Graphic Journey Blog

Of Mice and Mad Men

A lone figure sits at a table in a dimly lit room. Cigarette in hand, he begins to write. “Why I’m quitting tobacco”. This is a pivotal scene from last week’s Mad Men in which maverick adman, Don Draper makes an audacious attempt to save his crumbling agency by writing a manifesto advertisement on the perils of tobacco and why his agency will no longer work for tobacco companies.
 
The ad duly runs in the next day’s edition of The New York Times. Everyone at Stirling Cooper Draper Price is shocked and horrified in equal measures. Don’s partners huddle together and berate him for his foolhardy actions. He squares up to them, cigarette in mouth and says,  “...someone had to do something.” Thus carving out a heroic figure for himself in their hour of need. Will it work? We’ll see what happens in the next and final episode of this series.
 
Anyway I was fascinated by the authenticity of the ad in both appearance and content. Here is the layout…

Note the typography. The simple directness of Frankin and News Gothic is perfectly pitched for the period and the type of work that Draper wants to produce. This is what I love about Mad Men, the dogged attention to detail.
 
Agency manifesto ads became an effective way for agencies to set out their stall to potential clients, especially when the economic climate was dipping or when launching a new agency.
 
Here is a beautifully written manifesto ad from New York based Doyle Dane and Bernbach...

The agency, with Bill Bernbach at the helm, that changed the face of advertising forever. 

This direct conversational style was the benchmark of DDB copywriting which penned the legendary ‘Think small’ VW ad.  The DDB style was embraced and emulated wholeheartedly by many British agencies, spearheaded by Collett Dickenson Pearce in the late 60’s. The doyen of this concise, crafted style of prose in the UK was David Abbott - who actually worked at DDB in his early days. If you haven’t read my account of him you can find it here.

 

 

17 Graphic Designers London

In 1963, at around the same time that the first D&AD annual (more a catalogue really)  was being put to bed...

The first D&AD Annual designed by Fletcher/Forbes/Gill

a more glamorous, albeit black and white, hard bound book was published. It was also from the same printers, Balding + Mansell and was designed by Derek Birdsall.  It was introduced by the firm’s Art Director, one John Commander, who would become D&AD’s first President. 17 Graphic Designers London was an early attempt to present the work and effectiveness of a new breed of designer. The ‘graphic designer’ - at the time the term ‘commercial artist’ was still the general currency.

Birdsall's minimal cover design

Note the binding. Nothing is new.

And very nice speckled, recycled paper in the front section.

17 Graphic Designers London featured the work of just that, 17 designers. How small our industry was back then. But, those 17 were the creative high flyers of the time – Dennis Bailey, Derek Birdsall, BDMW Associates; George Daulby, George Mayhew, Peter Wildbur, Ian Bradbery, David Collins, Bob Gill, Alan Fletcher, Colin Forbes, Sydney King, Jock Kinneir, Margaret Calvert, Romek Marber, John Sewell, Barry Trengrove, Tom Wolsey.

Here is a sampling of spreads for your enjoyment. All of the work is pre 1963...

 

I have interrupted the flow here to show this identity, which I have always loved…

And here is the shop front…

It looks rather fantastic doesn’t it? A perfect and timeless piece. It was designed by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert. Now take a closer look at it in context… 

Just look at the people, think how revolutionary this identity must have been for passers by at that time in Britain. They appear so impoverished in that still drab post war period. However in Germany at the time this design was the norm and had been since the mid 1950’s courtesy of Josef Müller-Brockmann.

Anyway here are some more spreads...

It is remarkable how much of the work featured in this slim publication still stands up even in black and white. 

 

Wise words

Graceful Grace

For no other reason other than she is beautiful and is wearing a great pair of loafers.

 

Lest we forget

During this last week of remembrance I stumbled on this…

A book jacket that I designed back in 1971. This, and the many references on radio and television devoted to Britain’s many wars have got me thinking about man’s inhumanity to man and the waste of war.

I was born towards the end of the WW2 during an air raid. Apparently as I cried out to take my first breath sirens echoed the all clear. My childhood was spent in the remnants of post was Britain; bomb scared, rationed, traumatised and fog ridden, all played out in black and white. At my grandmother’s I would amuse myself for hours with a box of assorted shrapnel collected from bombsites…

Photo © Dave Caplan

My first job in 1959 was at a small engineering firm that sat amidst the ruins of London Wall. War was still indelibly printed on the cityscape - it was impossible to forget what had happened to our country…

London Wall Photo © The Museum of London

But as London finally rose up from the ashes in the 1960s everything changed and memories faded. A new generation was born possessing optimism for the future. The Prime minster of the day, Harold McMillan told us that we had “never had it so good”. There was a healthy anti war feeling in the country with the many CND anti nuclear marches. But what comes around goes around. In 1984 Margaret Thatcher mobilized our troops to fight the Falklands war in an historic show of jingoistic patriotism…

Our smiling boys and girls were cheered off just as they had been in 1914 and 1936, amidst much ticker tape and flag waving, to smash the enemy. Throughout this month and the many months and years before, soldiers are routinely returned home. Not in the way they were expecting, but in a coffin draped in a union jack, to sleep forever. It is impossible not to be moved; no matter what position you take on war. 18 year olds die, often without really knowing why. When one hears of the atrocity recorded in Afghanistan and Iraq to innocent men, women and children, it is impossible to believe that we live in the 21^st century. We have learned nothing. Only this week the former President of the United States, George Bush told the world that water boarding was not torture because his lawyer had said so. And this is supposed to be the most advanced nation in world? What hope do we have?

