Record

Code	DS/UK/47
Person Name	Eckersley; Tom (1914-1997); Graphic designer and educator
Dates	1914-1997
Dates and Places	Salford, London
History	English.
Activity	Tom Eckersley was born on 30 September 1914 in Lancashire. His artistic training began in 1930 when he enrolled at Salford Art School, where his abilities were soon recognised and he was awarded the Heywood Medal for Best Student. In 1934 Eckersley moved to London with the express purpose of becoming a freelance poster designer. He was accompanied by Eric Lombers (1914-1978), a fellow student and future collaborator on commissioned poster designs. Eckersley-Lombers posters were both aesthetic and functional, thereby perfectly fulfilling advertisers' criteria. Eckersley-Lombers always supplied full size artwork with hand drawn lettering for their poster designs. Eckersley was involved not only in graphic design but in its teaching: he and Lombers worked as visiting lectures in poster design at Westminster School of Art. The partnership benefited from the cultural recognition of the poster as a design piece in the 1930s and from the fact that mass media was yet to explode, meaning that the poster was the only means of shouting a message to a mass audience. However, this was in turn restricted by tariffs that one had to pay in order to put up posters in authorised spaces. Posters thus needed to be memorable even to someone strolling past and therefore maybe only glimpsing it once. The start of World War II in 1939 effectively marked the end of Eckersley's partnership with Lombers, as they joined different military services and there was a decline in demand for commercial advertising. This led Eckersley to create posters for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), aimed at workers in factories and industrial settings that often supported the military in someway. These posters are striking in their bluntness; with little text it is the illustration that catches the eye. Most use block colours and cut out shapes to form the designs. Having originally joined the Royal Air Force and being charged with cartographic work Eckersley was transferred to the Publicity Section of the Air Ministry, this allowed him to work from home and take commercial commissions again, for example from the General Post Office. In 1948 his contribution was recognised with the granting of an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to poster design. During the war the realisation of the posters ability to communicate complex messages was recognised, as propaganda messages were successfully conveyed by posters and mass media was developed. After the war commissions for government posters reduced and, due to rationing and financial strain, commercial advertising was still restricted. However, Eckersley was able to gain commissions from new sources such as Gillette and old sources such as the General Post Office. He also did some work as a book illustrator, for example illustrating his wife's book Cat O'Nine Lives in 1946. In 1954 Eckersley joined the London College of Printing (LCP, now named London College of Communication) in order to teach undergraduates. Here he established the first undergraduate courses in graphic design in Britain. He was Head of Design at the College from 1957 until 1977. Whilst at the College he designed posters to inform staff and students, for example one reminds students to return overdue library books. Eckersley also continued to complete commissioned work, adding The United Nations Children's Fund, the World Wide Fund for Nature, the National Business Calendar Design Awards and Cooks to his list of clients. Therefore, Eckersley was both a practioner and a teacher, thus allowing his designs and teaching to remain relevant to changing audiences. Eckersley was one of the foremost poster designers and graphic communicators of the last century, who combined practice with education[1]. In addition to poster making and book illustration he also produced magazine covers (for example for The Queen) and logos. His designs often employ an abstract like quality and collage to convey their message but whatever the technique Eckersley's designs have one common factor: they bring together text and pictures to relate complex messages in a direct way. The range of companies who commissioned both the Eckersley-Lombers partnership and Eckersley individually reflects the wide appeal of their/his striking designs: Shell-Mex; British Petroleum; the British Broadcasting Corporation; London Transport; the Ministry of Information (from 1946 the Central Office of Information); the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA); Austin Reed; the General Post Office; Gillette; The United Nations Children's Fund; the World Wide Fund for Nature; the National Business Calendar Design Awards; Cooks; British Leprosy Relief Association; National Bus Company; London College of Printing; the International Wildlife Film and Television Festival; the Inner London Education Authority; City and Guilds; Imperial War Museum; and advertising agency, WS Crawford. He also designed posters for events and seasons for example, one for a seminar Eckersley gave at the Grafiska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, in 1960. Tom Eckersley retained copies of many of his posters and examples of his original artwork; these form the equivalent of sketches for the working poster maker. Eckersley used these when teaching, as well as a personal reference. The posters were kept at his home and as such formed a working archive. In addition to retaining examples of his published posters Eckersley also produced and retained posters that he had designed purely for personal enjoyment, such as a series of film posters that depicted the faces of Hollywood movie greats that were only published on a small scale for events like exhibitions of his work. Eckersley died in 1997, two years after a retrospective of his work was exhibited at the London College of Printing (now called the London College of Communication), this was complemented by a written review that credits Eckersley as having transformed graphic design in the UK.
Relationships	Married

