David Gentleman

BRITISH PHILATELIC BULLETIN

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DAVID GENTLEMAN BRITISH PHILATELIC BULLETIN

What do we mean by design? Design is really a problem-solving discipline. This is true of engineering as well as of graphic design. But a design prob lem, unlike a mathematical one, has many possible answers and the design er has to find the optimum solution. In stamp design the suitability of the subject for graphic interpretation and the ability of the designer to pro duce work of clarity and precision that will withstand reduction to a mere square inch or so is vital. Although, as David Gentleman puts it, ‘It is not simply a question of scale; things can be beautiful and well designed or ill considered muddles at any scale.'2 Some subjects are of mind-numbing vagueness and need painstaking research to reach either a satisfactory solution or a ‘best compromise’.

Difficult subjects for stamp design Gentleman has tackled difficult sub jects and yet produced graphic solu tions of great merit. The Post Office Technology' issue is a good example. The National Giro, Automatic Let ter Sorting and Telecommunications The illustrations for a stamp stamps of 1969 were subjects for which solutions do not readily spring to are required to communicate mind. Ask youself how you would illustrate these, if you had not seen Gen the subject to the viewer with little room for any explanation tleman’s designs? His Automatic Sorting stamp (is6d value) clearly con other than a title. Gentleman veys the basic principle of an extremely complex electronic machine, succeeds by simplification in showing the gates automatically triggered by the phosphor banding of the his Post Office Technology set. stamps. Here, the part represents the whole. Likewise, Gentleman reduced the Telecommunications stamp (is value) to a pair of sine waves to sym bolise the many hundreds of messages transmitted electronically in a telecommunications system. Symbolic ‘telegraph poles’join the base line. The design was cleverly arranged to appear as a pair of continuous sinu soidal wave forms in a se-tenant strip of two or more stamps.

Art versus design There are many examples of both art and design in postage stamps the world over. The Automatic Sorting Machine stamp shown above is clearly a design because it translates a vague concept into an understandable piece of engineering. Art, on the other hand, is the spontaneous expression of an artist’s feeling for a subject. There are numerous examples of famous works of art reproduced at stamp size - the design element in these being reduced to the selection of typefaces and the placing of The Queen’s head and value digits. To sum up, ‘The Design er,’ Gentleman says, ‘has to translate a complicated, hazily-defined and verbal subject into visual terms which must be concentrated, interesting and self-explanatory.’3

Changing the Monarch’s image! The three sets by David Gentleman which followed his 1962 National Productivity Year were the Lifeboat Confer ence, 1963, four of the five Shakespeare Festival set of 1964 and the Churchill Issue of 1965. Gentleman had argued that The Queen’s head,

74 VOLUME 35 NOVEMBER 1997 DAVID GENTLEMAN based on the three-quarters portrait by Dorothy Wilding, was far too large and uncompromising to sit comfort ably in the frame alongside the stamp illustration. Accordingly, he progres sively reduced the size over his next three commissions. But he was to go - further, and reverting to the idea of a silhouetted profile head originally The Queen s (Wilding) portrait presented in his album of 100 designs, he adapted the coinage head which in Gentleman’s Lifeboat issue compared with the ‘shoulders was to make its first appearance in the ‘Landscape’ issue 1966 in designs eliminated’ Queen's head in by Leonard Rosoman. Later that year, Gentleman reduced the size of the his Shakespeare set and the silhouette still further in the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings head reduced to the base of the neck on the Churchill pair. set. This gave rise to Prince Philip’s reference at the time to ‘David Gen In 1966, he reduced the size tleman, the Head Shrinker’. of the silhouette still further in the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings set, right. ‘Commoners’ on stamps In Gentleman’s Shakespeare Festival set, the por trait of a ‘commoner’ was to appear for the first time on the same stamp as The Queen’s portrait causing consternation in some quarters. There were, however, no serious consequences. Indeed since then persons below the rank of a Peer of the Realm have appeared on British stamps includ ing Churchill 1965, Robert Burns 1966 and Emmeline Pankhurst 1968 to name only three. Shakespeare’s image was based on the Droeshout por trait from the centre-piece of the title page of the first folio (published in 1623, seven years after his death) but shown in reverse so that the poet appears to face towards the centre a nice touch to balance with the Wilding portrait of The Queen. The stage-sets Gentleman used to illus trate the stamps were typical of those of the 16th century used in Shake speare’s best-known plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Puck and Bottom (3d); Twelfth Night with Fcste the clown (6d); Romeo and Juliet the Balcony Scene (is3d) and Henry V the Eve of Agincourt (isbd).

