Alan Fletcher (graphic designer)
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Alan Gerard Fletcher | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 September 1931 Nairobi, Kenya |
| Died | 21 September 2006 (aged 74) London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Graphic designer |
Alan Gerard Fletcher (27 September 1931 – 21 September 2006) was a British graphic designer. In his obituary, he was described by The Daily Telegraph as "the most highly regarded graphic designer of his generation, and probably one of the most prolific".
Born in
Early life
Fletcher was born in Nairobi, where his father was a civil servant.
He studied at the
He married Paola Biagi, an Italian national, in 1956 (they met with a heated discussion about if orange and pink were a good or bad colour pair). He then took up a scholarship to study at the
Professional career
He founded a design firm called 'Fletcher/Forbes/Gill' with Colin Forbes and Bob Gill in 1962. An early product was their 1963 book Graphic Design: A Visual Comparison in John Lewis's Studio Paperbacks series.
Clients included
Much of his work is still in use: a logo for Reuters made up of 84 dots, which he created in 1965, was retired in 1992, but his 1989 "V&A" logo for Victoria and Albert Museum, and his "IoD" logo for the Institute of Directors remain in use. In last years he designed the logo for the Italian School of Architecture "Facolta' di Architettura di Alghero", (University of Sassari). In 1962, he co-founded British Design & Art Direction, along with David Bailey, Terence Donovan, which was later renamed Designers and Art Directors Association (D&AD).[4]
He left Pentagram in 1992, and worked from the home in Notting Hill that he had occupied since the early 1960s, where he was assisted by his daughter Raffaella Fletcher, Leah Klein and Sarah Copplestone, and worked for new clients, such as Novartis. Much of his later work was as art director for the publisher Phaidon Press, which he joined in 1993. For him, life and work were inseparable: "Design is not a thing you do. It's a way of life." (quoted in his obituary in The Times). He would continue working, even on holiday, drawing on a notepad with a pencil.
A book of his designs, Beware Wet Paint, was published by Jeremy Myerson in 1994. Fletcher also wrote several books about graphic design and visual thinking, most notably The Art of Looking Sideways (2001), which had taken him 18 years to finish.
An exhibition of his life's work was displayed at the
He won the 1993
The December 2006 limited-edition cover of Wallpaper* magazine featured one of his last works omitting his calligraphic signature in the compliments slip accompanying his completed work for he was too frail by then.
He died of cancer in London, and is survived by his wife and daughter.
Further reading
- Alan Fletcher, Picturing and Poeting (2006. Phaidon Press)
- Beware Wet Paint: Designs by Alan Fletcher, by Jeremy Myerson, David Gibbs and ISBN 978-0-7148-4378-0)
- Alan Fletcher, The Art of Looking Sideways (2001. Phaidon Press) ISBN 978-0714834498
References
- ^ Slattery, Taylor (22 July 2021). "Graphic Giants: Alan Fletcher". Sessions College Notes on Design Blog. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Obituary: Alan Fletcher". The Guardian. 25 September 2006. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
- ^ "Alan Fletcher's archive goes online". Phaidon. 4 June 2013. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
- ^ "The Back Story". D&AD. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
- ^ Design Museum exhibition Archived 22 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
External links
- Official website
- Alan Fletcher -Designing Modern Britain (1931–2006) from the British Council Design Museum
- Obituary, The Times, 26 September 2006
- Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 29 September 2006
- Obituary, The Independent, 26 September 2006
- The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher on YouTube, a video interview concerning the preparation of the book
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