Catalogue

RefNo	Title
TE/4/2/8	Winsor and Newton
TE/2/3/7	18th Annual Dinner and Social Evening menu
TE/2/3/4	11th Annual Dinner and Social Evening menu
TE/1/14/iv	Plants in danger
TE/4/1/7/i	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/4/1/7/v	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/2/1/6/vii	National Business Calendar Awards 1983
TE/1/5	National Savings Bank posters
TE/4	Magazine, book and newspaper work
TE/3/4/3	Head collage
TE/2/1/2/5	'Looking Back' poster
TE/4/1/7/xv	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/1/20	Eckersley posters for exhibitions of his own work
TE/5/5/ii	Photographic portrait of Tom Eckersley
TE/2/1/2/2	'London Chapel of Private Press Printers' poster
TE/4/1/7/xiv	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/2/3/9	Children's Christmas party programme
TE/4/5/1/i	Tootal Advertisement
TE/2/3/10	Bull card
TE/4/5	Point of sale work
TE/4/1/3	The Queen magazine cover
TE/1/19/4	Apparitions exhibition poster
TE/2/1/6/i	National Business Calendar Awards 1977
TE/1/28	International Council of Graphic Design Associates card
TE/2/1/6/xiv	National Business Calendar Awards 1993
TE/2/1/6/xvi	National Business Calendar Awards 1995
TE/4/2/14	Shield Alloys Ltd
TE/1/19	Exhibition posters for other artists work
TE/1/7/16	Associated-Rediffusion poster
TE/2/1/2	Exhibition posters
TE/4/2/4/ii	'Lovely day for a Guinness'
TE/2/1/6/xv	National Business Calendar Awards 1994
TE/1/22	Ministry of Labour and National Service
TE/4/1/5	Sales Appeal magazine cover
TE/1/20/10/ii	Decades 1935-75 retrospective
TE/2/1/6/x	National Business Calendar Awards 1989
TE/2/1/6/viiii	National Business Calendar Awards 1987
TE/1/6	Joint Commissions
TE/2/1/6/xi	National Business Calendar Awards 1990
TE/2/3/12	Children's Christmas party programme
TE/4/2/17	Porto [?]
TE/2/2/5	Theft advice posters
TE/4/2/3	Chance Brothers Ltd
TE/1/12/i	European Resistance to Nazi Germany 1939-1945
TE/1/22/1	Condemn Them
TE/1/2/1/i	'Please pack parcels very carefully'
TE/3/1/4	Tenpin bowling painted collage
TE/1/9/xi	Ceremonial London
TE/2/1/2/6	'Post Office 1930-1960' exhibition poster
TE/3/1/6	House
TE/3/4	Collages
TE/2/3/16	Annual Dinner and Social Evening Invite and Menu
TE/3/4/1	Viaduct collages
TE/2/1/6/vi	National Business Calendar Awards 1982
TE/2/1/1	College Printing Historical Society posters
TE/2/1	Event posters
TE/4/2/7/i	'Good mornings begin with Gillette'
TE/1/4/3	'POSB investment account'
TE/4/1/4	Silkscreen magazine cover
TE/1/7/12	Eno's 'Fruit Salt'
TE/4/1/7/xiii	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/1/7/11/ii	D-Day Museum Portsmouth
TE/3/1/3	Conquistador profile
TE/2/1/1/5	'The Wonderful Story of the Printing Press' poster
TE/2/1/6/v	National Business Calendar Awards 1981
TE/1/17/ii	Artshow 76
TE/1/21/9	Take the Right Steps
TE/2/1/6/ii	National Business Calendar Awards 1978
TE/2/2/4	'Urgent please return that library book' poster
TE/2/1/3/iii	Annual dinner and social evening three
TE/2/1/6/xvii	National Business Calendar Awards 1976
TE/1/22/5	Take Warning Wear Goggles
TE/2/1/2/1	'Expose' poster
TE/1/7	Single Commissions
TE/5/1	Tom Eckersley retrospective
TE/2/3/5	12th Annual Dinner and Social Evening menu
TE/1/19/1	Tom Evans photographic exhibition poster
TE/5/5/iv	Photographic portrait of Tom Eckersley
TE/2/1/6/xii	National Business Calendar Awards 1991
