Rufus Segar | |
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| Born | 28 August 1932 |
| Died | 7 May 2015 (aged 82) |
| Education |
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| Occupations |
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| Notable work | Anarchy (1961–1970) |
| Movement | Anarchism |
| Spouse | Sheila Bullard |
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Rufus Segar was a British anarchist, illustrator and graphic designer who was best known for his designs of the monthly Anarchy magazine throughout the 1960s. He and his wife, Sheila Bullard, were life-long anarchists. [1]
Segar was born on 28 August 1932 in Ipswich, Suffolk, the second son of Eric and Ethel ( née Bomber). His father was a member of The Magic Circle. Segar described him as an "an itinerant pharmacist". [2] [3] Segar's family moved a lot during his childhood, "as his father moved across the country setting up various ill-starred business ventures." [4] Initially they moved to Walsall in 1936, to Bilston in 1938 and to Bristol in 1939. Then, in 1946 they moved to Colwyn Bay in North Wales, and two years later they moved fourteen miles along the coast to Prestatyn. [3]
Segar recalled that, at least the age of ten or twelve years old, he was convinced that he wanted to become a cartoonist. [3] He initially attended Rhyl Grammar School, where he took an A-level in mathematics and then attended St Asaph Grammar School (which later became Ysgol Glan Clwyd), where he took an A-level in art. While he was taking his A-level in art, his teacher led him to enrol on a four-year course in the Liverpool College of Art, [3] which he did in 1949. [2] The course was split into halves. For the second half, students were asked to choose a discipline of applied art from about eight options. Seegar enrolled for illustration. [3] He recalled in an interview which independent graphic designer Daniel Poyner undertook with him at home in 2009:
"At that time the idea of illustration was a book with maybe one picture on the cover and five or six inside, and that was an illustrated book. I said 'bloody nonsense'. I was much more interested in techniques like aquatinting, etching, engraving, lithography, block-making, tone and line process work. And so I did all of those things. I gave myself a brief of roving about what other people did. I went off to pottery and went off to theatre design, to textiles, and just roved." [3]
While Segar was a student, he moved into an anarchist collective in Upper Parliament Street, where he met Sheila Bullard, who he later married.
Segar graduated in 1953, after which the members of the collective moved to London. [5] He initially got a job in a cardboard box factory, Hunt Partners in Clapton. Then he began working as an assistant designer in advertising for Horatio Myer & Co Ltd in Vauxhall. Three years later he got a job in SH Benson in Kingsway, which he described as "a top rank advertising agency". [6] However, he recalled: "You're nowhere, just an assistant in the system. I watched that for three years, just seeing how it worked, then I said, 'It's not for me.'" [6]
In 1955 Segar was imprisoned for three months for refusing to perform National Service. [4] In 1961, he was still working for SH Benson. And he also worked freelance, illustrating books. From 1964 to 1982 he worked freelance for the Economist Intelligence Unit, as a designer [7] or an illustrator and graphic designer. [4] While Segar worked for the Unit, he designed the 136-page book Atlas of Europe - A profile of Western Europe, which was published jointly in 1974 by John Bartholomew and Frederick Warne. [8] [9] Segar recalled that he designed the book to be updated 'statistically every two or three years.' [10] But no new edition was published, which he attributed to the cut to "the budget for futher education [which] was aimed at six form upwards", [10] which Margaret Thatcher implemented in her capacity as the Secretary of State for Education and Science. [10]
In May 1961, Segar began to design the covers for Anarchy, [11] which Colin Ward had started, in Segar's words, "as a foil to Freedom ". [12] [13] Ward recalled in his discussion with David Goodway:
"It was decided that in the first week of every month the monthly journal should appear instead of the weekly, and that it should have, not the quarto (A4) format that I envisaged for a monthly Freedom but an octavo (A5) page. I now think this was a good idea, simply because even today I visit people and they pull copies out of their bookshelves preserved precisely because they would fit on a bookshelf." [14]
From Issue Six onwards, Segar became the magazine's resident art director. [12] Ward gave him significant freedom in his design of each issue, albeit while working to a tight deadline. Anarchist author David Goodway described Segar's series of covers for Anarchy as "superb". [15] However, in Issue 107 (January 1970) of the magazine, Segar described its production process in less flattering terms:
"The way the magazine is put together is comic, awful, and, for a journal of dissent, too vulnerable. The words are assembled by the editor and sent to a [sic] trade typesetters in Stepney. The proofs are made up into a dummy in Putney. The metal type for titles is made up in Whitechapel. The picture for the cover is made in St. James's and sent to a blockmaker in Clerkenwell. The block is sent to a printer in Bishopsgate who prints the covers. The insides and the covers are collected together and taken to a binders in Fulham who folds the insides, stitches on the covers and trims the copies. The magazines are sent to Whitechapel for dispatch. Sometimes you get your magazine late. The process is Victorian…" [16]
Colin Ward relayed this description of the production process of Anarchy to British historian David Goodway as "a tour of inner London and its suburbs". [17]
Segar recalled that "Colin lost interest in the magazine when he got to volume ten. There was a change in management style and in size, format, and technique too." [18] [19] He continued:
"The new lot who took over asked, 'Will you keep on doing the covers?' and I said yes. So I did four or five covers for them, but inside, instead of just texts like Colin had run it, anything went. They also changed what was Colin's notion of what an issue of Anarchy should be about. Three, four, five, or six articles on a theme became a general mishmash and it just disintegrated. It was really too many cooks spoilt the broth. In the end I lost patience with it. I said, 'Well, obviously you can do what you like inside, and now you can do what you like on the cover,' and I dropped it. I just wasn't interested anymore." [20]
Segar's covers were published in their entirety by Hyphen Press in the 2012 book Autonomy: The Cover Designs of Anarchy 1961–1970 , edited by Daniel Poyner. [21]
Segar initially retired with his wife to Saltwood in Kent, where they lived in the 1990s. While they were living there, they became friends with Mike Umbers, the editor of the newsletter of the nearby Hythe Civic Society, and his wife. Segar worked voluntarily as an illustrator for the Society. Umbers (2023) submitted his article Memories of my time as newsletter editor to the Society's newsletter. He recalled in his article: "Working with [Segar] over the years we and our families became friends; he was an entertaining conversationalist and we enjoyed supper and garden parties, setting the world to rights together." [22] Also in his article, he cited Segar's production of a (39-page card book) Remember Hythe The High Street 1902-1992 for the Society and he described his contributions of the extremely detailed designs of the covers for its newsletter, several of which are illustrated. [23]
Around 1999, [24] Segar later moved to Pershore in Worcestershire to be near his children and grandchildren. [22] In 2001 he collaborated with anarchist Donald Rooum on an orbituary of anarchist psychologist Tony Gibson. [25] In 2012 author David Goodway acknowledged Segar's help in producing the new edition of his book Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow . [26]
Segar died on 7 May 2015 at the age of 82, after a fall at home. [24]
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