Not currently on display at the V&A

Jamie Reid archive

Badge
Late 1970s (designed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

During the punk and post-punk period of 1976 to 1984, it was fundamental to wear your allegiances, political or musical, on your lapel in the form of the button badge. Better Badges, run by Joly McFie, was the small business leader in manufacture of punk buttons, of which this is an example. He started a stall in 1976 at a Ramones gig at the Roundhouse, London, and became a fixture of the scene with a mail order service too. Jamie Reid used McFie's process cameras to produce artwork for single sleeves for the Sex Pistols, which were subsequently turned into badges by McFie.
This badge utilises the same poster design by Jamie Reid for the release of the Pretty Vacant single, July 1977. The bus artwork, featuring the destinations 'Nowhere' and 'Boredom', is typical of Sex Pistols desire to be seen as being, and representing, angry young men with no purpose.
Jamie Reid's cut-and-paste aesthetic developed from his interest in radical politics. His artistic style developed while at art college in Croydon, where he was influenced by the ideas of the avant-garde political group, the Situationist International. The political slant to his art was aroused by the May 1968 Paris student riots, which inspired fraternal protests organised by Reid at the Croydon College of Art. These were directed with fellow student Malcolm McLaren, later to become the manager of the Sex Pistols.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleJamie Reid archive (named collection)
Materials and techniques
Printed paper and plastic film pressed on to metal pin back.
Brief description
Circular pin badge. Green background with Jamie Reid design in white for the Sex Pistols' single 'Pretty Vacant', of two buses with destinations reading 'Nowhere' and 'Boredom'. Printed paper on metal backing covered with plastic. Jamie Reid archive
Physical description
Metal pin badge with printed paper and polyester film cover. Green background featuring two white buses and typography in blue on a white background.
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 5.5cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • SeX PiSTOLS / pretty vaCant
  • Nowhere / Boredom (Destinations on front of buses.)
  • Transliteration
Subjects depicted
Summary
During the punk and post-punk period of 1976 to 1984, it was fundamental to wear your allegiances, political or musical, on your lapel in the form of the button badge. Better Badges, run by Joly McFie, was the small business leader in manufacture of punk buttons, of which this is an example. He started a stall in 1976 at a Ramones gig at the Roundhouse, London, and became a fixture of the scene with a mail order service too. Jamie Reid used McFie's process cameras to produce artwork for single sleeves for the Sex Pistols, which were subsequently turned into badges by McFie.
This badge utilises the same poster design by Jamie Reid for the release of the Pretty Vacant single, July 1977. The bus artwork, featuring the destinations 'Nowhere' and 'Boredom', is typical of Sex Pistols desire to be seen as being, and representing, angry young men with no purpose.
Jamie Reid's cut-and-paste aesthetic developed from his interest in radical politics. His artistic style developed while at art college in Croydon, where he was influenced by the ideas of the avant-garde political group, the Situationist International. The political slant to his art was aroused by the May 1968 Paris student riots, which inspired fraternal protests organised by Reid at the Croydon College of Art. These were directed with fellow student Malcolm McLaren, later to become the manager of the Sex Pistols.
Collection
Accession number
S.930-1990

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Record createdJanuary 7, 2010
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