1st Posting of the New Year - Abram Games, Graphic Designer 1914 - 1996

 Excerpts taken from the Design Museum's page dedicated to the Artist...

http://designmuseum.org/design/abram-games

Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means, Design Museum Touring Exhibition.

Some of the most memorable graphic images of mid-20th century Britain were the work of the designer ABRAM GAMES (1914-1996). As an Official War Artist during World War II, he designed over a hundred posters and later created the symbols of the BBC and the Festival of Britain.

For many Britons in the 1950s the image of Britannia festooned with red, white and blue bunting was as – if not more – evocative of the Festival of Britain and its 'can do' spirit than any of the marvels of post-war British manufacturing that they had seen when visiting the festival on London's South Bank.

Britannia and her bunting – like the poster of the "blonde bombshell", an alluringly pretty ATS girl who had urged her compatriots to join up during World War II – was the work of Abram Games. In the austere visual culture of wartime and post-war Britain, his work was unmissable. Bold, vigorous and often gently humorous, Abram Games' graphic art was the work of a gifted draughtsman with a flair for devising inventive combinations of text and image.

Design History - Icons Example 1…

As the article states, 'When Noorda and his partner Massimo Vignelli took on the subway signs, they didn't just update them — they invented what they thought of as a new grammar for New York City.'

This is now considered iconic and also is connected to another Icon 'Helvetica'...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/magazine/who-made-that-subway-signage.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1&

Tracing the birth of the Computer...

http://www.google.co.nz/#q=Ada+Lovelace&oi=ddle&ct=ada_lovelaces_197th_birthday-991005-hp&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=c5672f593531bfe2&bpcl=39650382&biw=1331&bih=787

Design History 'Bridge to the 20th Century' Links Part 5…

http://www.crmsociety.com/aboutmackintosh.aspx

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-art-nouveau.htm

Design History 'Bridge to the 20th Century' Links Part 4…

http://www.artsandcraftsmuseum.org.uk/Arts_and_Crafts_Movement/Emery_Walker_Library/The_Private_Press_Movement/Kelmscott_Press.aspx

http://www.william-morris.co.uk/history.aspx?P=1

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/474248/Pre-Raphaelite-Brotherhood

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/permanent-galleries/historic-galleries/pre-raphaelite/

Re-post of this posting on my blog from June 2011 Type Reference 1, Tony Forster and Letraset...

Tony Forster was my Tutor/Mentor and for a time Friend, who always had time for a chat and advice at Bolton College of Art & Design, Bolton in the UK from 1977 to 1981, and then for many years after. Everything that I know about Headline/Hand crafted Typography and Layout, came from Tony. It's hard to believe that he is no longer with us and that it's 4 years since he passed away. Just to give you some idea of the immense knowledge and how well connected Tony was, the following are some of the names he passed on to me in the first 2 years of my course. Herb Lubalin, Alan Fletcher, Trevor Johnson, Saul Bass, Massimo Vignelli, Phil Grimshaw, Lionel Hatch, Rolling Stone Magazine, Eric Gill, David Hillman, The Quick Brown Fox Company, JWT Manchester, Royle/Murgatroyd Design, Keith Murgatroyd, Mouse and Kelly, Michael English, Philip Castle to name but a few… Tony also in his later work had a connection to Art Nouveau and Charles Rennie Mackintosh having designed a family of fonts called 'Willow' CRM reference The next post on Art Nouveau and Mackintosh will follow this posting...

Design History 'Bridge to the 20th Century' Links Part 3…

More Visual reference taken from MOSI (The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester) 

Quote taken from The Linotype & Machinery Co. Ltd Collections Handout.

'Machine That Sets Type Conquers The World'

'The linotype machine spread throughout the world, often following the paths of British Colonialism. Linotype manufacturers almost worshipped the machine and its ability to spread the printed word. At the outbreak of the First World War, it was estimated that there were 30,000 linotype machines in operation across the world. Julius Muller, who wrote a history of the linotype machine, argued:' 

"Let these thirty thousand Linotypes but fall into tune, and there shall arise a chorus, that will, indeed, sweep War from the world forever."

Design History 'Bridge to the 20th Century' Links Part 2…

More Visual reference from MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester) and from The Rylands Library this link on Vimeo of a Letterpress demonstration by Graham Moss from the Incline Press operating a Britannia Press, explaining both the technique and the process of the equipment and the historical information of the press from a locally generated source. http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/firstimpressions/From-Manuscript-to-Print/Technology-of-the-Book/Video-of-printing-in-action/

Design History - 'Bridge to the Twentieth Century'… Example Links 1...

http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/firstimpressions/ [The University of Manchester - John Rylands Library online Archive for Manuscript and Print]

http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/firstimpressions/Pioneers-of-Print/

http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/firstimpressions/Pioneers-of-Print/William-Caxton/

http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/firstimpressions/Spread-of-Print-through-Europe/Manchester/

http://www.mosi.org.uk/explore-mosi/explore-mosi-themes/communications/printing.aspx [Fleet Street of the North]

http://www.waitangi.com/colenso/colenso1.html [The First Printed Book in New Zealand 1835]

http://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/exhibitions/pressed-letters-fine-printing-in-new-zealand-since/ [NZ Perspective]

The above links set the background story to the beginnings, of European Typography and Letterpress development from the 15th Century, moving the power away from the Church in Europe, onwards through the Industrial Revolution of the UK and again Manchester. The spread around the Globe of the British Empire, ensuring the greater awareness of the Linotype Printing Press and the Power of Communication to the Colonies in the 19th Century, and all this from a Manchester based Company (later American led when the company diversified)

I have also included links from an NZ perspective, as this also has a Religious slant to the early development of printing in the country.

The pics shown were taken back in 2008 at MOSI in Manchester, during a Letterpress demonstration. The Press shown is called a Colombian.

Alan Fletcher - British Graphic Designer 1931 – 2006

One of Britain's most influential and Iconic Graphic Designer/Art Directors of the later half of the 20th Century and into the early 21st Century. Link to his Obituary posted in the British Newspaper, The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/sep/25/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries Founder of Pentagram, colleague of David Hillman, Mentor to Mancunian (Manchester) Graphic Designer, Peter Saville and close friend of Anthony Forster, Typographic Designer founder of QBF (Quick Brown Fox Headline setting and Fonthouse) based in Manchester. http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2006/alanfletcher Question is: Where does Fletcher's work sit in the list of 10 most influential designers of the last 50 years?