i-D founder and original Editor-in-Chief Terry Jones has been awarded an MBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honors by the Queen, for services to fashion and popular culture.
As a publisher, editor, and art director, Jones has changed the face of fashion. Jones’s career has been defined by rejecting stiff images of ‘perfection,’ tearing up the rule book to champion radical young creatives (like Edward Enninful OBE, who became i-D Fashion Director at age 18), celebrating diversity and multiculturalism, and shining the floodlights on street style and subcultural creativity.
As Art Director of British Vogue in the 70s, Terry worked extensively with Grace Coddington, David Bailey, and other fashion legends, subverting the age-old laws of magazine covers. He filled the February 1977 cover with green jelly, and attempted a very early #FreeTheNipple Dior cover in the same year — his last at the title.
Eager to show the exciting style happening on London’s streets and in its burgeoning club scene, Terry launched i-D in 1980 as a fashion fan zine, expelling establishment voices and following a motto of ‘fans, not critics’ that we hold dear to this day. Inspired by i-D original mum Tricia Jones, i-D was political from the off, tackling the big subjects of the day while taking a stand against fur and animal cruelty — reflecting a love of the environment and all the people in it.
Responsible for some of the most iconic graphic design, Terry painted the original i-D logo himself, by hand — around the same time he created the PiL logo for post-punk band Public Image Ltd, and legendary imagery for Italian brand Fiorucci. Viewed sideways, the i-D logo creates a face with a smile and a wink — arguably the first ever emoji, designed years before there was ever a computer in the i-D office, when the magazine was photocopied and stapled together by hand.
37 years later, it’s clear that a smile and a wink really will get you further than you think! Congratulations Terry Jones — the man who started it all — from everyone in the i-D family!
Related: Terry Jones, the original i-Con
Credits
Photography Alasdair McLellan