Graphic Journey Blog

Doughty doors

 

From 1812 to 1870 number 48 Doughty Street was the home of Charles Dickens.

Clerkenwell and Bloomsbury have been my own stamping ground since the early 1960’s. Many of the street names were used by Dickens for characters in his novels.

Walking down Doughty Street I have always been attracted by the doors, which front the many elegant Georgian town houses. I often think of the comings and goings of the myriad of people passing through those doors over the decades.

Come with me for a little door walk…

 The entrance to Charles Dickens house is via number 49 where the museum is housed 

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Graphic philandering

While rummaging through my books, I came upon the above 1947 copy of Alphabet & Image. It was the magazine on typography and graphic arts of the post-war period.

Just a few months back, I wrote a piece for the Royal College of Art on graphics from 1948, and it was exactly this approach to design that was the norm at the RCA at that time. But as new postgraduate students arrived from various colleges, particularly those from the Central School of Art (which was leading the way in a modernist approach to graphic design teaching), things began to change. And it was this modernist practice that eventually broke through to become the staple in the world of graphics and still generally prevails today.

Of course, there have been other movements that have momentarily captured the limelight: punk, Dutch, post-modern and even classicism. But over the last decade, there has been an interesting re-assessment of those early graphic teachings at the RCA, which at the time rigidly embraced the handcrafted areas of book binding, lettering, engraving, print making and traditional Victorian-based typography, especially the more decorative kind.

 

Looking at the magazine featured above, there is an enormous charm and joyfulness in its presentation – two words that you couldn’t really use when describing the stark Swiss modernist approach, with its prefabricated system of grids and disciplines.

 A 20th century example of a Swiss inspired prefabricated system design by the eminent Dutch graphic designer Wim Crowell

A 21st century example of pre modernist principles by the highly versatile British graphic designer David Pearson

For me, being limited to one stylistic approach is, well, pretty damn boring, while embracing a wider range of possibilities is far more enjoyable, stimulating and surprising. 

To read the Royal College of Art post war piece click here 

Mac Conner: Perfection from yesteryear

I went along to see the Mac Conner show at the delightful House of Illustration Gallery at King’s Cross in London and snapped the various images in this post. That's me above standing in front of a giant Mac Conner illusrtation.

It is a wonderful exhibition and it took me right back to the days when, as a ten-year-old, I would leaf through my mother’s weekly magazines and tear out the illustrations that accompanied the stories. I would then sit at the kitchen table and attempt to copy them, such was my love of illustration. A few years later, I had a folder full of these torn reference images, by which time I’d become familiar with all the illustrators’ names, my favourites being Bernard Fuchs, Al Parker and Mark English. I’d even sorted all the artists into categories (I was very geeky even then). So, this Mac Conner show was a bit of a nostalgic trip for me. 

When I finally entered the world of ‘commercial art’ in the 1960s, one of my early jobs was working as an in-house designer for a London artist agent. It was here that I came into contact with some of Britain’s most successful illustrators at the time, who were still following the great American illustration tradition that started way back with magazines like Saturday Evening Post and the great Norman Rockwell. You can read more about my time in the 1960s here.

Amazingly, Mac Conner is still with us at a staggering 101, so he must be delighted at being exhibited not only in his home town of New York but now here in London and no doubt travelling to other major cities.It is so sad that this kind of work is rarely appreciated on this level – the skill and artistry are so evident when you see the actual originals. It amazes me that people will flock to see Tracey Emin’s dreadful attempts at drawing but would pass on Mac Conner. Funny old world.

 

BLUE

Derek Jarman’s final cinematic outing ‘Blue’, made in 1993 a year before his death, will be broadcast tomorrow on BBC Radio 4 Extra and then made available on BBC Radio Player for 30 days.

It is an audacious piece of cinema in that the imagery only occurs inside your head so you become part of the production. What you see is unique to you.

As an experience in sound design it is wonderful and very moving.

I urge you to experience it, especially with good earphones. And, as it is on BBC Radio player you can, no matter where you are in the world. Listen here.

Things I like...

These Penguin Modern Poets covers were designed and mostly photographed, by Alan Spain during 1965 to 1972.

Romek Marber created the typographical grid styling when the series was first introduced in 1965.

Alan Spain worked at Penguin Books for 18 years, as right-hand man to the legendary Germano Facetti, after Facetti left, Alan became Deputy Art Director (Pelicans and non-fiction) with the then new Art Director David Pelham.

He eventually left Penguin going freelance as designer/art director/photographer and shared a studio in Archer Street Soho with designer Robert Hollingsworth where he continued to design many thousands of covers.

And even now, all those years on, Alan is still involved with editorial book design and likes nothing better than getting his teeth into a difficult photoshop project.

 

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A very happy one...

 

 

 

 

 

...to all my readers, wherever you may be.