Theo Inglis

British Rail Designed 1948-1997 by David Lawrence, published by Ian Allan Books. Designed by me: http://www.theoinglis.co.uk/ 

New article for Grafik about John Berger and book design:

I have designed an entire book, it is a hardback with 272 pages. It will be released on the 10th November by Ian Allan books.

Basically a dream project to work on the definitive book about such an iconic aspect of British design history. But also a slightly daunting one, as it is a brand so revered by my fellow graphic designers. Hopefully they like it...

I’ve recently started a new tumblr for all the photos that I take of my hand holding books, it’s a lot cheaper and more space effective than actually buying them...

http://plutopresscovers.tumblr.com/ Here are some recent and striking typographic covers from the independent radical publishers Pluto Press. The Syriza one designed by Jamie Keenan is a bit of a personal favourite. The others are by David Gee, and the Chomsky’s are by David Pearson (nice use of Druk). Pluto have a rich history of typographic covers, I’m a big fan of their old ones by Richard Hollis, very utilitarian (some examples here & here). That double P logo has held up pretty well too.

“A series of posters from the 'A to Z Poster Alphabet' for Conways' Photosetting by Colin Forbes, ca. 1973”

Colin Forbes is probably best known as one of the five co-founders of Pentagram, he was also in its forerunners - Fletcher/Forbes/Gill and Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes. Alas his work is sadly less well known, and less well-documented online, than both Alan Fletcher and Bob Gill. These posters are a fantastic example of his typographic skill. I was lucky enough to go to a lecture about Forbes and Alan Fletcher, as well as Anthony Froshaug who taught them both (and many more), at Alan Kitching’s typograpy workshop a fortnight a go, hopefully I will be able to write a bit more about that soon...

Somebody submitted this question to my other blog (midcenturymoderndesign.tumblr.com) and I ended up writing quite a long answer, so I figured I may as well post it on here, just in case it helps anyone in anyway at all! It is a very hard question to answer really, but I tried to help and be honest. My answer is below:

Hi, thanks for a tough question! I’m 25 and have been a designer professionally for about three years now, after spending four years at University. So It wasn’t so long a go that I felt in a similar way. It’s interesting that you ask me about drawing specifically. Although it was once something that I enjoyed as an artistic outlet, somewhere along the line I stopped doing it as a hobby and have never really found my way with it again in that sense. Now drawing is less of an artistic pursuit for me, but as a graphic designer it is quite a functional and rational one.

My advice would be this: You don’t have to be able to draw to be a designer per se, there are some areas of design that you can pursue where you don’t have to draw to succeed. However drawing is something that is very helpful as a designer, and I don’t mean the ability to do realistic drawings of what is in front of you. I mean the ability to put pen to paper and explain what it is you want to communicate, to get an idea across clearly and simply. In business jargon these are called roughs, thumbnails or sometimes scamps. Personally I do these, sometimes just for my own benefit to get my thoughts down on paper. Being able to do this to a standard where you can show somebody else and get a quick opinion is extremely helpful. Drawings can be rough, or not very accurate but still get the idea across. You can also use photography and draw on top of it to explain your design ideas at early stages.

A lot of graphic design can be done without ever getting off the computer, but you don’t want to be limited to that, and often doing things by hand (not necessarily drawing) can be enjoyable and help you work differently. So being confident at doing things by hand really is a plus, but that doesn’t mean drawing realistically, it just means having enough confidence to take what you picture in your head and make it a reality in front of you by any means necessary!

It is also worth considering what it is you will be drawing as a graphic designer, in design there is ‘Illustration’ and you can collaborate with Illustrators if you want something drawn to a really high standard or in a certain style. As a designer you may be drawing shapes, compositions, letters etc... these aren’t the sort of thing you would be drawing in ‘Art Class’ so it is very different. For you right now saying ‘I can’t draw’, might not cover the types of drawing that a designer does.

Furthermore there is illustrating digitally, working on Adobe Illustrator with a digital pen and tablet you might find things completely different and easier! I don’t really do this much personally, but technically I’m drawing when I’m on the computer designing letterforms for typography, or constructing a logo or making graphic elements (abstract things or stylised versions of reality). Again it is unlikely that the sort of things you will be doing as a graphic designer are things you have done in a more general art class. Personally I’ve always managed to learn as I go along. Nobody expects you to know it all, you just have to have the will to make your vision come true. As a designer you are creating images, and drawing is just one of the ways to do this, or just one element of a larger piece. 

However if you can get better at drawing, by which I mean more confident and proficient not more realistic, then that would be very beneficial for you as a designer in the future. It may help if you practise by yourself and don’t feel like you need to show anyone your drawings, you are bound to improve naturally over time. It may even help to take pieces of graphic design that you admire and try to sketch them roughly so that you capture their essence, imagine how you would sketch them if you had to explain what they are to someone who hasn't seen them. If you have access to a library have a look for some books about Illustration (rather than on drawing in the traditional artistic sense), some of my favourite illustrators have styles that wouldn’t be considered good drawings in an art class, and this isn’t because they can’t draw like that (they usually can though), its just that they have developed a style that is different. Some illustrators don’t even draw at all in the traditional sense, there is paper cutting, collage, painting etc… anything that creates an image.

