Artist Info
Richard Hollis
Author, graphic designer and book designer, Hollis attended night classes at Central School of Arts and Crafts during the 1950s while working during the day. He had previously studied at Chelsea School of Art and Wimbledon, and went on to teach at various colleges before becoming Senior Lecturer at Central School of Art and Design from 1976-78. He worked first as a photo-engravers’ messenger, as fine art and silk screen printer, and designed and painted theatre sets.
One of Hollis’ most fruitful collaborations was with the Whitechapel Art Gallery, where he began making posters for Mark Glazebrook, director from 1969-1972. Hollis introduced the German typeface Block, which was roughly contemporary with the original Gallery building. Block was unavailable at the time in Britain, and was at first pasted up letter-by-letter from photoprints of the alphabet. There was very little money for publicity and Hollis’ expertise as a printer came into its own here. Hollis returned when Nicholas Serota was director of the Whitechapel Gallery 1976-1988.
The smaller posters in the display were all produced for the Whitechapel, where the majority of posters were A3 and mailed with news sheets and invitation cards. The type was disposed so that as far as possible it was not interrupted by folds, and a new part of the message appeared as the sheet was opened out.
Hollis does not work to a single style, as he believes that each job acquires its own style. He works closely with the writers, editors, artists, curators and architects who are his clients, as he has done since his early days of commercial poster production in the 1950s.
He has produced posters and more than 150 catalogues for other organisations including the Barbican, Museum of Modern Art Oxford and Sadler’s Wells, and has had exhibitions of his work at the Centre Pompidou, Paris and Artists Space, New York. He has lectured widely in Europe and is the author of three books on graphic design history.
Education
He started an Examination in Arts and Crafts course at Chelsea School of Art in 1952, completing it at Wimbledon after two years of national service. He abandoned Wimbledon in 1957, and attended night classes at Central School of Arts and Crafts while working during the day.
Teaching
First lithography and then design at London College of Printing 1959-1961 and Chelsea School of Art 1961-1963
Hollis co-founded, with construction designer Norman Potter, a new School of Design at West of England College of Art and was Head of the Graphic Design department there 1964-1966.
He was a Senior lecturer at the Central School of Art and Design 1967-1969 and 1976-1978.
Professional work includes
Galeries Lafayette staff designer, 1963-1964
New Society weekly art editor, 1966-1968
Sadler’s Wells Theatre Design consultant, 1959-1961
Finmar Ltd, 1962-1964
Modern Poetry in Translation, 1964-2003
Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1969-1972; 1976-1985
Pluto Press art editor and designer, 1972-1976
Solo travelling exhibition, 2012-2013:
Libby Sellers Gallery
Centre Pompidou Paris
University of Art and Design Lausanne
Artists’ Space New York
Publications
Graphic Design : a Concise History, 1994; 2001
Avant-Garde Graphics 1918-1934 (with Lutz Becker), 2005
Swiss Graphic Design : the origins and growth of an international style 1920-1965, 2006
About Graphic Design, 2012
Richard Hollis was elected Royal Designer for Industry in 2005
He married illustrator-author Posy Simmonds in 1974.
