Richard Bird (1948–1993) worked under Ken Briggs at the National Theatre 1972 to 1975. In 1975 Bird became resident head of graphics at the theatre’s new South Bank location. Some of these posters were also worked on by Michael Mayhew, who took over from Bird in 1986.
Further reading: Rick Poynor National Theatre Posters: A Design History, which can be found in the Reading Room
Members of the ‘Isotype revisited’ team, Christopher Burke, Eric Kindel, Michael Twyman and Sue Walker, participated in an interdisciplinary symposium and workshop at the invitation of the University of Vienna and the Institut Wiener Kreis.
The two-day symposium, ‘A tribute to Otto Neurath’, took place at Vienna’s Künstlerhaus gallery and coincided with its exhibition Zeit(lose) Zeichen (Time(less) Signs), featuring work made by artists and designers influenced by Isotype and Neurath. Christopher Burke was among the symposium’s speakers; his talk was on ‘The “Weiner Methode der Bildstatistik” (Isotype): between Art and Design’.
The one-day workshop that followed was hosted by the Institut Wiener Kreis and took place at the University of Vienna. Those from Reading contributed talks about teamwork in making Isotype charts, the children’s books series the ‘Visual History of Mankind’, the making of the public information films directed by Paul Rotha, the outcomes of the ‘Isotype revisited’ project and on-going initiatives at Reading associated with the Isotype Collection.
Isotype children’s books on the Eye blog
Examples from the Otto and Marie Neurath Isotype Collection.
Just published in the Journal of Design History, a paper by Sue Walker based on material in the Otto and Marie Neurath Collection, discusses an iconic series of books for children. ‘Explaining history to children: Otto and Marie Neurath’s work on the Visual History of Mankind’ is part of the AHRC-funded ‘Isotype revisited’ project www.isotyperevisited.org
Full Text:
http://jdh.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/eps031?
ijkey=7xIdEtKckzoulZB&keytype=ref
PDF:
http://jdh.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/eps031?
ijkey=7xIdEtKckzoulZB&keytype=ref
The Department is pleased to be hosting the New Baxter Society’s annual general meeting on Saturday 29 October. This members-only event will commence at 1.30pm with an opportunity to look at the display of Baxter material, followed by talks by Professor Michael Twyman and Martin Andrews. The meeting itself follows at 4pm.
¶ The Baxter process for colour printing by letterpress, patented by George Baxter in 1835, involved an initial metal keyplate and up to 20 wood or metal blocks to apply each individual colour.
From a report about the ATypI Reykjavík conference
‘This year’s conference programme included talks on – at the very least – Arabic, Devanagari, Khmer, Korean, Latin, Meeti Mayek, Mongolian, and Tamil scripts. Aside from the annual TDC and TDC² exhibitions that have long been part of the ATypI conferences, this year saw the first World Scripts Exhibition from the collections of the Typography and Graphic Communication department of the University of Reading. Fiona Ross and Alice Savoie curated this fascinating glimpse into the resources available to students and researchers at Reading; many of the items included traveled outside of the archives for the first time in order to be part of this exhibition.’
A study day to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary
Do come and join us for a day of celebration and scholarship on Tuesday 20 September 2011. The programme for the day will consist of a variety of short talks by specialists on a rich diversity of topics relating to the Festival.
We’ll be focusing on the Festival’s presentation and graphic design, including a talk by Naomi Games on her father’s design for the symbol. Other topics will include the signage, architecture, reminiscences of festival-goers, and the social context of the time.
An evocative exhibition will be mounted in the department to accompany the talks, including film footage, ephemera, souvenirs, publications and hitherto unpublished photographs.
The study day will start with a welcome at 10.30am and will finish by 5pm.
£60 (includes a buffet lunch – with some festival treats!) Students £30
Contact Diane Bilbey for more information.
