Today is a bank holiday to celebrate the day that 75 years ago marked Victory in Europe. With the current Covid-19 Lockdown restrictions, the remembrance will be less prominent in public, although with people forced to stay at home, it might actually mean that they reflect more about the event. Most of the coverage is focused on those that served in the armed forces (and quite rightly so) but I thought I'd write today about an individual who was a designer, typographer and illustrator, who also wore a uniform.
Some of you will have heard of Abram Games. During the Second World War he was appointed 'Official War Poster Artist' and designed over 100 posters. It's worth remembering that posters were one of the most effective ways of getting messages across to a mass of people and had equal if not greater importance than newspapers, magazines or the radio; and exceptionally well designed posters could be exceptionally effective!
I was fortunate enough to meet his daughter, Naomi Games, who gave an excellent talk about his life and work, including the war years.
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Abram Games was born in 1914. He attended St Martin's School of Art and was already working as a commercial artist before the war. Following 6 months training in the infantry, he was transferred as a draughtsman and after winning a competition to design a poster, was posted to the War Office in June 1941 and his work designing posters for the war effort began.
These images are taken from a booklet about the work of Abram Games, printed on Omnia, which I wrote about
here.
In November 1942 he was promoted to Lieutenant and became the Official War Poster Artist, a title never before or since claimed by any other artist. You can see much more of his work here:
https://www.abramgames.com/
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| Click on images to enlarge |
He tried to re-join his regiment, concerned that he had a "cushy job". His commanding officer replied
'You have been appointed to do a job and as far as the army is concerned, you are the only man who can do this and you will bloody well get on and do it! We can always replace a soldier, but we cannot replace you'. He ended the war as a Captain and had designed over 100 posters. Very few examples survive, as they were pinned or pasted up and rarely endured the war.
Last year, there was an excellent exhibition of his wartime posters at the
National Army Museum called
'The Art of Persuasion' and I was kindly shown round by Malcom Clarke at the NAM.
Alistair Hall of
We Made This wrote about his visit to the exhibition in an article which puts my writing and photography on this blog to shame! ...so I suggest you have a look:
https://www.wemadethis.co.uk/blog/2019/04/abram-games-the-art-of-persuasion/
Here is the exhibition guide...
After the war, Abram Games had a wonderfully successful career with a prodigious output. He designed the symbol for the 1951 Festival of Britain and clients included Guinness, the Financial Times, British Airways, London Transport and British Rail.
Although not serving on the front line, Abram Games was an exceptionally important part of the war effort and like the millions of other exceptional, yet ordinary, people who made their own quiet contribution to the eventual victory over the Nazis, deserves to be celebrated.
https://www.abramgames.com/
https://www.nam.ac.uk/
Posted by Justin Hobson 08.05.2020
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