Lewitt-Him Archives - Page 5 of 5

A football, a train and a pint of milk.

other

I’ve been sent a couple of nice things recently by readers. (Only via email though. No real bribery has yet been attempted but please do feel free, posters particularly welcome.)

Anna pointed out that there was another Lewitt-Him children’s book out there, which she knew of as her mother had kept it from her own childhood. It’s The Football’s Revolt,

and it looks to be as lovely as the others.

There are a few more photos on the Flickr set if you like these. This is certainly the only way I’ll be looking at it, as prices on Abebooks start at £67 and from there only go up. It was published in 1944 under wartime restrictions, so I’m guessing there were never that many copies in the first place, hence the premium.

Patrick Tilley also got in touch after we featured some of his designs for AP. He’ll be the subject of a post or three in due course, but in the meantime, a reminder of what lovely stuff he was producing.

The agency (Mather & Crowther..?) removed my name from the border. Possibly because the slogan was theirs not mine.
They just asked for some coloured cut-out lettering and I obliged.

Amusingly, you can see the poster hard at work on a hoarding (centre, behind the blue Volkswagen van) in this still from The Ipcress File.

It’s the scene where Carswell is shot in his car, and if you want to know more (including Google Earth co-ordinates), it’s all here.

Paul Rennie, meanwhile has sent over the cover of a railway magazine. Fortunately this is better than it sounds.

It’s not a poster, it’s quite early and it’s by Victor Reinganum who was more of an illustrator than a poster designer, but it’s rather lovely so I’ve decided to show it anyway. Reinganum did design one poster for London Underground too, in 1950

so there you go.

Mr Rennie has also, very kindly, sent over a proof of his new poster book. But as this is both very big and very comprehensive (as well as being packed with lovely posters) I may take a while to digest it. But I will. In the meantime, here are a few pretty pictures for your entertainment.

Lewitt-Him, Post Early for GPO, 1941

God Save our Queen (original artwork), Barnett Freedman, 1953, 19 x 39″, Shell Mex & BP.

Boat Races, Anne Hickmott, 1959, panel poster, 10 x 12″, London Transport.

Rather forgeta-bull

other

A curiosity today. This.

It’s a 1955 childrens book by Jan Lewitt, one half of the brilliant Lewitt-Him graphic design partnership.

It’s not, I have to say, a great book, but makes it in here mostly because it is clearly a spin-off from one of my favourite posters, a Lewitt-Him design from 1943.

I’m rather tickled by the fact that Jan Lewitt liked the idea so much that ten years later he decided to give the image an entire backstory, rather like an author being forced to write a sequel because he’s created characters who just won’t leave him alone.

It’s just a shame that the plot (which involves far away islands, mandolin trees and a bull called Yorick) isn’t a bit more gripping.

Although the illustrations are rather wonderful, in a grown-up kind of way.

Should you fancy your own copy, it’s pretty widely available on the second hand book web, at prices ranging from £10 – £100. You choose.

Two other incidental facts while I am here. Lewitt-Him also did a couple of other children’s books as a partnership. One is The Little Red Train, written by Diana Ross (not that one, I don’t think)

which you can find here (via Martin Klasch). Both the story and illustrations are better if you ask me,

to the extent that I might consider reading it to a real life small child.

There’s also Locomotive, The Turnip and The Birds’ Broadcast, which I’ve never seen but a very nice man has posted the complete set of images on Flickr, so you can take a view for yourself. My view is that it looks like the most delightful of the lot. It is, however, as rare as hen’s teeth and proportionately expensive, so I may never get to find out.

And finally, the Vegetabull poster wasn’t the only poster that Lewitt-Him did in this style. I wanted to post one of the others simply because I never see it anywhere else. So here it is.

AP2 Part Two

other

Today, a second helping of the AP2 Artists Partners book. (Is it a brochure? a catalogue? I’m not entirely sure how to address it).

I ran through a few of the obvious highlights by the big names like Hans Unger, Saul Bass and Tom Eckersley last time, but there are plenty more treasures for your entertainment.

In fact, the sheer quantity of other stuff is one of the notable things about the book. Most of what would now be seen as the big names are in the creative design section, but there are six other categories in the book, including realistic figure, humour and whimsy (section cover by Reginald Mount)

fashion and sophistication, photography ( a wonderful graphic by Heinz Kurth)

scraperboard, still life and industrial,

and finally architecture, landscape and nature.

It’s a reminder, once again, how easy it is to recreate the past in terms of what we like best now. For every classic bit of graphics, one equal and opposite bit of kitsch was created (although this is not just any old figure illustration kitsch, it’s Artist Partners kitsch by Rix).

Good to know that about the dripping, too.

But that’s not to say that there aren’t some stylish things in the other categories too, such as this Christmas card for ABC Television, by Bruce Petty.

Or once again, Patrick Tilley, this time with a cover for a Shell almanac, filed under Humour and Whimsy. No one would ever admit to doing whimsy any more, would they, it’s hardly cool; I think that’s rather a shame.

Patrick Tilley is, incidentally, not only still alive but has spent the last forty years working as a scriptwriter and science-fiction novelist, rather than as a designer. Perhaps that’s why his work has rather disappeared off the radar, despite being really rather good. (And he’s got in touch with the blog too, which is very exciting, so there may well be some more of his work on show here in due course).

Almost as strange as that career change are these two window displays by George Him, for De Bejenkorf (which seems to be a department store in Amsterdam). The first one in particular, looks almost impossibly modern.

The second is just brilliantly odd.

More of this kind of thing please.

Even all this hasn’t exhausted the almost bottomless reserves of this book. So, next time the scanner and I get some quality time together, there will further delights to come.

Britain Can Make Lovely Posters

archives, Uncategorized

A further digression here. I’ve spent the morning assembling the first draft of the links page, and in the course of it have rediscovered this wonderful photograph:

It’s the General Printing part of the 1947 Britain Can Make It exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The aim was to showcase the consumer goods which would lead the country’s manufacturing recovery after the war. Although the show was wildly popular, it was generally known as ‘Britain Can’t Have It’ as the country was still under heavy rationing, and almost all the goods on display were designed for export.

At least the posters above would have been an exception to this. I can identify a Games, the Lewitt-Him Vegetabull (below, any excuse) and a Fougasse. The caption also tells me that the front poster about Milk is a James Fitton. If you can identify any others, I’d love to know.

The image comes from the VADS archive, which is a collection of more images and resources than one person can reasonably use in a lifetime. They’ve got a good (if slightly over design-historical) introduction to Britain Can Make It if you’re interested in learning more. I’d just like to have a wander round the exhibition really. And then take the posters home, of course.