Jeremy Deller and Paul Ryan asked us to work with them on the design of this publication, which celebrates the life of the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, whose lifetime in Liverpool and contribution to contemporary pop culture is often underplayed. We combined typography taken from the signage on Epstein’s parents’ shop front with the familiar visual language of novels and guidebooks. The book was displayed as an artwork within the exhibition Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant-Garde at the Tate Liverpool in 2007; a pile of publications formed a tall gold column in the gallery, which decreased in height over time as the public were invited to take copies away with them.
In the 1930s, Epstein’s family owned a furniture and music store on Walton Road in Liverpool. Later known as the North End Music Store, or NEMS, the family expanded the business to two additional locations as its success grew; Paul McCartney bought his first guitar in NEMS.
