Graphic Journey Blog

Things I like...

In 1997 when I was President of D&AD I had the great pleasure of putting together a series of President’s Lectures. This gave me the opportunity of approaching some of my all time favorite creative talents. Jean Loup Sieff was one such supreme talent. I have always loved the beauty and delicacy of his photographs. The use of wide-angle lenses, exquisitely soft, creamy lighting and wonderful compositions create images of pure serenity, especially his nudes.

This book…

 

Torsi is a great example of his craft in which the majority of the people photographed were not professional models. He used a simple lighting set up and the minimum of props. He also had a passion for hands and their arrangement…

And here are some of his dramatic landscapes...

Sadly he died in 2000.

 

Mark Boxer

Mark Boxer

In 1976 I was given the task of redesigning the covers for Anthony Powell’s epic, A Dance to the Music of Time. This twelve-novel sequence chronicles the lives of more than 300 characters in a unique evocation of 20^th-century life in England. At the time I was working as the art director of Fontana Paperbacks and Powell's books originally had photographic covers like this:

 
Not my cup of tea but they did their job. Anyway, what to do? Powell had created such an array of memorable characters that I thought we could select key individuals for each cover. And that’s where Mark Boxer came in.

Not only was he the art director of Queen magazine, the founding editor of The Sunday Times Magazine and the editor of Tatler but he was also a formidable cartoonist, with a very endearing minimalist style:

Noël Coward by Mark Boxer 
ink and coloured crayon, 1983 NPG

Boxer's witty Prince Charles mug

He also cut a very suave figure: tall and swathed in hand-tailored suits and often seen in the company of Anna Ford, a highly desirable newsreader at the time (whom he later married). The pair cut a very attractive couple:

Anna Ford and Boxer
 
Boxer loved the commission and spent a lot of time perfecting each character for the covers, with a lot of consultation with Anthony Powell himself.
 
The upshot was a wonderful set of classic covers, which I made into a double boxset. They won a D&AD Silver Award in 1978. Sadly I haven’t got the boxes or a full set of the covers. But here are a few that I have tracked down:

They continued to be used for many years after I left Fontana but were slowly degraded by increasingly insensitive typography. Sadly Mark Boxer died of a brain tumour in 1988 at the very young age of 57: a great loss.

Carlin, Deuchars and Fanelli: Three of a kind

Looking back over my blog I am horrified, and embarrassed, to discover just how few women have featured. Men have always dominated the world of graphic design and even now there are still very few design groups formed or headed up by women. Marriage and children tend to curtail or compromise their creative pursuits. A sad loss to the world of design.
 
During my many years running a design consultancy I witnessed so many talented female designers fading away the moment they had children. The demands, both physical and emotional, took them on another path, never to return.
 
But in the world of illustration there are many supremely talented female practitioners beavering away, often with children tugging at their skirts.
 
Here are three such women (two of whom I know well) who are hugely gifted, leaving highly personal fingerprints on everything they produce. They also share commonalities with one another. All three attended the Royal College of Art. All use hand-drawn lettering and collage as integral parts of their work, and all have won the V&A Illustration Award.

Sara doesn't like being photographed

Above is the wonderful Sara Fanelli, winner of many accolades including two V&A Illustration Awards and two D&AD Silvers. She also has the unique distinction of being the very first female illustrator to be made an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry, presented by the Royal Society of Arts. And this is why:

5 million people file past Sara Fanelli's Tate Modern Artist Timeline wall

 

The cover and spreads from her book, Sometimes I Think, Sometimes I am

Millennium stamp for Royal Mail

 

Above the cover and spreads from her recent book, The Onion's Great Escape

The cover for Pinokkio

Experiencing Sara’s work is a tiny glimpse into her highly imaginative, eccentric and magical mind. And if you'd like to hear her in an interview with me click here.

This is Laura, I think she likes being photographed

The second of my trio is Laura Carlin, another V&A-awarded illustrator. She was also awarded with the Quentin Blake Award two years running and the 2004 National Magazine Award, amongst many others. Her work is thoughtful, sensitive, inventive and always beautiful:

Spreads for Journal newspaper with Studio Dempsey

 

For The New York Times Magazine

For The Guardian

Cover and image from the award winning Iron Man

Above assorted images from Laura's prolific output

I have had the pleasure of working with Laura on many occasions and the experience has always been sublime. In addition to her beguiling illustration work, she has, over the past three years or so, thrown herself into making ceramics, producing a wonderful array of pots, dishes and figures.

Above Laura's foray into the world of ceramics

Complete book Le Grand Meaulnes

Laura's work has a highly sophisticated naivety, which directly touches 20^thcentury British art and 1960s illustration, a period that she finds very inspiring.

Marion photographed by Tom of Brighton in her Islington studio

The final member of this talented trio is Marion Deuchars, another winner of a V&A Award along with a mantelpiece more. As with Sara and Laura she has made hand lettering a part of her work, and in Marion’s case it’s a very big part. I think her unique calligraphic style has been exposed to more people than anyone I know - well, apart from Sara's.

The distictive handwriting that is Marion Deuchars

Just four of many book covers and jackets by Marion

Above, the windows of Cass Art and drawing pad designs below

Marion is the closest of the three to a graphic designer in her approach. She knows exactly where to place a seemingly random mark or splat to create impact, and when to use space to engender tension.

Marion's hand lettering graced the Shakespeare stamps, in collaboration with Hat Trick

In recent years Marion has embarked on engaging with children through her two highly successful books Let’s Make Some Great Art and Let’s Make Some Great Fingerprint Art. They have a wonderful immediacy through her handwriting and bold brush illustrations.

 Above: the two highly successful books to get children away from the TV and towards the drawing pad

So there we have it. Three women. Three distinctive styles bringing enormous joy to our lives. Long may they continue.

 

Sam Serif # 37