CONTENTS

01 Who

03 What
What is his practice?
What is personal to him?
What are his works?

10 How

12 Why

13 Bibliography
Who 01

Alan Gerard Fletcher is the

most influential figure in British
graphic design in the 20th cen-
tury.
He was born in to a British
family in Kenya 1931. And due
to the life in post-war Britain,
there were only three options
for him: go to university, join
the army, or work for a bank.
Fortunately, Fletcher received
a scholarship at Hammersmith
School of Art and since then,
his graphic design journey
began, with each school he
went to helped him get closer
to success than the last. From
Hammersmith art school, he
moved to the lively Central
School, then Royal College of
Art where he managed to get
a scholarship to Yale. (Poynor
1991, p.8)
Who 02
What 03

What is
his
practice?
Alan Fletcher’s practices
include founding a designer
firm in 1962: “Fletcher,
Forbes, Gill” (Enrico 2016,
p.8), famous for the restrained
graphic elements and skillful
composition, unprecedented
in British graphic design, such
as the Pirelli advertisement
(figure 1).
After that he, created another
the graphic design company,
Pentagram, in the 1970s with
his partners Colin Forbes,
Mervyn Kurlansky, along with
architect Theo Crosby and
product designer Kenneth
Grange. Then on, he left
Pentagram, started working
independently because of
the disenchantment with
working in a cooperation.

Figure 1: Fletcher, A & Forbes, C n.d,

Pirelli advertisement, image, n.p,
viewed on 20 December
2018,<http://www.Modular4kc.com>
What 04

What is
personal
to him?
According to his interview on
Eye in 2 Jan 1991, Alan Fletcher
(Poynor 1991, p.14) said that: “I
like to reduce everything to
its absolute essence,
because that is a way to avoid
getting trapped in a style.”
He also combines the Modernist
European and the emerging
pop culture by using vernacular
and artistic elements in his work
(Heller 2006, p.C14). This
explains why his art style is
somewhat simple like the
tradition European style but still
has his own quirky, fun
personality with the bright,
bold colors that he got from
American pop culture.
Another thing that makes Alan
Fletcher stands out from the
mainstream designer is how he
considered writing to be like
drawing (Poynor 1991, p.14),
making his typography
expressive, childlike and
sophisticated at the same
time.
What 05

Figure 2: Fletcher, A 2006, ‘B+T=P’,

Picturing and Poeting, London,p.363
What are his works? 06

CLAM Color

ASHTRAY
Figure 3: Fletcher, A n.d, Clam Ashtray, image, n.p, viewed
Saturated colors are used to
attract attention of the usres
on 20 December 2018, <https://www.writgh20.com> (Lidwell, Holden & Butler, p.38)

Formm follows funtion

Stripping away all the un-
needed decoration details
but still remains funtional. Ockham’s Razor

(Lidwell, Holden & Butler, Simple design, functions well

p.90) (Lidwell, Holden & Butler,
p.142)

Understandable Useful

Aesthetic As little design as possible

What are his works? 07

Mnemonic Device
V&A
MUSEUM
Making information easier to remeber
by using the first letters of the Victoria

LOGO
and Albert museum’s name (Lidwell,
Holden & Butler, p.134)
Figure 4: Fletcher, A n.d, Victoria and Albert museum’s logo ,
image, Creativereview, viewed on 20 December 2018,
<https://www.creativereview.co.uk>

Closure
Reduceing complexity by
removing the letter “A” left
leg (Lidwell, Holden & Butler,
p.34)

Understandable

Aesthetic As little design as possible

What are his works? 08

UNTITLED
ILLUSTRATION
Figure 5: Fletcher, A 2006, ‘Untitled’, Picturing and Poeting, London,
p.004

Interference Effects
Retroactive Interference: The
Regconize over recall
colors, words on the fruits are
Familiar fruit shape (Lidwell, different with regular fruits, (Lidwell,
Holden & Butler, p.164) Holden & Butler, p.116)

Aesthetic

As little design as possible

What are his works? 09

SIMILARITIES
AND
DIFFERENCES
Although the differences may
vary depends on what his
products need, for example
the clam ashtray couldn’t
have the “Interference ef-
fects” principle of his illustra-
tion because consumers will
have a hard time figuring out
how it works, Alan Fletcher still
brings out the playfulness in
every work through playing
with the composition and
colors with none of the com-
plicated details. This helps
most of his work achive Dieter
Rams’ principle of a good
design: Aesthetic and As little
design as possible.
How 10

Design
Process
It is very clear that Alan
Fletcher’s work is very fun
and fresh. The reason to this
is everytime he works,
Fletcher wanted to make
his works “uninhibited”,
doing something fresh and
new without being held
back by other people’s
opinions (Poynor 1991,
p.13). In a way, that is why
Fletcher likes to pick raw
materials from his costumers
and solves it through the
way that he can put his
personal twist in the prod-
uct (Poynor 1991, p.14)
Despite being influenced by
Bauhaus, Fletcher’s work never
reassembles that style. In fact,
he created his impression in
the public eye through break-
ing the somberness in post-war
English Modernism with playful
compositions.(Heller 2006,
p.C14)

Figure 6,7,8: Fletcher, A 2006, ‘Aries’, Picturing

and Poeting, London, p.137
How 11

Figure 9: Fletcher, A n.d, Be ware wet paint, image, n.p, viewed on 20 December
2018,<http://gracesblog-foundation.blogspot.com>
Why 12

Why
Alan
Feltcher’s
work
was so
popular?
Peter Gorb (1996, p.77) once
stated that Alan Fletcher’s
work, ‘Beware of wet paint’
was “A blending of visual and
verbal wit is at the heart of ev-
erything he undertakes” fur-
ther proves the reason why
Fletcher was so popular
among the public. Not only
because of it was new and
different but also because of
the perfect combination of
visual and verbal communi-
cation, it is vibrant, simple,
easy to understand but genuis
in a way. Alan Fletcher
brought people closer to the
so called “art”, showed them
a whole new world through
what he had done.
Bibliography 13

Enrico, C 2016, ‘Alan Fletcher: Drawing a Life’, Disegnare Idee

Immagini, p.8.
Gorb, P 1996, ‘A designer of genius’, RSA Journal, vol.144,
no.5470, viewed 20 December 2018, JSTOR.database.
Heller, S 2006, ‘Alan Fletcher, 74, Designer Whose Work Enlivened
Britain’, The New York Times, p.C14.
Lidwell, W, Holden, K & Butler, J 2010, Universal Principles of
Design, Revised and Updated edn, Quayside Publishing Group,
Massachusettes
Poynor, R 1991, ‘Alan Fletcher’, Eye: the International Review of
Graphic Design, Vol.1, Iss.2, p.8, p.13, p.14.