Designs on Delivery: GPO Posters 1930-1960

“This month the University of the Arts London Archive and Special Collections Centre and the British Postal Museum & Archive present the first poster exhibit from the Royal Mail Archive, with additional items from UAL on display in the Archive Centre. The University of the Arts London is also showing on loop the film Night Mail (1936) which the British Film Institute calls “one of the most popular and instantly recognised films in British film history … one of the most critically acclaimed films .. [of the] documentary film movement”.

To mark the occasion this month’s feature provides online access to this exciting new exhibition ‘Designs on Delivery: GPO Posters from 1930 to 1960′. Focusing on a period when designers such as Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890-1954), Tom Eckersley (1914-1995), Leonard Beaumont (1891-1986) and F. K. Henrion (1914-1990) were working and the General Post Office was at the cutting edge of poster design and mass communication the posters are arranged by theme to illustrate the organisation’s aims. Through the medium of basic text, images and colour the posters show how the posters translated, often complex, messages to the public in order to educate them. Technological developments in the postal service which comment on social changes, such as the introduction of airmail, can also be traced through the posters.”

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Political Cartoon Society: CAMERON IN CARICATURE

An exhibition of cartoons on the Leader of the Tory Party, David Cameron.

13 October – 24 December 2009, Political Cartoon Society

This exhibition of 60 original political cartoons charts the fortunes of David Cameron since he became Leader of the Conservative Party in December 2005. Due to his upbringing and education, Cameron is often portrayed as a toff and is portrayed by Martin Rowson of the Guardian as Little Lord Fauntleroy. After Cameron called for greater transparency in the publication of both Commons’ expenses and councils’ expenditure, Steve Bell also of the Guardian now draws him as Dave the Jellyfish. As well as cartoons by Bell and Rowson, there are also cartoons of Cameron by Peter Brookes and Morten Morland of The Times, Dave Brown and Peter Schrank of The Independent, Ingram Pinn of the Financial Times, and Andy Davey of the Sun amongst many other leading cartoonists.

Bruce Bairnsfather (b.1888; d.1959)

Born in India, Bruce Bairnsfather was educated at the United Services College. He served in the Warwickshire Militia from 1911 to 1914, went to work for an electrical engineering firm, then joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment at the outbreak of war. Severely wounded as Ypres, he was attached to the Intelligence Department as an officer-cartoonist.

Old Bill was Bairnsfather’s most famous cartoon character, with his walrus moustache and cockney origins, he captured the public imagination. It wasn’t until the 1939-45 war that Old Bill was used in government posters, a belated use of his folk hero appeal. During the 1939-45 war Bairnsfather served as an official war cartoonist attached to the US army in the European theatre of war from 1942 to 1944.

Information taken from: Darracott, J. and Loftus, B., Second World War Posters, 1981, p.18

Related Texts: Bairnsfather, B., Wide Canvas, 1939; “The Collected Drawings of Bruce Bairnsfather”, USA 1931

Related Links:

• Bruce Bairnsfather: Official Site
• Bruce Bairnsfather, Cartoonist
• Bruce Bairnsfather and Ole Bill
• Wikipedia Entry
• Fragments from France

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