Tag: graphic design

Designer Desire: Aaron Fine

Montage of Aaron Fine graphic designs | H is for Home

Vintage travel posters are one of our favourite subjects, we’ve featured quite a few designers who worked in the industry.

For someone so prolific, talented and who worked for one of the biggest corporations in the world, we can’t find out much about Aaron Fine. All we’ve found out is that he was friends with Andy Warhol and that he died of cancer.

Other than Pan Am posters we have only seen evidence of him authoring and illustrating a single children’s book, Peter Plants a Pocketful in 1955. He illustrated The Hidden House by Margaret Wise Brown.
Vintage original examples come up for sale occasionally on eBay or you can find prints much more easily on Etsy. In addition, there’s a range of prints available from Classic Vintage Posters.

Image credits:

Classic Vintage Posters | Mike Lynch Cartoons

Designer Desire: Otl Aicher

Montage of Otl Aicher designs | H is for Home

After recently highlighting the global influence of designer Margaret Calvert, we’ve chosen another who had a similar impact – Otl Aicher.

Otl ‘Otto’ Aicher (1922-1991) was a German designer and educator who made an indelible mark on post-war pictography and mass communication.

In 1953, Aicher co-founded Ulm School of Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm) with Swiss designer, Max Bill. In 1962, with assistance from the Ulm student development team – Entwicklungsgruppe 5 (E5) – Aicher updated the Lufthansa corporate identity, introducing a brighter yellow colour and sans serif Helvetica font to the branding.

Aicher was responsible for designing the ground-breaking, memorable branding used in the 1972 Olympics held in Munich; iconic pictograms and designs that were used in the signage, programmes, posters, tickets… and Waldi, the Olympic mascot.

In the late 1970s, he was commissioned to create an identity concept for the small southern German town of Isny Im Allgäu with the aim of boosting tourism to the area. He created 120 monochrome pictograms of local buildings and landmarks.

He created the Rotis typeface in 1988 which was later used in collaboration with architect, Norman Foster on the signage for the Bilbao metro system.

If you have a look on Etsy or eBay, you’ll find original 1976 Munich Olympics posters, memorabilia and ephemera (programmes, match boxes, beer mats etc.).

To date, there’s only a single published monograph on this important designer, written by Markus Rathgeb.

Portrait of Otl Aichercredit

Additional image credits:

Dezeen | MOMA | Phaidon

Designer Desire: Margaret Calvert

Montage of Margaret Calvert designs | H is for Home

Even if you’re not that much of a fan or know that much about graphic design, Margaret Calvert will surely have had an influence on your life.

Calvert (b. 1936), with her former teacher at Chelsea College of Art, Jock Kinneir designed the signage for the burgeoning motorway system. Ironically, at the time, neither Calvert nor Kinneir could drive.

As well as the signage for the nation’s road and rail, Calvert & Kinneir designed the accompanying typefaces. Motorway was first used in 1958 on the M6 Preston bypass (now part of the M6). It’s also been adopted on the road networks of Ireland and Portugal. Rail Alphabet, designed in 1965, was first used at London’s Liverpool Street Station. It would later be adopted by the NHS in England, Scotland and Wales for its signs. It continues to be the dominant typeface used on signs in older hospitals. It’s also been adopted by British Airports Authority and by Danish railway company, DSB.

Calvert re-imagined her ‘Man at Work’ sign as a ‘Woman at Work’ artwork (compare the top pair of road signs). She also updated her ‘Children Crossing’ sign in 2016 (the girl was based on a childhood photo of herself); can you spot the differences?

She was responsible for designing the Tyne and Wear Metro typeface in 1977. It was later updated and evolved to be used, in 1992, as 3D external signage for Royal College of Art.

In her own words:

We never decided, ‘Oh, let’s brand the United Kingdom’… but as with London black cabs and red buses… You thought of everything from the standpoint of: ‘What if I am at the wheel, doing speeds of over 70mph?’

I like the idea of designing for the larger public… Design is a service. The term graphic design didn’t exist then. They called it commercial art. It’s not designing from a fashion point of view, it’s purely logic, function and aesthetics. And you can’t get simpler.

Portrait of Margaret Calvertcredit

Additional image credits:

It’s Nice That

Designer Desire: Harry Stevens

Montage of Harry Stevens poster designs

Whilst researching Kenneth Bromfield a couple of weeks ago, I was reintroduced to the work of Harry Stevens.

Stevens (1919-2008) was another talented graphic designer who produced a number of advertising posters for the General Post Office (GPO), London Transport and British Railways amongst others. Despite having no formal training in art, he won the Council of Industrial Design Poster Award in 1963.

As well as advertising posters, Steven illustrated a few children’s books including Who’s That?, Parrot Told Snake and Fat Mouse.

As we’ve been discovering, online information about many of the designers of this era is scant. There are images of Stevens’ posters in a couple of museum internet archives. Luckily, you can find a few physical examples of his work available on Etsy and eBay.

Image credits:

1st Dibs | London Transport Museum