About

I’ve worked across a number of fields as journalist, editor, curator and lecturer. With a BA in Art History (University of Sussex) and an MA in Design History (from London’s Royal College of Art), I began my career at Blueprint and Eye, writing about design and architecture, becoming Assistant Editor on both titles, as well as Design Review, a magazine for the Chartered Society of Designers. Writing freelance, I’ve contributed to magazines and newspapers worldwide including: Design Week, Crafts, i-D, Ray Gun (USA), Tate Magazine, Form (Germany), V&A Magazine and the Guardian. Recently, I was Editor-at-large for Varoom, a magazine for the Association of Illustrators, and for French graphics magazine, Étapes (and guest editor for an issue on East London).

Diversifying into book publishing, I was Design Editor at the visual publishing house, Booth-Clibborn Editions, writing and commissioning books on popular culture, and in many cases producing the first book on a particular subject, such as skateboarding, sneakers, fashion graphics, snowboard graphics and club flyers. My role was a combination of talent scout, commissioning editor and project manager, creating book ideas and assembling teams to produce them, and writing too. Later, I collaborated with Laurence King Publishing, Thames and Hudson and Immprint, and was Commissioning Editor at RotoVision. See below for links to some of the books I’ve written, edited and contributed to.

In parallel to publishing, I’ve curated and contributed to exhibitions on zines, women in design, chairs by architects, record cover design and young British creatives, working with the Barbican Art Gallery, the British Council, Ben Kelly Design, the Designers Republic, Blueprint and the V&A, with some shows touring Asia, the US and Australia. Most recently I’ve been Consultant Curator to Pick Me Up, the interactive, events-led, graphic arts fair at Somerset House, London, which has grown a new, large and diverse audience for affordable art and design.

Underpinning this commercial activity is a commitment to design education. As a Visiting Lecturer of Critical and Cultural Studies, I have taught young designers for over twenty years, beginning at Cardiff School of Art and Design and going on to Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (UAL). As a Lecturer at University of Brighton I teach CCS to Graphic Design and Illustration students. Furthering my own research, I’m working on an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award investigating the future of design museums, with London’s Design Museum as case study.

In tandem, I indulge in a bit of social media with a twitchy Twitter finger, a tendency to rearrange objects for Instagram, and a blog about museums and galleries (here you are). Meanwhile, my alter ego revels in retail therapy but mostly of the vintage kind, indulging an obsession with charity shops, car boot sales and flea markets, especially the world-famous Snoopers Paradise. And, I used to own the tiniest shop in Brighton, Mini Mart on Tidy Street.

Some Links

This site: www.liz-farrelly-visits.org

LinkedIn profile: Liz Farrelly

University of Brighton: Liz Farrelly PhD student

Twitter: Liz Farrelly

Instagram: LizFarrelly1 …an outlet for my obsession with objects.

Some Books

Design Objects and the Museum, edited with Joanna Weddell, Bloomsbury Academic, 2016

The Journey is the Treasure, with W Project, 2013

Designers’ Identities, Laurence King Publishing, 2010

For Love and Money: New Illustration, with Olivia Triggs, Laurence King Publishing, 2010

Street Art, in the artists’ own words, with Rick Blackshaw, RotoVision, 2008