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British Council Arts
Graphic design and Illustration

Contemporary British graphic design was born in the late 1950s, the child of designers such as Alan Fletcher, then a student at the Royal College of Art, who drank in the competing influences of European modernism and American commerce. In 1962 Fletcher teamed up with Colin Forbes and American émigré Bob Gill to form Fletcher/Forbes/Gill. Their work won international acclaim and they created a model for independent practice that enterprising young designers have been following ever since.

London is now home to hundreds of small graphics teams, groups of designers who are characterised by their stylistic eclecticism, their lack of insularity and their umbilical connection to contemporary popular culture.

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Sleazenation vol.4 no 1 magazine cover "Cher Guevara" image by Scott King, February 2001
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TransAtlant-ink Political Cartoon exhibition
TransAtlank-ink, the British Council's political cartoon exhibition includes work by The Guardian's legendary Steve Bell as well 10 young and aspiring cartoonists from the UK and South Africa. The exhibition was shown in London and South Africa during 2005.
D&AD Student Competition Workshops
Each summer British Design and Art Direction (D&AD) gives out graphic design "Yellow Pencil" awards to students and professionals. With this in mind, Chris Thompson, D&AD's Education Director, travelled to six European cities an delivered inspiring workshops to groups of promising students from Sarajevo to Slovenia during 2005.
Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties
During the summer of 2005, the British Council toured the Barbican's critically acclaimed exhibiton, Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties, to four major cities in China. Read more about the tour and the broad range of work included in the exhibition.
Archived Projects
Work From London
This exhibition showed the diversity of opportunity for the manufacture of work available to designers in London
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