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Graphic Icon: Alan Fletcher
15th July 2008
Alan Fletcher is a huge inspiration to me and this is just a small belated tribute to the man who died in 2006. In a world of coldness, inanity and superficiality, he brought amazing wit and beauty to graphic design. He was without doubt, one of the most influential designers of the 20th Century.
Thinking is drawing in your head.
I am constantly reminded of him, as a copy of Beware Wet Paint: Designs by Alan Fletcher is always somewhere around my desk. It is very easy to be inspired by his colours and sense of motion in his scribbles, rough sketches and personal projects.
Beautifully inventive construction of his Victoria & Albert Museum Logo
Fletcher was one of the five founders of the famous London design house, Pentagram. His love of his craft seems to shine through in all his work, even the larger client work he did for Fortune Magazine, Reuters, Herman Miller and Pirelli. As he said himself,
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.
Having studied at the Royal College of Art in the 1950s and then Yale, he was foremost a painter and artist. This shows in all his work, which is less about grid like simplicity, which was so much apart of the 60s and 70s, but an organic style that was unique to him.
A statement against pollution poster for the city of Naples
He was a master of the visual pun and often used found objects in his projects. When commissioned to do a calendar illustrating the Chinese horoscope, he simply looked around his studio to find the materials he needed as you can see below.
The Dog and Monkey from the Chinese horoscope
This is what I love about his work – the ability to see design and form in the mundane, and bringing these many mundane parts to make a unique whole. Alan Fletcher was a true original and did his own thing, his own way.
[ Filed under Design ]
Comments
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duffy said,
Met Alan once. was at university in the UK. Really nice man and a great dry wit. I could see him be intimidating to others as he was so intelligent.
great artist… RIP
28th July 2008, 14:40
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Andrew Mc Nulty said,
Great work. Good to see someone giving him respect and kudos.
28th July 2008, 15:42
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David Hall said,
Alan: Lucky you. I heard he could seem intimidating, as he had this intense look, but then a hearty laugh when he was entertained.
28th July 2008, 20:44