E. Mcknight Kauffer: Design

Hardback

Main Details

Title E. Mcknight Kauffer: Design
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Brian Webb
By (author) Peyton Skipwith
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:96
Dimensions(mm): Height 217,Width 161
Category/GenreIndividual designers
ISBN/Barcode 9781851495207
ClassificationsDewey:741.6092
Audience
General
Illustrations 150col.

Publishing Details

Publisher ACC Art Books
Imprint ACC Art Books
Publication Date 15 May 2007
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954) was the most celebrated graphic designer working in Britain in the twentieth century. Born in Montana, he left America before the first world war to travel throughout Europe absorbing the influences of the Cubists and the German poster artist Ludwig Hohlwein. At the onset of war he settled in London. Seeing himself as a painter, he allied himself with the London Group and the Vorticists. He worked at Roger Fry's Omega Workshops with Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and in 1915 was commissioned by Frank Pick, then the publicity manager at London Underground.This was the beginning of a client designer relationship that lasted throughout the 1920s and '30s only ending when Kauffer returned to New York in 1940. His posters, brilliantly coloured and strikingly modern, struck London like a Cubist thunderbolt. Soon other clients, Jack Beddington at Shell, Sir Colin Anderson at the Orient Shipping Line, the Daily Herald, (the instantly recognisable Birds in Flight poster) and the Post Office were commissioning posters, brochures, book covers and illustrations. The Vand A began collecting Kauffer's posters in 1915 and he was given a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1937. SELLING POINTS: A new title in the exquisite Design series One of the most significant and influential designers of the twentieth century 125 colour and 25 b/w illustrations

Author Biography

Brian Webb is a designer and visiting professor at the University of the Arts, London. Peyton Skipwith is an independent art consultant.