© Brian Harris Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Back in 1978 I visited the war graves of the Somme with some enthusiastic friends. We camped at Railway Hollow, now known as the Sheffield City Battalion Park.

Our little group with me on the right and my original partner Ken Carroll left. Photo © Duncan Sturrock

On the morning of 1^st July we set off – just as the Accrington Pals and Barnsley Pals had done in 1916 – into the blinding morning sun as skylarks sang overhead. The only difference was that we walked over soft green grass. For them it was heaps of mud and debris and a horrific blizzard of bullets and shells. 60,000 casualties were recorded on that fateful July day.  

Battle of the Somme 1916

Visiting the war graves it is one of the most moving experiences I have had. You need to do it to understand what I mean.

In 1998 I once again found myself in the same location. I had commissioned the Great War photographer Don McCullin to take a photograph for a stamp, which formed part of the 48 Millennium set that I was working at the time for Royal Mail. I was in France scouting locations for Don, with this result…

Don McCullin's tribute to the fallen 1999 © Royal Mail

Artists through the ages have visually recorded their take on war, often powerful and moving, from vast canvases to monumental sculptures. For me one of the most sensitive evocations in recent times is the work produced by the multi talented Turner Prize winner, Steve McQueen. After spending time as an official war artist in Iraq he return home to produced Queen and Country a beautifully crafted wooden cabinet with a series of vertically sliding panels, each containing a sheet of stamps featuring portraits of the British service men and women who sacrificed their lives in Iraq between 2003 and 2009.

I could not help making a connection between those sliding panels and the soulless mortuary draws in the field hospitals of war zone.

We live is an age where pilotless drones can be controlled via a joystick while viewing a TV screen from the comfort of an air condition room in Nevada. It is akin to the ultimate electronic war game but where real people are clinically eliminated 7,000 miles away. No guilt, no shame it’s all a game.

I leave you with a stamp designed by Hat Trick. It is a perfect and beautiful example of what graphic design is at its best – intelligent thinking, superbly crafted.

 

Henryk Górecki 1934 – 2010

The Polish composer Henryk Górecki, whose soulfully sensitive Symphony of Sorrowful Songs elevated him to international fame has died in Katowice, aged 76.

If you don't know it you are in for a treat.

 

The Blue Nile

A trio made in heaven. The Blue Nile

In 1984, on the recommendation of a friend, I bought a CD by an unknown band. It was the first recording on the Linn label – a state-of-the-art audio equipment company who were experimenting with a foray into recording world. The album in question was A Walk Across The Rooftops by Scottish band The Blue Nile and was two years in the making. It was a revelation to me and I played it over and over again. 26 years on and I am still enjoying it.

This was a group that had clearly laboured over their work and along with Linn’s sonic engineers managed to take the recording to another level. In the quarter of a century since the release of that first album, The Blue Nile have only produced three further albums. For me each one has been a perfect realisation of this highly individual band’s musical philosophy and has always been well worth the wait. They seem to posses absolute integrity and creative sophistication in their output and have not been tempted by trappings or the stranglehold of the precarious pop jungle and its vacuous celebrity.

What distinguishes The Blue Nile is the stunning vocal dexterity and sincerity of lead singer/writer Paul Buchannan...

His voice has incredible range, pitch perfect, even in the vagaries of live performance. A soulful and heartbreakingly tender delivery with beautifully crafted lyrics and tightly knit musical ensemble working in total sympathy. Why this band has never made it on the world stage I will never know. But the selfish part of me is rather pleased. They do have a dedicated following of clandestine fans from within the music and creative industries. They are our best-kept secret. In their 26-year history, musical genres have come and gone but their work has transcended time and style and is unique like a classic piece of design.

In an age of instant gratification it is wonderful that The Blue Nile has stayed faithful to its beliefs. The work is of an exemplary standard with a distinct personality. For those of you that might be tempted by what I’ve had to say, bear in mind they are not instant candy, but an acquired taste. But the reward is well worth the effort. iTunes has an introductory compilation album on iTune Essentials. You can also view this little YouTube film here, made some years ago.

Lemon squeezers

 

 

And…

 

Yes, frivolous and juvenile I know, but then that’s me.