Paul Barnes

Paul Barnes (born 1970, Harlow, England) is a graphic designer specializing in the fields of lettering, typography, type design and publication design. He is a partner with Christian Schwartz in the internationally acclaimed typefoundry, Commercial Type.

In the early 1990s he worked for Roger Black in New York where he was involved in redesigns of many magazines. He later returned to America to be art director of the music magazine Spin.

Since 1995 he has lived and worked in London. He has formed a long term collaboration with Peter Saville, which has resulted in such diverse work as identities for Givenchy, ‘Original Modern’ for Manchester and the logo for Kate Moss.

Barnes has also been an advisor and consultant on numerous publications, notably Wallpaper*, Harper’s Bazaar and frieze. His interest in the modern and vernacular is encompassed in his type design ranging from the contemporary such as for Björk, through to the extensive British modern, Brunel as seen in Condé Nast Portfolio. Whilst consultant to The Guardian he designed Guardian Egyptian with Christian Schwartz. He has designed typefaces for the National Trust in England, the numbers for Puma at the 2010 World Cup and most recently the numbers for the England football team for Umbro. For Commercial Type he has co designed Publico with Schwartz, and independently Austin, Dala Floda and Marian. Marian was the subject of an pop up show in October 2011 Thieves like us, a collaboration between Commercial Type & product designer , Dino Sanchez. Barnes has written Marian Une Collection de revivals for Bibliothèque Typographique, in 2012.

Following the redesign of The Guardian, as part of the team headed by Mark Porter, Barnes was awarded the Black Pencil from the D&AD. They were also nominated for the Design Museum ‘Designer of the Year’. In September 2006, with Schwartz he was named one of the 40 most influential designers under 40 in Wallpaper*. A year later The Guardian named him as one of the 50 best designers in Britain.