TE/1/7/7	Oxfam poster
TE/1	Commercial advertising work
TE/1/4/5	'HIS ACTION STATION'
TE/4/1/7/vii	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/2	London College of Printing work
TE/1/13/ii	Wildscreen 86
TE/3/4/5	Blue and gold collages
TE/5/5/v	Publicity poster
TE/1/25	Headed/letterhead stationery
TE/4/1/7/ii	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/4/2/13	London Transport
TE/2/3/8	Special luncheon in honour of the Principal menu
TE/1/27	Porto logo
TE/1/29	The Times
TE/2/1/6/iii	National Business Calendar Awards 1979
TE/5/3	Paul Eckersley work
TE/2/1/6/viii	National Business Calendar Awards 1986
TE/4/2/4/i	'Lovely day for a Guinness'
TE/4/2/6	Hartley's
TE/4/1/7	'Cat O'Nine Tales' book illustrations
TE/4/1/7/viii	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/2/1/3/i	Annual dinner and social evening one
TE/2/3/11	Tiger cards
TE/4/1/7/viiii	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/4/2/16	Lister's
TE/4/1/7/x	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/5/5/i	Photographic collage
TE/1/12/ii	Imperial War Museum [proof copy]
TE/1/19/2	Polish Graphic Art Exhibition poster
TE/1/20/2	Grafiska Institutets exhibition poster
TE/1/17/iii	In Pursuit of Excellence in Primary Education
TE/1/4/2	Investment accounts
TE/2/1/3/viiii	Annual dinner and social evening nine
TE/1/12	Imperial War Museum posters
TE/1/7/8	City and Guilds poster
TE/1/24	Royal Society of Arts menu
TE/5/5	Photographic Portraits
TE/1/20/9/i	Eckersley and Kessell portrait
TE/1/2/1/iv	'Please pack parcels very carefully'
TE/4/1/7/xii	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/1/20/10/i	Posters and other graphic work
TE/1/17/i	Graphic Design Works
TE/1/14/i	WWF 25th Anniversary
TE/2/3/15	14th Banquet and Social Evening invite
TE/2/1/5	Open house posters
TE/2/3	Invites and cards
TE/3/5	Lithographs
TE/4/2/9	Artist Partners'
TE/5/2	'Family Furrows'
TE/5	Personal books and items
TE/4/2/19	Egg Marketing Board
TE/2/3/13	Pink elephant card
TE/4/2/15	Decca Record Company
TE/3/1/5	Monkey
TE/1/2/3	Post early
TE/2/1/3/vii	Annual dinner and social evening seven
TE/1/19/5	Andre Kertesz exhibition poster
TE/1/16/iv	London Midland Express Freight
TE/1/2	General Post Office instructional posters
TE/4/2/4/iii	'After work Guinness'
TE/1/8	Gillette posters
TE/3/1	Paintings
TE/1/2/2	'Detector van here soon...is your TV licensed?'
TE/1/2/4	'It's time to be buying your Christmas gifts for posting over seas'
TE/2/1/6/xiii	National Business Calendar Awards 1992
TE/1/5/4	'INTEREST'
TE/1/4/1	'grow up with it.....'
TE/1/7/9	Birds of the World Series poster
TE/1/5/3	'Whatever you do we're your kind of bank'
TE/1/5/5	'Money in store...'
TE/1/9/iv	London Transport Collection
TE/1/7/1	Seven Seas poster
TE/1/7/11	D-Day Museum poster
TE/1/7/4	'The King's Troop'
TE/1/7/6	UNICEF [United Nations Children's Fund] poster
TE/1/7/15	International Tourist Year poster
TE/1/7/5	Concorde poster
TE/1/7/13	Foreign Office poster, United Nations Day
TE/1/16/ii	Railway poster
TE/1/16/iii	Holiday haunts
TE/1/21	Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
TE/1/19/7	Weekend Living exhibition poster
TE/1/17/v	Art for Pleasure
TE/1/20/4	Newcastle Upon Tyne Polytechnic exhibition poster
TE/1/20/10/iii	Fifty years of poster design for London Transport
TE/1/20/1	Maidstone College of Art exhibition poster
TE/1/20/5	Oxford Polytechnic exhibition poster