*_i t ~ fi riTia fi lit ~r T. Art and design combined Art and design were combined in Gentleman’s The ‘modern medieval’ style beautiful ‘Good King Wenceslas’ 1973 Christmas set in which the problem of Christmas 1973 borrowed heavily from the simplistic of communicating the theme was cleverly resolved. Gentleman said of this style which typified 13th cen set ‘In some ways the designs with their cut-away walls and unreal medieval tury art, including a peculiar perspectives did make certain demands on the imagination.’4 Clearly, the perspective which contrived to look both inside and out design element, the placing of the cut-away buildings and the position of side a building simultaneous the figures had to be decided before the artisitic rendering of the land ly! Two stamps in the set scape could be started. The cold blue colouring which predominates in show this particularly well.

75 DAVID GENTLEMAN BRITISH PHILATELIC BULLETIN

AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY 1830 a

the five 3p values carrying the theme convey the idea of snow which is deep and crisp and even, as in the carol. There is a kind of ‘cardboard castle’ effect which is particularly apt in Gentleman’s interpretation but the same effect in his earlier Prince of Wales Investiture set (1969) was per haps less appropriate. The Wenceslas set with its landscapes, castles and figures, tells the story clearly and with great charm - an impressive solu tion to the problem of communicating a given theme.

steam fire engine 1830

I K 3

Fire Service issue Early Who decides the theme? Speaking on the choice of theme Gentleman said, sketches featured fire engine ‘.. .stamps never begin with a designer seeing something pretty and think components like the nozzle of the power hose. Fire en ing: that would make a good stamp.. .A new issue usually starts with an gines from different periods idea for a theme, perhaps (from) within the Post Office, or by a member of over the 200 year span were the public or by a public institution which would like its own stamp.’5 developed as artwork for approval. The development of a theme from briefing to finished solution is known from the publication of the unadopted designs for Gentleman’s 1974 Fire Service Issue. The po brief required a set of four stamps to mark the 200th anniversary of the 1774 Fire Prevention Act. Gentleman describes how with little to go on, he set about obtaining books, photographs, brochures and library references until there were so many possible solutions that he had to prepare a series of preliminary sketches to decide which ideas would make the most meaningful set of stamps. These sketches featured fire engine components like the fire-bell or the nozzle of the power-hose or the familiar fireman’s helmet. Then he drew up sketches showing fire engines from different periods over the 200 year span. These appeared to be the optimum solution and he went ahead with artwork for approval.

Designs without perspective The final adopted designs showed the fire- engines in side-elevation in the manner of engineering projections, with out perspective, reasoning that to show the historic spoked wheels of these

76 VOLUME 35 NOVEMBER 1997 DAVID GENTLEMAN

Liverpool and Manchester Railway The first stamp shows the Rocket approaching the Moorish Arch, Liverpool; the second has the carriages passing through the Olive Mount Cutting; the third shows a carriage and cattle truck crossing Chat Moss; the fourth has the horsebox and coach-carrying truck near Bridgewater Canal and the final stamp has the goods truck and mailcoach at Manchester.

, LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY 1830 . LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY 1830 1

fire-engines in perspective would have produced an overlapping confusion of wheels and spokes. The designs show only the two nearside wheels. Until this is pointed out, one is hardly aware that the farside wheels are missing. The simplification is well justified adding force to the belief that perspective is seldom necessary in miniature work. Other designs by Gentleman in which perspective is omitted include British Ships 1969, Concorde 1969 (9d and is6d values), 50th Anniversary of the bbc 1972, Social Reformers 1976, Christmas 1977 and 1989.

Liverpool and Manchester Railway Early railway details are cleverly shown in this se-tenant strip of five stamps by Gentleman in 1980. The stamps join together to form a train pulled by Stevenson’s Rocket. The dress and stance of the driver and fireman suggest a uniform based on the dress of a ‘gentleman’ of that era. The standards provided for different classes of passenger are shown respectively with plush coaches for first class, followed by austere carriages for second class with the third class in open trucks behind! One stamp depicts the early use of the railway to carry a road vehicle. It shows a horse and carriage complete with passengers, driver and foot

