by Graphic designer, typographer and art director Derek Birdsall, who has died aged 89, was one of the “old guard” of the profession, a survivor of the pre-digital era. His work, highly regarded by his peers, reached a diverse audience over more than five decades. Fashions for the “new woman” of the 1960s were offered with awareness-raising articles in the monthly Nova, which Birdsall art directed for a time; Not-so-good Macmillan-era teachers have bought the Penguin Education series, which is enticing with its ingenious covers.
In the half century that followed, gallerists and art historians alike appreciated the careful order, elegant layout and typographic detail of nearly 100 catalogs and art books he designed, most notably the exhibition of George Stubbs’s commemorative horse paintings at the Gallery Tate. in 1984, British Treasure Houses for the National Gallery of Art in Washington the following year, and Rembrandt and his Workshop for the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum in 1991.
But the most famous and widely circulated design in Britain was Common Worship, a Church of England service book, published in 2000.
Derek was born in Knottingley, West Yorkshire, the son of Hilda (née Smith) and Frederick Birdsall, a labourer. After leaving King’s school, Wakefield, he went to Wakefield College of Art, where he already owned a small Adana press.
A scholarship took him to the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London. The principles of modern typography were spread there, largely through the printer-designer Anthony Froshaug, whose disciplined aesthetic was striking for a generation, and Birdsall obtained a National Diploma in Design (1955).
Two years of national service in the Ordnance Corps, drawing maps for his printing unit in Cyprus, provided a means of broadening his professional education, and in 1959 he co-founded one of the first design groups, in Bloomsbury Place, a stone’s throw from . the Central School.
BDMW was a partnership with George Daulby, George Mayhew and Peter Wildbur. All four supported their income by part-time teaching: for Birdsall this was in the design department of the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts in Clerkenwell, now the London College of Communication, where I first met him.
Dedicated to his work, Derek made it a habit in the 50s to place a more or less finished design at the end of the bed, so that it was the first thing he saw in the morning, to look at with fresh eyes.
European modernism – he had a large collection of Swiss posters – and Derek’s interest in geometry and the history of type design informed much of his typographic style and expertise; American examples of young New York designers nurtured his inventiveness, before the likes of Bob Gill and Robert Brownjohn came to work in London. He had great respect for his friend, the old American designer Paul Rand.
Playing chess and poker sharpened his reasoning and concentration. With long pub lunches – part of his daily routine – he developed his persuasive and storytelling skills. In 1964 he moved to offices in King Street, Covent Garden, where the full size snooker table took up more space than the work surfaces. The studio was the scene of lively parties, bringing together fellow designers, a few clients and his many friends.
He brought in Derek Forsyth, the advertising manager at Pirelli, and brought in editorial and production consultants. The decade gave Birdsall opportunities that suited his main interest: finding a precise graphic or typographic form for the subject. He was one of several art directors in Nova’s 10-year existence, starting in 1965, and gave his studio the name Omnific.
His commercial designs included publicity for Lotus cars and point of sale displays and a logo for Dorothy Gray cosmetics. American clients sought him out. For several years Birdsall was a consultant to IBM Europe, the art-led magazine of oil company Mobil Pegasus and designed catalogs for exhibitions sponsored by the international conglomerate United Technologies, with interests ranging from aircraft to industrial products. . He designed a prospectus for the Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture summer school in Italy, and taught a course there.
He also co-authored two books on chess, Fischer v Spassky Reykjavik 1972, published that year, and A Book of Chess, the following one, and designed and edited The Technology of Man: A Visual History ( 1979) ed. As well as the covers for Penguin’s Education series, he designed a large number of his fiction lists. In the late 80s, he returned to art direction for the Independent magazine (1989-93), followed by designs for the new Sunday Telegraph magazine (1995).
Derek’s specialty was design catalogs raisonnés – a comprehensive presentation of works by a particular artist. Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas is a volume that weighs five kilograms. This was followed by Georgia O’Keeffe (1,200 pages in two volumes, 1999); George Stubbs, building on the Tate catalogue, with text by Judy Egerton (2007); and Frank Auerbach, with text by William Feaver (2009). Among these he was very careful to respect the relative size of the original pictures and loved to include judiciously selected full-size details.
Birdsall was generous with the encouragement he gave to the students. When a former student came to repay a loan, Derek refused the money, implying that an equally hard-working student might one day be given a chance.
Always keen to share his experiences, Derek would often gently confront a conspiratorial relationship, and begin, “You know, and I know, that…”
But as well as seeking agreement on some piece of pre-digital typographer’s lore he was just as likely to entrust the address of the only typewriter repair shop in his home studio in Islington.
He enjoyed repeating the comments of clients, such as the Bishop of Salisbury’s description of the color of the Prayer Book’s rubrics as Sarum Red, a specification Derek accepted. Describing one typeface as “ampersand delicious”, he was passionate rather than precious.
At a reception at Buckingham Palace, six Design Council officials informed Queen Elizabeth II of the fiscal value of the design industry. “Your Majesty, design is not an industry,” he said. Derek believed it was a craft.
Serious and generous, he could be flamboyant. Wearing a big black fedora, he looked something like film director John Huston – but with a roll up instead of a cigar.
Students welcomed his public lectures – down-to-earth revelations and stories about professional life. And although he ended up fighting a conversation with the fringe rector, Jocelyn Stevens, he enjoyed his time as a visiting professor at the Royal College of Art (1987-88).
Birdsall became a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale, was appointed Royal Designer for Industry (1982), and won the New York Art Directors Club gold medal (1987) and the Prince Philip Designers award (2005).
Notes on Book Design (2004), detailing his half a century of experience, covers almost everything he had to teach and shows his wide range as a book designer.
In 1954 he married Shirley Thompson. She and her daughter Elsa, both collaborators in her studio, survive him, as do her sons, Christopher, Simon and Jesse, seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
• Derek Walter Birdsall, graphic designer, born 1 August 1934; died 4 May 2024
