Alan Fletcher; pioneering British graphic designer
Hyfler/Rosner
Pioneering figure who left his creative mark on a generation
of British graphic design
Philip Thompson
Monday September 25, 2006
Guardian
Alan Fletcher, who has died aged 74 of cancer, was the
quintessential illustrator and graphic designer, a man
uniquely responsible for defining British graphic design
with his witty and highly individual approach from the late
1950s onwards. In his long career he was associated with
some of the most distinguished patrons of modern design,
among them the Victoria and Albert Museum, Fortune magazine,
Reuters, Time and Life, IBM, furniture manufacturer Herman
Miller, Pirelli, Lloyds of London, Olivetti, Domus magazine,
Polaroid and Penguin Books, designing everything from their
corporate identities - logos, literature, advertising,
signage, calendars - to toys, books, newspapers and office
interiors.
Fletcher was born in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, the son of
a civil servant. Back in wartime England, he was sent to
Christ's Hospital school, Horsham, Sussex. Drawing was his
abiding passion and he attended four art schools:
Hammersmith, the Central, the Royal College and the school
of architecture and design at Yale.
In 1950, the Central School of Arts and Crafts was a
revelation: it was a powerhouse of creativity and
experimentation. The principal, the painter William
Johnstone, employed the best painters, designers and
craftsmen in Britain, all successful practitioners in their
fields, providing the school with invaluable contacts in the
professional world. Working across disciplines was part of
the philosophy and Fletcher had access to such staff members
as Paul Hogarth, Victor Pasmore, Keith Vaughan, Richard
Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, William Roberts and Mervyn
Peake. Fletcher's work at this time was a tentative mix of
illustration and painting without much sense of direction.
Jesse Collins, a founder member of design research unit and
head of what was then called the department of book
production, insisted that all illustration students should
acquire a knowledge of typography sufficient to survive in
the real world. He then tempted the charismatic
typographer/printer Anthony Froshaug to join the staff.
Froshaug's rigorous approach - only typescales, layout pads
and well-sharpened pencils allowed - attracted a large
following. He was the catalyst that changed the thinking of
a generation of students, among them Fletcher and his future
design partner Colin Forbes. Fellow students included Derek
Birdsall, Terence Conran, David Hicks and Peter Firmin.
(Another later business partner, Theo Crosby, was studying
sculpture at the Central.)
The 1950s in England was a time of food rationing and
shortages of all kinds - including paper and art materials.
But the spartan atmosphere was conducive to the study of
design, which is an essential economy. Creativity and
optimism were high, but hard-nosed business was
unenlightened if not actually hostile. By this time,
however, Fletcher had some idea of the direction that life
and work would take him. He had won a place at the Royal
College of Art (1953-56), which he took up after a year
teaching English at the Barcelona Berlitz. Again, his fellow
students proved influential; they included Len Deighton,
Denis Bailey, David Gentleman, Dick Smith, Joe Tilson and
Peter Blake.
Fletcher's postgraduate year at Yale, with, in contrast to
the UK, the prosperity of an economy virtually untouched by
war, was - again - revelatory. His tutors included Alvin
Eisenman, Norman Ives, Herbert Matter, Bradbury Thompson,
ex-Bauhaus figure Joseph Albers ("a bit of a prima donna,"
according to Fletcher) and the incomparably elegant Paul
Rand, who helped him get work and remained an abiding
influence.
Fletcher was also blessed with the good luck of being in the
right place at the right time. In 1957, while still a
student at Yale, he was visiting Fortune magazine in New
York just as news of the launch of the Soviet satellite
Sputnik came through: a cover was commissioned for first
thing Monday morning. It was an incredible coup; students
did not usually get Fortune cover commissions. He
subsequently worked freelance, encouraged by Saul Bass, Rand
and Leo Lionni, eventually working full time for Fortune. He
had planned to set up a studio in Venezuela, but a local
revolution helped change his mind.The last boat out went to
Genoa, and he got a job in the design studio of Pirelli in
Milan.
Back in England in 1962, Fletcher and Forbes teamed up with
the American Bob Gill to form Fletcher/Forbes/Gill, an
archetype of the modern graphic design consultancy. The
following year they produced the book Graphic Design: A
Visual Comparison, including work by American and British
designers. "Our thesis," he wrote, "is that any one visual
problem has an infinite number of solutions; that many are
valid; that solutions ought to derive from subject matter;
that the designer should have no preconceived graphic
style."
In 1965, Gill left; Crosby, now an architect, joined; and
Crosby/ Fletcher/Forbes set about comprehensive design
projects for Shell, and then Reuters. The partnership grew
until, in 1972, it changed its name to Pentagram. In 1988
the firm redesigned the Guardian and today it has partners
in London, New York, Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, but
without Fletcher. He resigned in 1992, after 30 years with
the pressures of collective responsibility: "I found myself
taking on jobs I would have preferred to avoid. So I thought
I'd start over again but confine myself to the work I like."
He was essentially a hands-on designer and his return to
freelancing gave full rein to his unique style; playing
witty graphic games in the spirit of Klee, Miró and Duchamp.
Fletcher had all the medals and citations of establishment
man: he was a royal designer for industry (1972), president
of the Designers and Art Directors Association (1973),
president of the Alliance Graphique Internationale
(1982-85), a member of New York Art Directors Club Hall of
Fame (1994), a senior fellow of the RCA (1989), an honorary
fellow of the London Institute (2000) and more besides. But
at heart he remained a maverick, reinstating the idea of the
artist in the design process. In life, as in his art, he cut
to the chase: reducing options and finding the shortest
distance between the idea and the finished article.
In 1993 he became consultant art director to Phaidon Press.
His two books, Beware Wet Paint (1996) and The Art of
Looking Sideways (2004), were concise demonstrations of his
thinking. He was working on numerous projects up to the time
of his death. The exhibition Alan Fletcher: 50 Years at Work
(and Play) opens on November 11 at London's Design Museum,
to coincide with the publication of his book Picturing and
Poeting. He owed a lot of his success to the support of his
wife, Paola, whom he married in 1956. She survives him, as
does their daugher Raffaella.
· Alan Gerard Fletcher, designer, born September 27 1931;
died September 21 2006
Hyfler/Rosner
"Hyfler/Rosner" <rel...@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:QNadndO8Btu31YrY...@rcn.net...
> Alan Fletcher
> Pioneering figure who left his creative mark on a
> generation of British graphic design
some of his work:
http://www.designmuseumshop.net/design/alan-fletcher