About

Russ Bestley is Reader in Graphic Design & Subcultures at the London College of Communication, editor of the journal Punk & Post-Punk, series editor and art director for the Global Punk book series and a founder member of both the Punk Scholars Network (PSN) and Subcultures Interest Group (SIG). His most recent publication, Turning Revolt into Style: The Process and Practice of Punk Graphic Design, charts the relationship between amateur cultural producers, design studios and printers during a period of significant technological change that impacted established labour relations across the design and print professions of the 1970s and early 1980s.

Russ has written a number of books including Turning Revolt into Style: The Process and Practice of Punk Graphic Design (Manchester University Press 2025), Action Time Vision: Punk & Post Punk 7” Record Sleeves (Unit Editions 2016) and Visual Research (AVA 2004, 2011, Bloomsbury 2015, 2022, further editions in Germany 2006, Korea 2007, France 2013, Italy 2013, Brazil 2013).His book The Art of Punk, was published by Omnibus Press (UK), Voyageur (North America), Hannibal Verlag Gmbh (Germany) and Hugo et Compagnie (France) in 2012. He contributed chapters to Punk & the Animal: Ethos, Ethics and Aesthetics (2023), The Intellect Handbook of Popular Music Methodologies (2023), Hardcore Research (2023), The Oxford Handbook of Global Popular Music (2022), The Oxford Handbook of Punk Rock (2022), Trans-Global Punk Scenes: The Punk Reader Vol.2 (2021), Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die: Punk and Post-Punk Graphic Design (2020), Punk Now!! Contemporary Perspectives on Punk (2020), The Routledge Companion to Popular Music and Humor (2019), Ripped, Torn and Cut: Pop, Politics and Punk Fanzines from 1976 (2018), Hard Werken: One for All – Graphic Art & Design 1979-1994 (2018), Comedy and Critical Thought: Laughter as Resistance (2018), Punk Pedagogies: Music, Culture and Learning (2017) and The Aesthetic of Our Anger: Anarcho-Punk, Politics, Music (2016) among others.

He has written articles for Punk & Post-Punk, Cadernos de Arte e Antropologia (South America), The National Grid (New Zealand) and Design 360° (China), and acted as a consultant for the V&A Museum, Design Museum, Channel Four television and Radio France. He has designed and curated exhibitions in London, Southampton, Blackpool, Leeds, Oxford, Birmingham and North Shields, and designed books, posters, record covers, graphic identities and other material for the Punk Scholars Network, the Hope Collective, PM Press and many others.

His band, Watch You Drown, formed in Portsmouth in 1987. They continue to play live and record new and original material.