His legacy
His life
> V&A museum logo > Pirreli ad campaign > Co-founder of Fletcher/Forbes/Gill design firm
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Less is more
P. 4 Alan fletchers quotes p.6
4 schools of design
Portfolio
P. 9 The art of looking sideways
p.11
In a nutshell
p.14
P.12
L
ess
is
more Y
ou might not know his name, but chances are you’ve
seen his work. Alan Fletcher was one of the most celebrated and prolific British designers of the Twentieth Century.
“A founding member of Pentagram, Fletcher helped to develop a model of combining commercial partnerships with creative independence...”
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Fletcher was one of the most
influential figures in post World War 2 British graphic design. His fusion of the cerebral European tradition with North America’s emerging pop culture and the formulation of his distinct approach made him a pioneer
of independent graphic design.
Fletcher attended Christ’s Hospital, a
A founding member of Pen-
Like most children of the era
tagram, Fletcher helped to indepen-
boarding school in Horsham, where
dence. Fletcher also developed some
like his fellow classmates he was
of the most memorable graphic de-
destined for a career in the army, the
sign of the era, notably the identities
church or banking. But at the point
develop a model of combining com-
where Fletcher had to make a choice
mercial partnerships with creative
about his career path, he chose a dif-
of Reuters and the Victoria & Albert
ferent route, opting out of the rigid
Museum.
groove of post-war British middle
class life and took up a place at Ham-
Born in Kenya in 1931,
Fletcher moved to England at the age
mersmith School of Art
of five after his father became terminally ill. He was raised by his mother and grandparents in west London
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Alan
Fletcher’s Quotes “I find going to bed and pulling my imagination over my head often means waking up with a solution to a design problem. That state of limbo, the time between sleeping and waking, seems to allow ideas to somehow outflank the sentinels of common sense. That’s when they can float to the surface. I find ideas often show up in the shower, or while I’m contemplating marmalade and toast and breakfast.”
“I’d sooner do the same on Monday or Wednesday as I do on a Saturday or Sunday. I don’t divide my life between labour and pleasure.”
“If your mind is too open people can throw all kinds of rubbish into it.”
“A person without imagination is like a teabag without hot water.”
“Thinking is drawing in your head.”
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Alan Fletcher
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4 schools
of
design D
uring the 1950s he attended four different art schools, each one more forward looking and cosmopolitan than the last. Leaving Hammersmith for the livelier environment of the Central School, he found himself in class with his future partners Colin Forbes and Theo Crosby as well as
“He found himself in class with his future partners Colin Forbes and Theo Crosby...�
such other future luminaries as Derek Birdsall and Ken Garland. After graduating from the Central School, he spent a year teaching English in Barcelona and then won a place at the Royal College of Art, where his contemporaries included the artists Peter Blake and Joe Tilson.
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T
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owards the end of Fletcher’s
nent graphic designers such as Robert
three-year stint at the RCA,
Brownjohn, Ivan Chermayeff and
the head of design Richard Guyatt
Tom Geismar in New York. He even
exchanged places with Alvin Eisen-
won a commission to design a cover
man, his oppo-
for Leo Lionni,
site number at
art director of
Yale University.
Fortune maga-
Fletcher sug-
zine, then a
gested to Guyatt
showcase for
that, if professors
modern design
were able to swap
and a client at
places, students
the top of every
should have the
aspiring graphic
same privilege.
designer’s wish-
The result was
list. After grad-
a travel scholar-
uating from
ship awarded
Yale, Fletcher
to Fletcher on
set off for Latin
graduation on
America but
the condition
stopped off in
that he attend
Los Angeles,
classes at Yale. He was taught at Yale
hoping to earn money to finance the
by the eminent US graphic designer,
trip. He phoned the designer Saul
Paul Rand, and the artist Josef Albers.
Bass from the bus station and worked
Fletcher also arranged visits to promi-
as his assistant for a few weeks
“ The
Art
Of Looking Sideways “
D
esigned to be opened at
passing art, design and literature
random, The Art of Looking
from pre-history to the present day,
Sideways, Alan Fletcher’s 2001 book,
Fletcher constructs a convincing
is an unfailing source of wit, elegance
argument for graphic design’s role in
and inspiration. At over a thousand
the course of civilization.
pages, it is a spectacular treatise on
visual thinking, one that illustrates
Graham Fink had once remarked that
the designer’s sense of play and his
the creative mind should be like a
broad frame of reference.
sponge and absorb everything around
it. And then squeeze the mind for the
While designers and design
The British art director
students rifle through its pages for
juices to flow in making the work
ideas, others enjoy its gently provoca-
happen. Alan Fletcher’s book ‘The Art
tive mind-teasers. Assembling the
of Looking Sideways’ is the perfect
most ambitious of settings for his
example of such a sponge of a mind
work, against a background encom-
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Port folio
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13
In a
nutshell Reuters, IoD & V&A logos. He founded the design firm Fletcher/ Forbes/Gill with Colin Forbes and Bob Gill in 1962. An early product was their 1963 book Graphic Design: A Visual Comparison. Clients included Pirelli, Cunard, Penguin Books and Olivetti. Gill left the partnership in 1965 and was replaced
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by Theo Crosby, so the firm became
retired in 1992, but his 1989 “V&A”
Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes. Two new
logo for Victoria and Albert Museum,
partners joined, and the partnership
and his “IoD” logo for the Institute of
evolved into Pentagram in 1972, with
Directors remain in use. In last years
Forbes, Crosby, Kenneth Grange and
he designed the logo for the Italian
Mervyn Kurlansky, with clients in-
School of Architecture “Facolta` di
cluding Lloyd’s of London and Daim-
Architettura di Alghero”, (University
ler Benz. Much of his work is still in
of Sassari). He left Pentagram in 1992,
use: a logo for Reuters made up of 84
and worked from the home in Not-
dots, which he created in 1965, was
ting Hill that he had occupied since
the early 1960s, where he was assisted
his obituary in The Times). He would
tion of a book, Picturing and Poeting.
by his daughter Raffaella Fletcher,
continue working, even on holiday,
The exhibition went on tour in 2008.
Leah Klein and Sarah Copplestone,
drawing on a notepad with a pencil.
It was installed at the Ginza Graphic
and worked for new clients, such
Gallery in Tokyo between the 9th and
as Novartis. Much of his later work
(2001), which had taken him 18 years
31st of May 2008, and was installed
was as art director for the publisher
to finish. An exhibition of his life’s
at the Pitzhanger Manor Gallery in
Phaidon Press, which he joined in
work was displayed at the Design
Ealing, West London, between 14
1993. For him, life and work were
Museum in London between 11 No-
November 2008 and 3 January 2009.[
inseparable: “Design is not a thing
vember 2006 until 18 February 2007,
He died of cancer in London, and is
you do. It’s a way of life.” (quoted in
alongside the posthumous publica-
survived by his wife and daughter.
The Art of Looking Sideways
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