Artist of the day: March 2025

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Artist of the Day, March 11, 2025: F.H.K. Henrion, a German graphic designer (#2229)

Frederick Henri Kay Henrion, RDI, OBE (né Heinrich Fritz Kohn; 1914–1990), was a Nuremberg-born German graphic designer.

After leaving school, Henrion went to Paris, and worked in textile design before studying with poster designer Paul Colin. In 1936, he moved to London, England where he set up his studio.

During the Second World War, Henrion was interned on the Isle of Man as an alien, but subsequently worked for the Ministry of Information and the US Office of War Information, designing posters for campaigns like Dig for Victory, Aid the Wounded, and Grow More Food.

After the war Henrion became art director at Contact Books, and in 1951 he started his own design consultancy named Henrion Design Associates. As well as creating exhibitions, packaging, and book and magazine design, they worked within the then-emerging concept of corporate identity - with Henrion becoming a pioneer in the field.

His clients included:
• British European Airways
• Blue Circle Cement
• Coopers & Lybrand
• Giro
• KLM
• London Electricity Board
• The National Theatre
• Tate & Lyle
• Wates

Alongside his poster, packaging and advertising design work, Henrion was involved in the design of many exhibitions around the world. These included the Publicity Pavilion for the Paris International Fair, and the MARS (Modern Architectural Research Society) exhibition in London. He also worked on projects for the 1938 Glasgow Empire Exhibition, the 1939 New York World's Fair, and the Air France pavilion at the Tel Aviv Levant Fair, 1940.

After the war, Henrion continued to develop a reputation as an exhibition designer. He designed two of the pavilions at the 1951 Festival of Britain: The Country and The Natural Scene.

Henrion lectured at the Royal College of Art from 1955 to 1965, and was head of Visual Communication at the London College of Printing from 1976 to 1979. He also worked as an art editor for various publications, and contributed to the Council for Industrial Design's Design magazine.

Henrion was a member of the Artists' International Association, the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers (later the Chartered Society of Designers), and the Council of Industrial Design; in 1952 he became one of the earliest members of Alliance Graphique Internationale, in which designers from all over the world could meet and share ideas.

He was elected a Royal Designer for Industry in 1959. He was appointed MBE in 1951 and elevated to OBE in 1985.

Henrion was closely involved with design institutions such as the Council of Industrial Design (later the Design Council) and ICOGRADA (International Council of Graphic Design Associations).

Henrion's archive is held at The University of Brighton Design Archives. It covers his entire career and comprises correspondence with clients, original artwork, examples of packaging and graphic design and photography. It also includes Henrion's personal library of books on graphic and industrial design, typography and advertising, which is now fully searchable on the University's Library system.

2025. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by F.H.K. Henrion, or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

F.H.K. Henrion

For vitalitty, Eat green daily, Circa 1940s

circa 1942 poster

Four Hands, circa 1944

Without text (Allies collaboration for Victory), circa 1944

circa 1945

circa 1946

circa 1947

Future Books Volume 3, no 6 – Overture, Industry Government Science Arts, circa 1948

circa 1949

circa 1950

Graphis 37, circa 1951 cover

The Bowater Paper Corporation Limited, circa 1951

The Architectural Review, Special Number – Plants Indoors, May 1952

Design, Council of Industrial Design, 072, December 1954, cover

January 1955, cover

March 1955, cover

April 1955, cover

May 1955, cover

July 1955, cover

November 1955, cover

December 1955, cover

Hampton Court maze, circa 1956 poster

Visitor's London, circa 1956 poster

September 1957, cover

November 1958, cover

circa 1961, cover

KLM brand identity, circa 1961

Design Coordination and Corporate Image, Studio Vista, circa 1967

AGI, 1952-87

Monday, March 10, 2025

Artist of the Day, March 10, 2025: Anne Savage, a Canadian painter and art teacher (#2228)

Anne Douglas Savage (1896 – 1971) was a Canadian painter and art teacher known for her lyrical, rhythmic landscapes. She was a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters.

Savage was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the daughter of John Savage, a wealthy industrialist. She grew up in what was then the rural area of Dorval, Quebec, and spent her summers at the family cottage in the Laurentian Mountains, where she developed a love of her surroundings that became a source of inspiration for her art. She studied at the High School of Montreal.

Between 1914 and 1918, Savage studied art at the Art Association of Montreal under several instructors including William Brymner and Maurice Cullen. Her private world was permanently changed when her beloved twin brother was killed in action in France during World War I. After the end of the war, Savage went to Minneapolis, Minnesota where she studied design at the Minneapolis School of Art. On her return to Montreal, she took a job as an art teacher at Baron Byng High School where she would remain for 26 years. In addition, she taught art courses to children, promoting their early exposure to the field and years later was able to see the formation of the Child Art Council in Quebec, later known as the Quebec Society for Education through Art.

In 1921, Savage joined the Beaver Hall Hill Group whose painters were closely allied to the Group of Seven. A. Y. Jackson, a member of the Group of Seven would become Savage's lifelong close friend. After spending some time at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto with the painter Arthur Lismer, another member of the Group of Seven, Savage traveled to Europe where some of her works were exhibited. Savage also spent time in British Columbia and did sketches of native villages on the northwest coast; this work was displayed in 1927 at the National Gallery in the exhibition "Canadian West Coast Art, Native and Modern". In 1933, she was one of the founding members of the Canadian Group of Painters and in 1949 and 1960 would serve as its president. She was appointed supervisor of art for the Protestant School Board of Montreal in 1948. She was instrumental in the founding of the High School Art Teaching Association and in 1955 inspired the formation of the Child Art Council which became the Quebec Society for Education through Art.

Savage retired from full-time teaching in 1953 and was named the Supervisor of Art for the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal. She was then invited by McGill University to teach, where she ended up teaching between 1954 and 1959.

Throughout her life, Savage was involved with women's rights and gender inequity. Among the groups she joined was the League for Women's Rights, Montreal's suffrage organization. Curiously, in a speech in 1942, she said that she felt that women artists no longer faced gender inequality. They were equal to men except for housekeeping. Yet, as Kristina Huneault, the author of this article, points out, housekeeping is no minor matter because it takes time and energy away from art-making and reinforces the perception that women's place was in the home.

The Anne Savage Archives can be found at Montreal's Concordia University.

2025. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Anne Savage or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only