Alan Fletcher:

"Fifty Years of Work (and play)"

Cube Gallery, Manchester

9th Feb

I had heard a lot about this exhibition from those who went down to CUBE on the opening night, and from reading the highly acclaimed blurb.  It has been described as an impressive, major retrospective of Britain's most celebrated graphic designer, "One of the giants of the 20th Century" whose legacy continues to influence global trends in graphic design.

It was a vast archive of original sketches, posters, objects and archive footage spanning Fletcher’s work from his student days at the RCA to the playful and more personal work he created after leaving Pentagram in 1992.  The amount of work and diversity was nothing short of impressive.

My favourite designs were the ones that had the ability to leap off the page.  The use of colour and placement created accurate dimensions and I would love to develop a technique like this in my work, I find it eye-catching and engaging, whilst aesthetically pleasing.  (Above).

I was also impressed by the simplicity of the slick graphic style in some pieces, especially when presented on zines and concertina formats.  These for me were much stronger and more appealing than a lot of the illustrative examples, which failed to impress me.

The only illustrative examples that really stood out to me, where the ones that were art directed well to show off concepts.  Such as The Shopping piece below and a series of posters.

Some other pieces that caught my eye:

And a contextual response to the loss of the WTC in NYC:

This was an interesting celebration of Fletcher's prolific body of work.  When I was at CUBE I don't think I fully appreciated what was on display, but upon reflection there were some fab pieces that really stand the test of time, a statement of its success.