Alan Pipes

Who is Alan Pipes?

Alan Pipes is a British writer on art, product design and graphic design. He studied physics at the University of Surrey, in Battersea and worked in print publishing, notably as Managing Editor of Computer-Aided Design journal, published by IPC Science and Technology Press, and editor of CadCam International, published by EMAP, before becoming a freelance writer in 1985.

Pipes's college textbooks have become standards in their field, with Production For Graphic Designers currently in its 5th printing. Also known as Fred Pipes or Alan Pipes, he is also a cartoon illustrator, an artist and printmaker, exhibiting regularly in the Brighton, Adur and Worthing Artists Open House festivals since 1996. He has been a committee member of the Brighton Illustrators Group since 1990 and has been webmaster of Channel 4's archaeology television programme Time Team since 1998. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Pipes also catalogues short, unusual and misplaced cycle lanes on a website, Weird Cycle Lanes. According to an article about it in the Daily Telegraph, 'Some people collect stamps, some people collect beermats, but Alan Pipes collects unusual cycle lanes.