Thinking about Pentagram founder Alan Fletcher
May 18, 2007Gerald No Comments »Talking about Pentagram, I’ve been re-reading Alan Fletcher’s last book, “Picturing and Poeting” (Phaidon 2006). Described by Emily King as “the father figure of British graphic design”, I had the pleasure of meeting him a number of times when I was a client of Pentagram (back in my brewery days). Ms King wrote a wonderful obituary of the great man in The Independent (26 September 2006) … but in his book she had this to say about him:
“”He had a newly ambitious understanding of the potential of design: its ability to engage and inform, to tease and amuse, and to confront and challenge… He had learnt that the best graphic design connects with what people already know at the same time as rendering that knowledge utterly news and fresh.”
Later in the book, Alan pens a typical throwaway line, one that says everything, simply and clearly: “You are obliged to go off at a tangent if you want to stop going round in circles.” Genius.
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