After I wrote the post about James Reeve and his brilliant brochures for Murphy televisioon, Dave Grant who runs the Murphy Radio site emailed with a bit more information.
Sadly, he tells me that James Reeve died just a few months ago, so I’m not going to get the chance to quiz him about his wonderful designs. Here’s another couple from 1949, just because I can.
It turns out that James Reeve wasn’t the only force in favour of good design within Murphy. Co-founder Ted Power (great name if you are going to go into making electrical equipment) was very interested in modern art. Not only did he collect avant garde art such are Dubuffet and Beuys almost in bulk, he also became a trustee of the Tate Gallery. (If you want to know more, there’s a fascinating article about him from the Independent here). So perhaps that’s why Reeve was allowed to go for such adventurous graphics for the company.
But that’s not all that Dave Grant had to say. There’s also more stuff – more precisely, Reeve’s covers for Murphy News from the same period. They’re just as good. And in some cases – like this pastiche of Abram Games – Reeve is letting himself be a little more playful.
Clearly he let go a bit for Christmas – here’s 1962’s offering
Some of the other covers echo the work that he was doing on the brochures at the time – these two are both from 1955.
While others are experiments in different styles.
And, lest you think he might be losing his touch as time went on, here are some more typographic efforts from 1964.
Give that man a medal. Or at very least a posthumous round of applause.