Tony Malone

Tony Malone (born 7 April 1979) is an English designer, born in London of an English mother and an Irish father. He currently lives in south London.

He was rendered completely deaf by a genetic illness at the age of 3 but gained some hearing in his right ear thanks to a surgical grommet. He has no hearing in his left ear despite receiving a Cochlear implant, which has now been removed.

He is a designer in the field of inclusive design and graphic design and is a very active campaigner on design's impact on branding and marketing as a tool for social change. His main fields of expertise are based around typography and symbolism across publishing, diversity and accessibility design.

His work as a designer has also lead him into something of an activists role, both for human rights, equality and the role that design can play in improving communities. All of his companies and professional involvements feature strong csr and sponsorship profiles with grass roots community groups, arts organisations and local sports teams.

On the 6 June 2007, along with countless others, he entered the debate around the 2012 Olympics logo in London, highlighting on ITN London Tonight various issues with the accessibility of the design.

Career
His qualifications include an NDD in Design (3D and Graphic) at Kent Institute of Art and Design (KIAD), Rochester, a BA (Hons) in design , KIAD, Maidstone.

While still a student, he founded his own design company and quickly found himself working freelance for Harper Collins, Along with noted book designer, Colin Brown, he worked as a layout artist for the book England; The Photographic Atlas, the creative 'look' of this book was established by the art book designer Stuart Smith in the first book of the series called [London; The Photographic Atlas. Later being commissioned to produce re-designs of the series. He later spent some time working as a freelance designer in Sacramento, U.S., notably working as a typographer on architectural projects.

Notable projects include his work with the new identity for the London Gay Men's Chorus, his work with the RBKC police on Anti-Social Behaviour and community re-asurance information design, various projects around social justice and diversity. Openly gay, he has worked extensively with the LGBT community.

In 2006 he co-founded, Design for Diversity, together with Linda Bellos, Caroline Jones, Nicolas Chinardet and Nicholas Young. Design for Diversity brings together design, marketing, diversity and accessibility.

He is also an established artist, and produces abstract and landscape watercolours. His artistic works often includes the use of typography to create letterform based paintings.

In October 2006, in Brussels, he joined 11 of the foremost designers in the EU as a judge and consultant for a design competition for a logo celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. Tony is now the UK adviser on design to the EU.

Projects
Part of his role at the design consultancy is also to oversee the archiving and preservation of all artworks (some 572 paintings and sketches and two known sculptures) by Sir Winston Churchill. He was given this task by Churchill Heritage following his creation of the digital archive in collaboration with Author and Historian David Coombs while researching the book: 'Sir Winston Churchill, His life through his paintings' published by Pegasus in 2003 on which he was Art director.

A member of the Churchill Forum, he has been involved with various aspects of preserving Churchill history; including working as an advisor to the Churchill Museum project in London and at Chartwell House, Sir Winston's residence in Kent.

Recently he advised the Metropolitan Police and the Government on design and visual communications for the community. He was notably involved with ASBOs ; the identity of which he designed for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

He has lectured at Universities and Colleges on design, typography and working freelance in design but also folklore and British and Irish mythologies and researching Fairy tales.

He is the author of a blog called Slightly Lost in the World which can be found on his personal website.

In October 2007, he started a collaboration with Witcomb Cycles, a long established London-based traditional frame builder to create a new range of bespoke bicycles and develop the business.

Bibliography
Articles he has written on freelance design have appeared in The Designer, the magazine of the Chartered Society of Designers. He is the author of books on design (Colour in design, CA press (2001) and Typographic Sketchbook, Yale press (2002)) and a collection of poems called Poetry one, Bnet Publishing for private distribution (2002).

Memberships

In 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has been a member of the Chartered Society of Designers since 1999. He is a Master of the Society of Book Binders, a member of the Poetry Society a member of the Royal Yachting Association, holding RYA qualifications as a yacht skipper and is also both an instructor for the Royal Life Saving Society and a white water kayaking instructor with the British Canoe Union.

In 2005, he was marketing advisor and artistic organiser for LGBT History Month, responsible for the commissioning of visual arts, music, film and drama.

As a cyclist, he has been an advisor to Sustrans, the national body promoting sustainable transport and maintaining the National Cycle Network. He is a member of the Dulwich Paragon Cycling Club and competes regularly in road and long distance and audax races.

In February 2006, he was elected as an executive member of the Southwark LGBT Network.

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