Royal College of Art, London is celebrating 50 years of graphic design with a stunning exhibition.
The graphic design course at RCA opened in 1948 and was soon attended by talented bohemians in cable knit sweaters – their work was later celebrated in 1963 and it featured such hipsters as David Gentleman, Alan Fletcher and Len Deighton. How about that roll call? And now for the next 50 years.
The staging of the show is impressive, featuring posters hanging out to dry, alongside degree show books and early copies of ‘Ark’, the RCA’s student magazine. As you calmly walk around the show, you can feel the huge influence that the course has had on modern design practice and generations of graduates.
I was taken with this particular degree show book from 1991; it was the year that I graduated from Norfolk Institute of Art and Design (now NUA) and it features the wavy, distorted typography that we played with back then. It may have been created with Letra Studio, a rough and ready program used by students using Apple Mac Classics for the first time.
I loved the work in the show and quietly wondered what it must have been like to be a student at RCA. And the roll call of RCA alumni is gob smacking. I think it’s best that you read Mike Dempsey’s account of RCA’s 50 plus years, he nails it.