The truth is that it often comes down to confidence rather than a natural ability, personally I’m at my worst when I don’t feel very confident, when I put pen to paper it shows in my drawings. Confidence can be changed by either lots of practise or a radical shift in your mindset (e.g: - clarity is better than realism).

Drawing would just be one of the skills you may be expected to develop as a design student (not something you need to be the best at before you start). If you go to study design, they will probably set you a task which involves drawing, just to push you out of your comfort zone (you wont be the only student worrying about drawing ability I can guarantee that), but sometimes this is great and its good to be challenged or scared! Any good design course should radically shake up everything you have previously been taught in a more general ‘Art’ course. Someone who is great at realistic drawings might turn out to be an awful designer. You need your brain more than your hand!

“Paul Bacon, 91, Whose Book Jackets Drew Readers and Admirers, Is Dead”

Peggy Angus “A tile mural for Brussels World Fair seen in situ, 1958″

“So why is it that so few people know about her? "Like Ravilious, she is part of a generation that was overlooked from the 60s on, when tastes changed. They're only now coming back into fashion. A lot of her work was done for private clients, which kept it out of sight. But like lots of women, she has also been written out of history – literally. Her husband [the architecture writer JM Richards] doesn't even mention her in his memoir." As Russell notes in his book, male architects were content to use women artists to decorate their buildings, but this didn't mean they were going to share the credit for a design's success. In 1958, Angus designed a 50ft-long futuristic tile mural for the British section of the Brussels World Fair. Yet she was not invited to the opening ceremony and had to travel to Belgium to see it in situ at her own cost.”

This quote is from a great article on the Guardian website today written by Rachel Cooke about little known British designer and artist Peggy Angus. It is always good to find out more about the female designers from design history past, especially ones who have come close to being forgotten. It is something I have found very common while researching Mid-Century Modern, information is often sparse and their work can be much harder to track down. Which is a real shame. The mural pictured above is really quite something, I wish there were more photos, as it feels a pity to only see it in black and white the from one angle. It reminds me a bit of the colourful and abstract work that Eduardo Paolozzi (who I’m a big fan of at the moment) would do in the 1960s and beyond.

Typophonic - Album cover typography

Last week I published a new essay exploring the links between the 1956 Whitechapel Gallery exhibition ‘This is Tomorrow’, Pop Art, Brutalism and the specualtive fiction of J.G Ballard. You can read all 3000 odd words of it here:

https://medium.com/@theo_inglis/yesterdays-tomorrow-is-not-today-jg-ballard-and-this-is-tomorrow-5f11674be4e8

The year 1956 can be seen as the birth of British Pop Art, in the Whitechapel Gallery exhibition This is Tomorrow, and the birth of J.G Ballard, not the man himself, rather the Ballardian author. This is Tomorrow opened its doors for one month on August 9th, and received almost one thousand visitors a day. Among these visitors was the twenty six year old Ballard who would, four months later, have his first two science fiction stories published in the December issues of the magazines ‘New Worlds’ and ‘Science Fantasy’...

There is also a design aspect to this project, including typography inspired by Edward Wright, used on some book covers for Ballard. But more on that soon.

Various works by British artist, designer and illustrator Eric Ravilious.

Last night I went to Eye Magazines Type Tuesday event about Ravilious (1903-1942) at St.Brides, it was really interesting to learn more about an artist I have always admired and been interested in. The talk was given by James Russell who is the curator of the upcoming Ravilious exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery (from 1 April -31 August), which I’m looking forward to attending. It will definitely be worth going to if you get the chance, I’ve not seen much of his work in person so It will be great to get a feel for the real things, especially since colour and texture are such key aspects of his work.

B.S Johnson’s 1970 BBC2 documentary ‘The Smithsons on Housing’.

This documentary gives a great insight into the Smithsons views on architecture and the process and logic behind one of their only major realised buildings, the sadly soon to be demolished (I believe so anyway?) Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar, East London.

The Smithsons were one of the driving forces in British Brutalism, and were very involved in the Independent Group from the start. They worked with Paolozzi and Henderson in 'This is Tomorrow' calling their collaborative piece 'Patio & Pavillion', it definitely sat within the overall concept of Brutalism, well away from the retrospective idea we have of Pop Art. It also had a profound effect on a 26 year old future dystopian writer J.G Ballard who would later write about this specific part of the exhibition in his 2008 autobiography. 

In the work of the Smithsons and Brutalism in general there is a clear conflict between the utopian ideals of Modernism and the realities of modern life which 'This is Tomorrow' so radically explored. This dichotomy really comes through in the documentary, Sukhdev Sandhu in 2009, wrote of it thusly:

"They drone in self-pitying fashion about vandals and local naysayers to such an extent that any traces of visionary utopianism are extinguished." (via)