Cataloguing the Lloyd Northover Archive

A view upon posters of various colours in a metal plan chest drawer. — Posters from the Lloyd Northover Archive in the plan chest. Image Credit: Verity Jones

My name is Verity Jones and I am the Cataloguing Assistant Archivist at the Archives and Special Collections Centre (ASCC). Since joining the team in March, my first project has been to catalogue the Lloyd Northover Archive.

Lloyd Northover is a Design Consultancy that was set up by John Lloyd and Jim Northover in 1975. Lloyd and Northover met while studying at the London College of Printing (now London College of Communication) in the 1960s.

Cataloguing process

When the archive arrived at the ASCC, it consisted of 14 boxes and 3 large portfolios. I started by listing the material in a spreadsheet, to find out what was in each container. Luckily, the transfer included a high-level overview of what each box contained, which made the process quite straightforward. I used this to help me arrange the collection. This means the records have stayed broadly in the same order as they were when they were transferred, in line with the archival practice of maintaining original order. One change I made to the order was to catalogue and package duplicate records together, to avoid repetition and make it easier for users to find what they are looking for.

Once I had decided on the arrangement, it was time to repack the collection. The material was mostly in good condition, but it still needed to be repacked into archival standard packaging. This included acid free boxes and folders, and clear Melinex sleeves. Oversized items such as posters have been housed in the Plan Chest, so that they can be stored flat.

Light grey archival boxes stacked over three shelves. — Archival boxes containing the Lloyd Northover Archive. Image Credit: Verity Jones

Once the repacking was complete, I imported my cataloguing spreadsheet into CALM, our archive cataloguing software. I decided to wait until the repacking was finished before importing the spreadsheet into CALM so that I was sure that the catalogue structure worked with the physical arrangement of the collection.

Three colourful publications of various sizes, laying next to each other. One reads ‘Skye’ and another reads ‘British Season’. — LN/1/2 and LN/1/3: Student work by John Lloyd and Jim Northover from their time at London College of Printing, 1960s. Image Credit: Verity Jones

Highlights of the Collection

I really enjoyed looking at John Lloyd and Jim Northover’s student work (LN/1). It’s interesting to see what they created at London College of Printing and how this influenced their professional work. I hope this will inspire the current students at London College of Communication, to see what former students have achieved.

Three theatre programme designs, laying next to each other. From left to right, the programmes read ‘Much Ado’, ‘Richard III’ and ‘The Tempest’. — LN/3/1/3: Programme designs by Lloyd Northover for the Royal Shakespeare Company, 1980s. Image Credit: Verity Jones

Lloyd Northover designed many recognisable brands, which are reflected in the archive (LN/3). They produced designs for arts organisations such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as large corporations such as John Lewis and Partners and British Rail.

The archive also contains a small amount of material by Saul Bass (LN/4). This was acquired by Lloyd Northover in 1997 when they merged with Bass' company, Bass Yager, following Bass' death in 1996. As Saul Bass worked with Stanley Kubrick, this links to the ASCC’s Stanley Kubrick Collection. It is great to be able to make connections across the ASCC’s many archival collections.

Find out more

The Lloyd Northover catalogue is now available to view online, and records from the archive can be requested to view in the ASCC by emailing archive-enquiries@arts.ac.uk.