TE/1/20/6	Past and Present exhibition poster
TE/1/20/7	Yale Center for British Art exhibition poster
TE/1/20/9	Camden Arts Centre exhibition
TE/1/4	Post Office Savings Bank posters
TE/1/4/4	Post Office Savings Bank
TE/1/5/2	'Anyone aged 7 or over can open his own'
TE/1/15	Crisis poster and items
TE/1/7/14	National Bus Company poster
TE/1/10	Pakistan International Airlines posters
TE/1/19/6	The Art of Persuasion exhibition poster
TE/1/18	Layton Student Awards poster
TE/1/19/3	Selling the Sea exhibition poster
TE/1/16	British Railways posters
TE/3/4/2	Celtic cross collage
TE/1/20/3	Deutsches Plakat Museum exhibition poster
TE/1/20/8	London Transport Museum exhibition poster
TE/1/20/10	Tom Eckersley Restrospective Posters
TE/1/26	BPIF [British Printing Industries Federation] Marketing Innovation Award entry booklets
TE/1/22/6	Wipe It Up
TE/1/21/8	Cyclists Keep Them Clean
TE/1/22/10	Open Door For Germs
TE/1/21/7	Children About?
TE/1/21/2	Get First Aid at Once
TE/1/22/8	Not to Return to Work
TE/1/21/6	You Are Being Followed
TE/1/22/2	Asking for Trouble
TE/1/21/12	Broken Rungs Cause Broken Limbs
TE/1/21/11	Replace Covers Prevent Falls
TE/2/1/1/2	'Fox Talbot to Fred Ives' poster
TE/2/1/4	Greetings 1983 poster
TE/2/1/1/4	'Paper making in Britain' poster
TE/2/1/1/1	'100 Years Of Printing Education' poster
TE/1/22/7	Stack Safely
TE/1/22/9	Roll Them Up Its Safer
TE/2/1/1/3	'JH Mason Scholar-Printer 1875-1951' poster
TE/2/1/2/3	'Letters at Work' poster
TE/2/1/2/4	'Equus' poster
TE/2/1/3/viii	Annual dinner and social evening eight
TE/2/1/3/vi	Annual dinner and social evening six
TE/1/4/4/ii	'a good target a good balance'
TE/2/1/5/ii	LCP Open Days
TE/2/2	Informational posters
TE/2/1/5/iii	Open Week
TE/2/3/6	13th Annual Dinner and Social Evening menu
TE/2/2/3	Health and safety posters
TE/2/3/2	2nd Annual Dinner and Social Evening menu and invite
TE/2/3/1	1st Annual Dinner and Social Evening menu
TE/3/1/1	Zebra profile
TE/3/4/4	Bird collage
TE/4/1/6	The Director magazine cover
TE/4/1	Magazine and book covers
TE/5/4/iii	Keaton poster
TE/5/4	Stars
TE/5/5/iii	Photographic portrait of Tom Eckersley and Mary Kessell
TE/4/5/2	Books on sport
TE/4/1/7/iv	Cat O'Nine Tails cover
TE/4/2/10	Layton Service
TE/4/2/5	Tootal
TE/4/1/7/vi	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/1/5/1	Investment account
TE/1/1	HM Stationery Office posters
TE/1/2/1	'Please pack parcels very carefully'
TE/1/3	General Post Office promotional posters
TE/1/6/1	Austin Reed poster
TE/1/6/2	Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents poster
TE/1/7/2	Ministry of Housing and Local Government poster
TE/1/7/3	Museum of London
TE/1/11	Lepra [British Leprosy Relief Association] posters
TE/1/14	WWF[Worldwide Wildlife Fund] posters
TE/1/17/iv	Three Decades of Artists from inner London's art school
TE/1/21/1	Sound tools - safer working
TE/1/21/3	Handtraps
TE/1/21/4	A Safe Holiday
TE/1/21/5	You Bought Him a Bicycle
TE/1/21/10	A Childs Life May Depend on Your Brakes
TE/1/22/3	Prevent Loose Heads
TE/1/22/4	Use a Bad Handle/Stand from Under
TE/1/23	The British Aluminium Co Ltd
TE/2/1/3	Annual dinner and social evening posters
TE/2/1/6	National Business Calendar Award posters
TE/2/2/1	New course information poster
TE/2/2/2	Student service posters
TE/2/3/3	4th Annual Dinner and Social Evening menu
