Hans Arnold Rothholz was born to a Jewish family in Dresden, Germany in 1919 and immigrated to Britain in 1933 to escape Nazi persecution. Settling in London he studied at Willesden School of Art and the re-located Reimann School, the first commercial art school in Britain (which had originated in Berlin). As friend and colleague of George Him and Abram Games, he belonged to a generation of pioneering émigré designers who helped to transform visual communication in Britain.
Poster designer and graphic artist Hans Arnold Rothholz was born to Jewish parents in Dresden, Germany in 1919. As a teenager he immigrated to England with his mother in 1933 to escape Nazi persecution. Once settled in London, he trained at the Willesden School of Art and later studied commercial art and display design at the Reimann School (1938–39), the successor of the renowned Reimann Schule in Berlin, which relocated to London after closure by the Nazis and became the first commercial art school in Britain. Rothholz worked on window display in Maidstone in 1940, before being interned as an enemy alien, first in Huyton outside Liverpool and then at Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man (known as the 'artists' camp given the high number of internees with established reputations), where he became friends with fellow émigré artist Friedrich Nagler. He was subsequently deported to Quebec on the SS Sobieski. Returning to London in 1942, Rothholz began to establish a successful career as a graphic and information designer. He designed posters for various clients, among them the Post Office – for which he designed posters for their vans, counters, and telephone boxes – and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). For the latter, he produced a selection of images directed specifically at women factory workers, such as Be in the Fashion, Cover Your Hair (1942, Imperial War Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum). Many women had no experience of factory work before the war and accidents involving trapped hair in machinery were not uncommon. This poster addressed safety in relation to tidiness and to the choice of suitable clothing for industrial work. Employing the graphic style of international modernism and surrealism enabled Rothholz to avoid focusing on any particular social class or setting, and so the poster was able to communicate to women across the spectrum of society. Rothholz was also involved with the Free German League of Culture (FGLC) – a politically inspired organisation offering cultural support to anti-Nazi German refugees in Britain throughout the war – for which he designed a series of fundraising stamps for their Allies Inside Germany exhibition held in 1942.
In the late 1940s, he designed promotional material for Wembley Stadium including posters for the 1948 Olympic Games. He also designed murals and graphic schemes for the Bacon & Egg restaurants and the Grill & Cheese chain. In the 1950s he produced a set of accident prevention posters for British Rail and in 1951 he was commissioned to work on The Land Travelling Exhibition for the Festival of Britain. Other clients from this time included airlines, BEA and BOAC, the tea company, Perera, and the shoe company, Splendida. A keen Scout, Rothholz designed the programme for the World Scout Jamboree when it was held in Britain in 1957. Throughout the 1960s he re-branded Winsor & Newton art materials and towards the end of the decade, he created a new corporate identity for Wellcome to include pharmaceutical packaging, stationery and vehicle liveries. In 1962 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists, perhaps in recognition of his work designing the Society’s exhibition The Art of Persuasion in 1961, as well as his service on the Society's Council. Hans Rothholz died in Polegate, East Sussex, England in 2000. In 2018 his posters were included in Designs on Britain, an exhibition held at the Jewish Museum in London, showcasing the work of refugee designers who fled Nazi Germany. Rothholz's archive is held at the University of Brighton where a selection of archival material, including Rothholz's designs for Winsor & Newton packaging, RoSPA posters and the Land exhibition, was displayed in 2010. His work is represented in UK public collections, including the Imperial War Museum, London Transport Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum.