British designer, Alan Fletcher, (1931-2006) born to British parents in Nairobi, Kenya, moved to England at the age of five. After attending four art schools, he then travelled to America. After he returned to London he founded a design firm called 'Fletcher/Forbes/Gill' with Colin Forbes and Bob Gill in 1962. When two new partners joined, in 1972 the partnership was re-named Pentagram.
Fletcher approached his briefs with a 'Not how - Why?' attitude, he looked at why he was designing what he was, not how he would answer the brief. I think this is one of the reasons his designs have so much depth and meaning behind them.
From my research, it appears he was very passionate about his work even from a young age and that he would go the extra mile to obtain experience, for example, while in the United States he phoned Saul Bass from a bus station to ask him to look at his portfolio and ended up being his assistant for a few weeks.
One thing I especially like about his work is the colourful, playful, relaxed style, without losing any of it's meaningfulness or function. His work was greatly influenced by the glitz and glamour of American culture compared to grey gloom of post-war London. An interesting point of his style is that he sometimes uses his own handwriting on a design, it definitely makes his designs very personal.
References:
Famous
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Poynor,
Rick. (1990), Reputations: Alan Fletcher.
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Thompson, Philip.
(2006), Alan Fletcher.
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(2016), Alan Fletcher (graphic designer).
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Dunkerton,
Martin. (2013), Biography.
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