John Lloyd is an English graphic designer, best known for his the international design consultancy, Lloyd Northover Limited that he founded in 1975. He provided his services in all the well-known fields of graphic designing, however, his forte remained corporate identity.
John David Lloyd was born in 1944 in the Great Britain. In 1964, he began his full time study at South West Essex School of Art. A year later he enrolled himself at the London College of Printing, earning a Diploma in Art and Design (DipAD) with First Class Honours. He began his career as an Apprentice Lithographic Artist at a printing press, Edwin Jones & Sons. Upon completion of graduation, he joined Allied International Designers (AID) as the Senior Designer. Then he co-founded a design studio Lloyd Northover Ltd in association with Jim Northover after leaving AID. The extensions of the studio are now established across the globe. Besides London, these offices are located in Dubai, Barcelona, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Lloyd and Northover had a successful partnership for decades. The two partners had met at the London College of Printing, in 1965. They soon began to work together on several collaborative projects. Some of these projects include posters for Whitechapel Gallery, LCP Film Society and University of London Arts Festival. In 1975, they formally launched the design consultancy bearing the name, Lloyd Northover Limited. The studio served its clients with the novel graphic artwork. Some of their leading clients included Royal Shakespeare Company, English Tourist Board, IBM, American Express, and Arts Council. The Design Council requested Lloyd Northover Ltd to hold an exhibition of their work at the Design Centre and the Scottish Design Centre, in 1981.
During mid eighties the studio had shifted its focus from print design to the design and implementation of corporate identity. The major projects dealt by the firm included BAA (British Airports), John Lewis Partnership, University of Essex and Courtaulds. In 1989, the studio earned the Grand Prix in the Design Effectiveness Award for its groundbreaking ideas. In 1993, Lloyd’s design consultancy firm in Hong Kong won a commission to create corporate identity for the Airport Express. It provided naming, signage, passenger information and design of graphics to the client. While his business venture developed successfully in Asia Pacific and Middle East, the London office also grew substantially. In 1993, the firm merged with an international marketing and services company, Citigate Communications Group. In 1996, following the death of a prominent American graphic designer, Saul Bass, Lloyd and Northover had a merger with Bass’ Yager studios in Los Angeles. It became their first American office on the West Coast.
In 2004, Lloyd announced his retirement and withdrew from his studios. He has also worked as a teacher at the London College of Communication. At Nottingham Trent University, he served as an examiner and a jury member at Design and Art Direction. Besides, he attended several conferences in Europe, North America and Asia as a speaker. He was awarded numerous accolades as to honour his contribution to graphic designing industry, such as the International Gold Award for Packaging Design (1989), Partek, Corporate Identity (1998) and JMC, Digital Media (2001). Moreover, he was appointed the Chairman of the British Design Export Group during eighties. Currently, John Lloyd is working as an independent artist, consultant and writer.
