The Seven Faces of Jim (1961)

Concept and creative process

Opening titles for a black-and-white British comedy television series starring Jimmy Edwards, June Whitfield and Ronnie Barker. The design solution by pioneer BBC Graphic Designer Roy Laughton was simplicity itself – to caption the programme and introduce the familiar face of Jimmy Edwards with his signature handlebar moustache. However the linking of the two requirements through the ‘I’ of ‘JIM’ is neat and shows how the possibilities of the Rostrum camera were beginning to be exploited. In 1966 Roy Laughton produced a small book ‘TV Graphics’, published by Studio Vista, the first on the subject. A copy of this book is lodged in the Ravensbourne University Library. It gives an overview of the state of the art both nationally and internationally at that point in time.