man. The horse is in an open-sided truck, the sheep are in a bar-sided Rosalind Dease 1928-97 truck. Carrying road vehicles by rail is therefore at least 160 years old! As this issue was being Luggage was carried outside on the roof on these early trains, following passed for press, we learned the sad news of the death of the custom of the road coach. The first-class carriage has a guard sitting Rosalind Dease. With her on the roof, while third class passengers do not even warrant a roof, unlike husband, David Gentleman, the cattle which at least are spared this indignity! The last stamp in the she designed 11 of the spe cial stamps of 1965 and, on strip shows a goods wagon (complete with stowaway) followed by the mail her own, a further 20 stamps coach which has a guard seated on an outside dicky-seat at the rear. How issued between 1968 and did he keep his top hat on? 1974. Describing her work on the Inigo Jones set, she Unusually, Gentleman uses perspective, though minimal, on the car wrote in the Bulletin of riages and some of the background details in this set. However, unlike the August 1973: ‘Designing * Fire Engine set discussed earlier, he does indicate the carriage wheels at stamps is really only one quarter pure creative work. the far side in perspective and he does show the width of each carriage. The rest of the time is taken Likewise the background farmhouse on the fourth stamp and the double up in preliminary research, arch in the distance on the final stamp in the strip are each rendered with committee meetings and production supervision. some perspective. In this particular instance perspective is well justified Besides being a designer since it suggests an appropriate ‘landscape’ background to the train, care one has to be a public rela fully worked out so that every stamp has an appropriate background. Few tions expert, a technician and a scholar...’ British stamps communicate such a wealth of information.

77 DAVID GENTLEMAN BRITISH PHILATELIC BULLETIN

Social Reformers 1976 Gentleman’s Social Reformers set of 1976 might be said to suffer from its own excellence. Its theme is the squalor and misery which existed before the work of the great social reformers. The feeling is conveyed in colour. What could be more appropriate than black to commemorate Thomas Hep burn’s efforts to improve the conditions of miners hewing coal. The grimy colour of the other three stamps in the set is again fit ting comment on the conditions which the reformers Robert Owen (iop), Lord Shaftesbury (up) and Elizabeth Fry (i3p) strug : soc^RrfoT°'ers gled to improve. Gentleman’s mastery of symbolism is well illustrated in each of these designs. Hands are featured in all the stamps. Hands hold a pick in the hewing of coal. A child's hands thread a needle and are seen through the unguarded machinery in the iop value. A small boy’s hand holds a brush in the up chimney cleaning stamp symbolising the awful practice of sending children clambering through the flues to brush away soot. Shackled hands grasp the grimy prison bars in the 13P stamp. These disembodied hands were a unique contribution to stamp design. A further innovation can be seen in a block of nine of the unguarded machinery (iop) stamps which produce complete assemblies of drive belt and pulleys, not obvious in the single stamp. Such configurations interest some collectors. One can imagine a certain trepidation among The Author William Aubrey Witham, recently retired, was born the selection committee knowing that here was a in 1929. An artist and former professional engineering designer and inventor in his earlier career, he later became responsible set that might be seen less sympathetically by a for graphic design, marketing and public relations with the public who in the main simply buy stamps to post international ITT Controls and ultimately Johnson Controls letters. International. He is a natural artist, whose great grandfather Joseph Witham was a maritime artist with work in many mar itime museum collections in the UK and USA, and grandfather Pioneer artist and designer It might be argued Walter Witham was a landscape painter. He was formerly a that designers who succeeded David Gentleman Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and member of the Institu tion of Engineering Designers. In the late 1950s, he founded have produced equally good work, but it has to the National Committee on Engineering Design Education, sub be remembered that Gentleman led the way and mitting recommendations to the then Prime Minister, Harold did not have the advantage of hindsight which MacMillan. He exhibited and sold many of his paintings in aid of church charities throughout Scotland as a member of the Lay they now have, nor have they had to worry about man’s Building Fund under the chairmanship of the Earl of Elgin. the stamp sizes and proportions or the monarch’s image and the many details that have since been established because of ( entleman’s earlier work. References As a professional designer, he would agree that any ‘final’ design at best represents only one of many possible solutions in a methodology of diver 1 Letter to author from Tony Benn, MP gence which is the essence of design. But let us finish in Gentleman’s own

2-5 The Design and Produc words: (The search for a solution) ‘... creates a welter of abandoned sketch tion of Postage Stamps, David es, but unfortunately I don’t know of any effective short cut. One would Gentleman, Royal Society of have thought that with some hard and careful thought at the outset, it Arts, 1974 would be easy to decide clearly and logically what was going to work, and 6 David Gentleman, notes on the 1989 Christmas issue (Ely then simply sit down and do it... Instead I need to go through a gradual Cathedral, Poyal Mail Special process of refinement to find out which ideas will best serve the purpose, Stamps Yearbook 1989) and abandon everything that doesn’t 6 •