OK, so we’re a little late to the Patrick Tilley appreciation party. Our friend, 365posterblog, mentioned him in a recent article about Artist Partners so we investigated him further. That’s when we discovered that our other friend, Vintage Poster Blog, had talked about him way back in 2010. Oh well, better late than never!
In the early 1960s, Patrick Tilley (b. 1928) was commissioned to produce a poster for the Sunday Times. According to Tilley:
BBDO – the agency – commissioned me to design one poster using the line, “You are more interesting to know when you read the Sunday Times”.
I thought this was a bit of a mouthful so came up with the idea of illustrating a desirable quality possessed by the newspaper and its readers and offered six roughs which were all commissioned.
They were reduced to their simplest form and made with cut out paper. BBDO won a prize. My name was removed from the printed versions. But they made quite an impact at the time.
It’s surprising to find out that many of these poster designs for The Sunday Times weren’t even used! In 2017, the Hoxton Hotel in Holborn mounted a short exhibition of these posters.
Unfortunately, you won’t find many other designs by Patrick Tilley if you search the internet. I’ve found one he designed for Shell, one for the GPO, another for the Milk Marketing Board and a couple for McDougall’s Flour.
He began writing part-time in 1959, and in 1968 he gave up design altogether in favour of a new career as a film scriptwriter. He worked on several major British-based productions, as well as writing assignments in New York and Hollywood. His books have been translated into several languages, and have achieved cult-novel status.
Tilley is now probably most well known for his best-selling futuristic epic, The Amtrak Wars. The film rights for the series have been optioned and are currently in development.
