Celebrating 50 years of Private Eye at the V&A: A timely reminder of the power of low-tech

A wall of Private Eye front covers. Editor Ian Hislop has picked his favourite one from each year of publication

The Friday Late event celebrated independent publishing, everything from zines, to tumblrs and typography.

The Victoria & Albert Museum threw open its doors until 10pm for amongst other things an analog tumblr, arty readings and the opportunity to create your own magazine.

Placing my 'thumbs up' in the analog tumblr. This was at the entrance to the event and allowed you to vote for pieces of typography you'd seen around the museum, or submit your own via your phone that you'd seen.

But the set piece, in my eyes, was a room dedicated to 50 years of Private Eye.

The magazine, currently edited by Ian Hislop, has been poking fun at the aristocracy and political classes for 50 years now and so the V&A felt it was time to recognise how the design of the magazine and the cartoons within it had played a major part in its success.

I took part in a tour around the exhibition with Elizabeth James who helped put the displays together. She was very engaging, explaining to everyone just how important the magazine is for cartoonists to get their work out there.

The cartoons on display include the work of Willie Rushton, Ralph Steadman and Gerald Scarfe.

A cartoon from a recent Private Eye taking on the government on graduate unemployment and the new housing strategy

The Private Eye exhibition perhaps best sums up why it’s important to have such a free and independent media in this country today, poking into the corners of life where others would not dare.

The wall of front covers in the photo at the top of this post best sums up the impact the magazine can have, with its admittedly low-tech solution to publishing.

And there’s a good point. Often we’re focused on the new technology, the new way of doing something, when actually its about harnessing the technology to do something you want to do. As Elizabeth pointed out during the tour perhaps it is The Eye’s low-tech and low-production values which perhaps make it even more readable and has become an important part of its brand? It’s not over-designed and relies on very simple display methods, like cartoons or speech bubbles, to put across its witty message.

I would strongly recommend getting along to the V&A to check out the glorious 50 years on display, including the fascinating libel section with letters from The Eye’s lawyers refuting claims.

It runs until 8th January 2012 in Room 17a and 18a at the museum. More details on the V&A website.

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