-Porter. The 2020 acquisition includes designs for Paul McCartney’s central London offices as well farms and recording studios, liveries for Formula One racing teams, the London Transport Silver Jubilee Buses, a model village for restaurateurs the Roux Brothers, projects for Levi-Strauss, Pepsi-Cola, the BBC, Lloyds Bank and restaurants such as the revolving CN Tower in Toronto and Mon Plaisir in central London.
Later life
Following the dissolution of WTA, Thomas focused on painting as well as producing the book Welcome To Big Biba, which was published in 2006 and remains in print. Thomas's exhibition at Chelsea Space was held in 2008. Thomas, who has also staged one-man shows at the
Chelsea Arts Club and Dorchester Collections, is based in Deal, Kent, where he continues to produce artworks and make prints.
On July 12, 2017, Thomas appeared in the BBC Radio 4 series Only Artists in conversation with fellow artist Jim Moir (better known as comedian
Vic Reeves
James Roderick Moir (born 24 January 1959), better known by his stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian, artist, surrealist, musician, actor and television presenter, best known for his double act with Bob Mortimer as Reeves & Mortimer. ...
).
References
* A Man For All Scenes
*Only Artists
External links
Record sleeve designs
* http://steventhomasartworks.com
* http://steventhomasdesign.com
[steventhomasdesign.com]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Steve
Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts
British designers
1944 births
Living people