Tag: book illustration

Designer Desire: Bruno Munari

Montage of Bruno Munari designs

Bruno Munari (1907-1998) is probably as close as you’d get to an all-encompassing creative. Born in Milan, he was a graphic designer, industrial & product designer, children’s toy designer, painter, sculptor, film-maker, book illustrator & author and educator.

In the 30s & 40s, he worked as art director on Tempo Magazine, Grazia and for a short while, Domus. He also later became a consultant on the fledgling Epoca Magazine. In 1948, he was one of the founder members of Movimento Arte Concreta (MAC), the Italian concrete art movement.

He designed for many of the top Italian design houses including Danese Milano, Olivetti, Pirelli, Robots and Zanotta. For Danese, he created the iconic Falkland suspension lamp and Cubo ashtray (both shown in the montage above). For Zanotta, he created the whimsical Singer chair – described by the company as a, “Chair for very brief visits”.

There are many books by and about Munari available on Abe Books and Amazon.

Art shall not be separated from life: things that are good to look at, and bad to be used, should not exist. Bruno Munari, 1966

Portrait of Bruno Munaricredit

Additional image credits:
1stDibs | Pamono

Designer Desire: Pat Hutchins

Montage of Pat Hutchins children's books

Pat Hutchins (1942-2017) was a children’s author and illustrator – I’d wager that almost every British child from the 70s onwards has had at least one of her books read to them.

Hutchins was originally from near Richmond in North Yorkshire. In 1958, she gained a scholarship to attend Darlington School of Art. She then went on to study for a National Diploma in Illustration at Leeds College of Art. On leaving college, she moved down to London in search of work, becoming an assistant art director at an advertising agency in 1963.

It was here that she met her husband and with whom she emigrated to New York in 1966 when he was given a work posting.

While still in the USA, her first book was published; Rosie’s Walk in 1968. It has since been translated into 10 languages and is still in print today.

She said that her favourite book that she wrote was Titch. It was based on the younger of her two sons, Morgan.

She won the 1974 Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year’s best children’s book illustration by a British subject. The work was The Wind Blew, a picture book accompanied by words in verse.

In all, she has authored and illustrated around 50 children’s titles. She collaborated with her husband on 5 older children’s books including The Mona Lisa Mystery, where she composed the words and he created the accompanying illustrations.

In 1995 and 1996, she began presenting the famous British children’s television series, Rosie and Jim. She did the programme for 2 series.

Have a watch of Pat talking about her books below:

Portrait of Pat Hutchinscredit

Additional image credits:
Penguin | Simon and Schuster | The Times

Designer Desire: Emily Gravett

Montage of Emily Gravett book illustrations

Originally from Brighton and now resident in rural Wales, Emily Gravett is a children’s book author and illustrator.

In 2005, Emily won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for her first book, Wolves:

I wrote Wolves while I was at university, and it feels strange looking at it now, knowing that I wrote it without the faintest idea it would change my life.

She won the award for a second time in 2008 with Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears. This was also the year in which she was the official illustrator for the UK’s World Book Day.

A Song of Gladness written by Michael Morpurgo (which Emily illustrated) will be published later this month (April 2021). Prior to this collaboration, she has illustrated only one other author’s work, Cave Baby, by Julia Donaldson. Both Morpurgo and Donaldson have held the post of Children’s Laureate.

Many of Emily’s books are available to purchase on Hive and from Waterstones.

Here’s Emily with Dilys, her mischievous Bedlington Terrier/Whippet cross, one of my favourite dogs on Instagram!

All images Emily Gravett©

 

 
 
 
 
 
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Designer Desire: Tomi Ungererer

Montage of Tomi Ungererer illustrations

Tomi Ungererer (1931–2019) was a French born illustrator of children’s books (and some for adults) and posters. His first book was The Mellops Go Flying, about an adventurous family of pigs. The follow-up was entitled The Mellops Go Diving for Treasure, after which more were added to the series.

After leaving his homeland, he has travelled and lived all around the world. He moved to New York in the 1950s where he created work for publications such as The New York Times, Village Voice, Life and Esquire. In 1971, he and his 3rd wife emigrated to rural Nova Scotia, Canada where he became a farmer. In the mid-1970s, they moved again, this time to West Cork in Ireland; they divided their time between here and Strasbourg until his death in 2019.

Much as I love his children’s book illustrations, it’s his hard-hitting political posters that really grab my attention. In his own words:

Posters for me are the most challenging and gratifying exercise. A poster has to act by impact, to catch the eye of a passerby within a few seconds. I would say the poster is more of an art form than most other kinds of advertising.
In the 1960’s I started to make political posters. Two subjects sparked my revulsion and my anger: racial segregation and the War on Vietnam. Later I did posters for other causes such as Amnesty International, liberty of the press, animal rights, ecology, nuclear disarmament and so on.

In 2007, the Tomi Ungerer Museum in his home-town of Strasbourg first opened its doors. Back in 1975, he’d donated a large part of his work and currently, the museum’s collection includes 11,000 of his drawings, as well as 6,500 toys from his personal collection.

As well as being an illustrator, he was a sculptor and architect. He designed a kindergarten in Karlsruhe, Germany which is uniquely shaped like a reclining cat. The front door is its mouth and its tail is a silver slide through which the children can exit.

Portrait of Tomi Ungererercredit

Additional image credits:
Phaidon | Tomi Ungererer