Alan Fletcher was among Britain's most inspiring graphic designers and visual thinkers. Born in 1931 in Nairobi, Fletcher moved to Britain at the age of 5, when his civil servant father was found to have a terminal illness. Rejecting its stuffy values, Fletcher enrolled at art school in 1949. There Fletcher felt liberated from the dreariness of class ridden Britain. His teachers at Yale included the artist Josef Albers, and the eminent graphic designer Paul Rand, whose ambition, discipline and ingenuity became Fletcher's touchstones. Fletcher camped in Forbes's studio, and presented his portfolio of colorful US projects to prospective clients. Determined to match the creative and commercial ambition of their US peers, Fletcher and Forbes joined forces with Bob Gill in 1962 to form Fletcher/Forbes/Gill. By the mid-1960s, Fletcher had defined his graphic style of communicating punchy ideas in a witty synthesis of words and imagery. As new designers joined, the business expanded, and in 1972 Fletcher co-founded Pentagram as a multidisciplinary partnership with Forbes, Theo Crosby, Kenneth Grange and Mervyn Kurlansky. For the rest of his life he was free to choose the jobs he enjoyed, notably at Phaidon, the art book publisher, where Fletcher worked with the visual imagery he loved. To Fletcher, work and life were inseparable, and to be enjoyed to the full. Believing that most people are not taught how to look properly, Fletcher helped them to do so by filling his books with anecdotes and practical tips, such as sitting backwards in trains to enjoy the view. To amuse passers-by, Fletcher designed iron gates forged in the elongated letters of the alphabet. Fletcher sketched pictorial diaries of meals with friends, many raising glasses of his favorite prosecco, and of travelling with his family. Fletcher once said that he hoped "To get younger as I get older", and succeeded. Alan Fletcher, graphic designer, was born on September 27, 1931.
Nice find.... remember to also use your own words and to place in quotation marks words written by others.
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