grad503junlim

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Victoria and Albert Museum Logo (1989)

The Victoria & Albert Museum logo that Fletcher designed in 1990 remains to be one of his most famous works. Created as a definitive logo was to replace the many sub-brands linked to the different sections and activities of the London museum. The font of the logo is set in Bodoni which consists the three letters of the title.

The letter A, which is missing the left leg elegantly links to the ampersand symbol (&) which reinstates the missing crossbar. The approach of removal of a stroke of a letter can bring significant impact with the legibility but the creative composition of the harmonious combination of the letter on the side delivers the logo in a more visually appealing manner.

This distinguished, memorable and timeless logo is still being used today.

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Alan Fletcher (27 September 1931 – 21 September 2006)

Alan Fletcher is well known for his sensational synthesis of graphic traditions with work and play in his unique and aesthetically witty works. As a founder of Fletcher/Forbes/Gill in the 1960s and Pentagram in the 1970s, he is among the most influential figures in post-war British graphic design.

Fletcher was born in Kenya in 1931 and grew up as a passionate artist as a child in London leading his study at the Royal College of Art. As his study continued with a scholarship at Yale, Josef Albers and Paul Rand influenced him as a designer with American art and culture. The different interaction and experiences became the formula of Fletcher's creative fusion of European traditions with North America’s new pop culture. The merge of cultures in his prolificacy and an astounding body of work, plays in his logos, magazine and book covers, corporate identities, and other media creations.

As a founding partner of Pentagram, Alan Fletcher helped to create a model of the fusion of commercial partnership with creative independence. He also developed some of the most memorable graphic schemes of the era, notably the identities of Reuters and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Moving on from corporate design, he left Pentagram in 1991 but continued as a highly active freelancer and art director at Phaidon where he expressed his outstanding works and ideas in visually appealing communication through book design.

Fletcher’s distinct approach made him a celebrated pioneer of independent graphic design who not only set high design standards for its art, architecture and design books, but his works and teachings have inspired generations of younger designers as well as to tell his design story to the present day.

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"Design is not the thing you do, it is a way of life."

- Alan Fletcher