I was recently asked to name my all-time favourite graphic artist or illustrator and I found myself mumbling and gibbering in the roughly the same manner as when I forget a birthday or shrink one of my girlfriend’s woollen jumpers in the wash. In the end, I automatically spewed out some random designers for equally as random reasons, but none of them were very considered choices. Such a seemingly insignificant question really threw me and subsequently inspired me to have a bloody good think about it.

I think a lot of the work I have been producing recently draws heavily on the work of poster artists from the interwar period. From the colourfully romantic travel posters to the stiff-lipped, governmental advice of the War years, one single artist who continually stands out to me above the rest would have to be Frank Newbould.

As a fellow Yorkshireman, I feel drawn to Newbould from the off. Newbould was Educated at Bradford College of Art and then Camberwell School of Art. Most of his work was based in London and it’s true to say that his bright and breezy travel posters have gained him more press than anything else he worked on. Rightly so too. His clients included the Empire Marketing Board; London Transport, several of the larger Railway lines and the Orient and Cunard ocean lines. Even Viz comic picked up on Newbould’s work, giving it a classic twist of sarcastic (but hilarious) British humour.

In 1942, Newbould joined the War Office as an assistant to the equally as talented Abram Games. Whilst working in this studio Newbould produced the propaganda series, Your Britain, Fight for it Now. Loaded with nostalgic imagery of a pre-war ‘golden era’ of parochial British scenes, the series was intended to bolster pride and defensive aggression towards the enemy. Without the captions, the posters are sedate – full of billowing clouds, quiet villages and genteel pastoral horizons.

The Science and Society Picture Library has an incredible collection of Newbould’s train-line posters . London Transport Museum also keeps some of Newbould’s prints. In particular, a rare Kew Gardens series. All talent, which I gaze on with continued bewilderment and awe. I think the next time someone asks me to name some favourite designers, I might have at least one name lined up.