Willie de Majo (born William Maks de May; 25 July 1917 – 17 October 1993) was a graphic designer.
De Majo is widely known as the founder of the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA), and as a vocal supporter of the professional status of designers, playing a significant role advocating for the design profession internationally.
His archive is located at the University of Brighton Design Archives. [1]
De Majo was born in Vienna on 25 July 1917. [2] After undertaking his training at the Vienna Commercial Academy (Wiener Handelsakademie), de Majo founded a design business in Belgrade in 1935. [3] In 1939, de Majo moved to Britain and joined the BBC as a broadcaster for their overseas service.
From 1941 to 1943, de Majo served with the Royal Yugoslav Air Force attached to the Royal Air Force. In 1944 he was with the War Ministry in London, and between 1945 and 1946, he was with the RAF at Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force. De Majo was awarded a military MBE for his service. [2]
Following the end the war, de Majo re-established his design practice - W. M. de Majo Associates - in London, offering graphic and exhibition design services, alongside corporate identity and product development. Clients at this time included British Overseas Airways Corporation and British South American Airways for whom he designed posters, [4] and Charles Letts & Co Ltd for whom he designed address books and diaries. [5]
De Majo designed the museum exhibition at Baden-Powell House, London, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1961. [6]
In 1951, de Majo was the co-ordinating designer of the ‘Ulster Farm and Factory’ exhibition which was part of the Festival of Britain. The exhibition, held at Castlereagh, Northern Ireland told the story of how Ulster earned its living through agriculture and industry, and had as its central theme, the continuing tradition of craftsmanship and skill in farm and factory. [7]
In 1963 de Majo became the first president of the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA), an organization he founded with Peter Kneebone, recognizing “the need to create meaningful international dialogue around the future trajectory of graphic design.” [8]
De Majo chaired the ICOGRADA Congresses in Zürich (1964) and in Bled (1966). A film was made of the Congress in Bled - ICOGRADA 66 (1966) - for which de Majo wrote the commentary. [9]
In 1969 de Majo was awarded the SIAD Design Medal for International Services to Design and the Profession. [10] He also received various awards from international design associations including the commemorative medal of ZPAP, the Association of Polish Designers and honorary membership of the Dutch GVN Graphic Designers Association.
He was also made an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Typographic Designers.
The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada officially changed its name to the Design Professionals of Canada (DesCan) in 2021.
Henryk Tomaszewski was an award-winning poster artist and the "father" of the Polish Poster School.
The Chartered Society of Designers (CSD) is a professional body for designers. It is the only Royal Chartered body of experienced designers. Its membership is multi-disciplinary – representing designers in all design, disciplines including Interior Design, Product Design, Graphic Design, Fashion and Textile Design.
Dan Reisinger was an Israeli graphic designer and artist.
Abram Games was a British graphic designer. The style of his work – refined but vigorous compared to the work of contemporaries – has earned him a place in the pantheon of the best of 20th-century graphic designers. In acknowledging his power as a propagandist, he claimed, "I wind the spring and the public, in looking at the poster, will have that spring released in its mind." Because of the length of his career – over six decades – his work is essentially a record of the era's social history. Some of Britain's most iconic images include those by Games. An example is the "Join the ATS" poster of 1941, nicknamed the "blonde bombshell" recruitment poster. His work is recognised for its "striking colour, bold graphic ideas, and beautifully integrated typography".
The World Design Organization (WDO) was founded in 1957 from a group of international organizations focused on industrial design. Formerly known as the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, the WDO is a worldwide society that promotes better design around the world. Today, the WDO includes over 170 member organizations in more than 40 nations, representing an estimated 150,000 designers.
The International Council of Design is an international organisation representing the professions of design. The Council was founded in London in 1963 and celebrated its 50th anniversary on 27 April 2013. It is a non-profit, non-partisan, "member-based network of independent organisations and stakeholders working within the multidisciplinary scope of design."
István Orosz is a Hungarian painter, printmaker, graphic designer and animated film director. He is known for his mathematically inspired works, impossible objects, optical illusions, double-meaning images and anamorphoses. The geometric art of István Orosz, with forced perspectives and optical illusions, has been compared to works by M. C. Escher.
Józef Mroszczak was a Polish graphic designer.
Henry Steiner FCSD is an Austrian graphic designer, known as the “Father of Hong Kong Design” – a moniker gained for his graphic designs that have shaped Hong Kong’s visual landscape. Best known for creating branding for many renowned Hong Kong based companies, most notably the iconic HSBC logo. Henry has also designed identities for various institutions, ranging from hospitality groups to media outlets. These include Standard Chartered, Unilever, Hongkong Land, Dairy Farm, IBM, and The Hong Kong Jockey Club – many still in use today.
Tom Eckersley OBE was an English poster artist and teacher of design.
Robert L. Peters was a Canadian graphic designer and educator.
Frederick Henri Kay Henrion, RDI, OBE, was a Nuremberg-born German graphic designer.
Albert Kai-Wing Ng, is a prominent graphic designer who lives and works in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada. He is known as the "Father of Canadian graphic design accreditation" and is currently an adjunct professor at York University.
Michel Bouvet is a French designer and poster artist. He is professor of visual culture at ESAG Penninghen (Paris).
The University of Brighton Design Archives centres on British and global design organisations of the twentieth century. It is located within the University of Brighton Grand Parade campus in the heart of Brighton and is an international research resource. It has many archival collections that were generated by design institutions and individual designers
Andrey Logvin is a Soviet and Russian poster artist, graphic artist, designer in the sphere of graphic design and advertising. Academician of graphic design and member of Alliance Graphique International (AGI).Owner of more than 30 awards of the International and Russian competitions of design and advertising. The winner of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art for 2000. He is presented in the directory "Who is who in Graphic Design". He is one of the 108 leading graphic designers in the book is "All Men are Brothers - Designer's Edition". In 2004 the Chinese Lignan Art Publishing House published the monograph "Andrey Logvin" on 165 pages. The poster "Life Is a Success" has become a calling card of the designer.
Yarom Vardimon is an Israeli designer, professor, dean of the Azrieli Faculty of Design at Shenkar and a laureate of the Israel Prize in design.
Alan Kitching RDI AGI Hon FRCA is a practitioner of letterpress typographic design and printmaking. Kitching exhibits and lectures across the globe, and is known for his expressive use of wood and metal letterforms in commissions and limited-edition prints.
George Him was a Polish-born British designer responsible for a number of notable posters, book illustrations and advertising campaigns for a wide range of clients.