TE/2/3/14	5th Annual Dinner and Social Evening menu
TE/3	Original artwork
TE/3/1/2	Design for 'European Resistance to Nazi Germany 1939-1945'
TE/3/2	Sketches
TE/3/3	Drafts
TE/4/1/1	Book covers
TE/4/1/2	MTE [Motor Trade Executive] magazine covers
TE/4/2	Magazine and newspaper advertisements and flyers
TE/4/2/1	Pennbrite Offset
TE/4/2/2	British Railways advert and booklets
TE/2/1/3/v	Annual dinner and social evening five
TE/4/2/7	Gillette
TE/4/2/11	Travel and Industrial Development Association flyer
TE/4/2/12	Leonhard Frank
TE/4/2/18	General Post Office
TE/4/3	Newspaper cuttings
TE/4/4	Underground designs
TE/4/5/1	Tootal
TE/1/7/10	International Planned Parenthood Foundation/Habitat poster
TE/4/1/7/xi	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/2/1/6/iv	National Business Calendar Awards 1980
TE/1/13/iv	Wildscreen 90
TE/1/13/iii	Wildscreen 88
TE/1/13/i	Wildscreen 84
TE/1/13/v	Wildscreen 92
TE/1/2/1/iii	'Please pack parcels very carefully'
TE/1/14/iii	Ocean World
TE/1/14/v	Help save our world
TE/1/14/vii	African jigsaw
TE/1/14/vi	Working for the survival of the living world
TE/1/14/ii	Yanomamo
TE/1/14/viii	Man needs rainforest too
TE/1/20/9/ii	Eckersley and Kessell poster
TE/1/16/i	Mind that door
TE/1/4/2/i	'Two strings to your bow'
TE/2/1/5/i	Tom Eckersley his graphic work
TE/1/13	Wildscreen posters
TE/1/4/4/iii	'for growing needs...'
TE/1/2/1/v	'Properly packed parcels please'
TE/1/3/i	Post Office Guide
TE/1/3/ii	Post Office Guide: Charges and services
TE/1/2/3/i	'Travel early shop early post early'
TE/1/2/3/ii	'Post early for Christmas'
TE/1/4/4/iv	'Just in case...'
TE/1/4/2/ii	'Get a good start'
TE/1/10/i	'fly PIA Boeing 707 to GENEVA'
TE/1/4/4/v	'begin saving for me'
TE/1/7/8/i	City and Guilds Centenary 1878-1978
TE/1/10/ii	'fly PIA Boeing 707 to LONDON'
TE/1/4/4/i	'put your money to work to return with interest'
TE/2/2/5/i	'Stealing: Dont leave valuables around'
TE/2/2/5/ii	'Keep an eye on valuables: Don't leave them around'
TE/1/7/11/i	D-Day Museum Portsmouth
TE/5/4/i	Stars poster
TE/4/1/7/iii	Cat O'Nine Tails illustrated page
TE/4/2/7/ii	'Good mornings begin with Gillette'
TE/2/1/3/ii	Annual dinner and social evening two
TE/1/12/iii	Imperial War Museum
TE/4/5/1/ii	Tootal Advertisement
TE/4/2/4	Guinness
TE/1/17	Inner London Education Authority posters
TE/1/9/i	Cutty Sark
TE/1/9/ix	See London By Bus
TE/1/9/vi	For Property Lost
TE/1/9/viii	We're Here To Help
TE/1/7/8/ii	City and Guilds Centenary 1878-1978
TE/1/9/vii	Exact Fare Helps The Conductor
TE/1/7/13/i	United Nations Day
TE/1/8/i	Good mornings begin with Gillette
TE/1/8/ii	All over the world - Good mornings begin with Gillette
TE/1/9/ii	Victoria Line - Cut travelling time across London
TE/1/9/v	Central Line Extensions
TE/1/9/x	The London Museum
TE/1/7/13/ii	United Nations Day
TE/1/9/iii	Extension of the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow Airport
TE/1/11/i	help Lepra fight Leprosy
TE/1/11/iii	Leprosy isolates [magazine spot]
TE/1/11/ii	help Lepra fight Leprosy [proof]
TE/1/9	Transport for London
TE/1/2/1/ii	'Please pack parcels very carefully'

Add to My Items

Tell Us About It Archive

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by UAL Archives Centre (@ual_archives)

Her Noise Archive

Les Coleman Collection

London College of Communication Archive

Tell Us About It Archive

Explore

Record

Useful Links

Showcase