Born in Leicester, Bruce Angrave studied at Chiswick Art School, Ealing School of Art and the Central School of Art, London. He worked as a freelance book illustrator and periodical illustrator, designer and sculptor (including paper works for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and Expo 70 in Japan). A member of the Society of Industrial Artists (SIA), his poster designs were influenced by Tom Eckersley, Lewitt-Him and Abram Games. His poster style was described by Advertiser’s Weekly as ‘distinctive and often bizarre’. He believed that a poster should be approved or discarded within two seconds, and disapproved of the ‘conference table’ method. He felt that there should be nothing ‘obscurantist’ about a good poster, but that it should contain enough ‘complex material to be interesting after several encounters’. After the war, Art and Industry described Angrave’s work as ‘clear, uncluttered line, reduced everything to the simplest possible terms, and invests his work with gaiety and derisive wit that is unmistakable’.
Information collated from: ‘Bruce Angrave’, Poster Database, London Transport Museum; Angrave, B., ‘Bruce Angrave Analyses Elements of the Good Poster’, Advertiser’s Weekly, September 14 1944, p.395; Roberts, S., ‘Advertising Art – Bruce Angrave’, Art and Industry, Vol. 41, No. 245, November 1946, pp.136-139
See images on the London Transport Museum site.
Featured Image Source (2015): Vintage Poster Blog
