Graphic designer, typographer and art director Derek Birdsall, who has died aged 89, was one of the profession’s “old guard” and a survivor of the pre-digital age. Highly respected by his peers, his work reached diverse audiences for over fifty years. In the monthly magazine Nova, of which Birdsall was the art director for a while, fashion was presented with awareness-raising articles for the “new woman” of the 1960s; The never-better teachers of Macmillan’s era bought the Penguin Education series, impressed by the cleverness of his masterful covers.
Over the next half century, gallery-goers and art historians were grateful for the careful sequencing, elegant layout and typographic detail of the almost 100 catalogs and art books George Stubbs designed for the Tate Gallery exhibition of his famous horse paintings. In 1984, the blockbuster British Treasure Houses for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and in 1991, Rembrandt and His Workshop for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
But his best-known and most widely distributed design in Britain was the Church of England service book Common Worship, published in 2000.
Born in Knottingley, West Yorkshire, Derek was 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 printing house.
A scholarship took him to the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. There the modern principles of typography spread largely through the print designer Anthony Froshaug, whose disciplined aesthetics captivated a generation, and Birdsall gained a National Diploma in Design (1955).
Two years of national service in the Ordnance Corps drawing maps for the printing unit in Cyprus provided a means of extending his professional training, and in 1959 he set up one of the first design groups a stone’s throw away in Bloomsbury Place. Central School.
BDMW was a partnership with George Daulby, George Mayhew and Peter Wildbur. All four supplemented their income by teaching part-time: for Birdsall, this was in the design department at the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts (now London College of Communication) in Cykenwell; 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 foot of the bed, so that it was the first thing to be evaluated with fresh eyes in the morning.
European modernism (he had a large collection of Swiss posters) and an interest in geometry and the history of type design gave Derek much of his typographic style and expertise; His creativity was fueled by American examples of young New York designers before the likes of Bob Gill and Robert Brownjohn came to work in London. His greatest admiration was for his friend, the experienced American designer Paul Rand.
Playing chess and poker sharpened his judgment and concentration. The long bar lunches that were part of his daily routine honed his skills of persuasion and anecdote. In 1964 moved to offices in King Street, Covent Garden; here the full-size pool table took up more space than the work surfaces. The studio was the venue for lively parties that brought together designer colleagues, a few clients and many friends.
He hired Pirelli’s advertising executive Derek Forsyth and appointed editorial and production consultants. The decade gave Birdsall opportunities that aligned with his main interest: finding a precise graphic or typographic form for content. He became one of many artistic directors in Nova’s 10-year life, starting in 1965, and named his studio Omnific.
Its commercial design included promotion and point-of-sale displays for Lotus cars and a logo for Dorothy Gray cosmetics. American customers sought him out. For several years, Birdsall was a consultant to IBM Europe, Pegasus magazine, art director of the Mobil oil company, and designed catalogs for exhibitions sponsored by the international conglomerate United Technologies, whose interests ranged from aircraft to industrial products. He designed a brochure for the summer school of the Prince of Wales Institute of Architecture in Italy and taught a course there.
He was also the co-author of two books on chess, Fischer v Spassky Reykjavik 1972, published that year, and a subsequent book, A Book of Chess, and he designed and edited The Technology of Man: A Visual History (1979). He designed the covers for the Penguin’s Education series, as well as numerous covers that are included in the fiction list. In the late 80s he returned to art directorship at Independent magazine (1989-93), then designed the new Sunday Telegraph magazine (1995).
One of Derek’s specialties was design. reasons for catalogs – comprehensive presentations of a particular artist’s works. Mark Rothko: Studies on Canvas was a volume weighing five kilos. This was followed by Georgia O’Keeffe (1,200 pages in two volumes, 1999); George Stubbs, based on the Tate catalogue, text by Judy Egerton (2007); and Frank Auerbach, text by William Feaver (2009). In these he was particularly careful to respect the relative sizes of the original paintings and was fond of including judiciously chosen full-size details.
Birdsall was generous with the encouragement he gave students. When it came to repaying an old student loan, Derek refused the money, suggesting that the money might one day be given to a similarly struggling student.
Always eager to share his experience, Derek would often pat your forearm with conspiratorial sincerity and begin: “You know, and I know that…”
But as well as agreeing on some information about pre-digital typographers, there was also the possibility of him giving the address of the only typewriter repair shop close to his studio home in Islington.
He was fond of echoing customers’ comments, such as when the Bishop of Salisbury described the color of the Prayer Book’s headings as Sarum Red, a trait Derek adopted. His description of a font’s “delicious ampersand” was passionate rather than precious.
At a reception at Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II. She berates the Design Council official who briefed Elizabeth on the financial value of the design industry. “Your Majesty, design is not an industry,” she said. Derek believed it was a craft.
He can be serious, cheerful and flamboyant. With his big black fedora hat, his appearance was reminiscent of movie director John Huston, but with a rolled up cigar.
His public speeches (true statements and professional life stories) were welcomed by students. Although the row ended in a chat fight with the aggressive 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 Industrial Designer (1982), and won the gold medal of the Art Directors Club of New York (1987) and the Prince Philip Designers’ award (2005).
Notes on Book Design (2004), detailing his half-century of experience, details almost everything he had to teach and demonstrates his wide range as a book designer.
He married Shirley Thompson in 1954. He and his daughter Elsa, who works in his studio, survive, as do his sons Christopher, Simon and Jesse, who have seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
• Derek Walter Birdsall, graphic designer, born 1 August 1934; Died May 4, 2024