Abram Games was born into a Jewish immigrant family in Whitechapel, London, in 1914, and briefly attended Saint Martin's School of Art. Largely self-taught, he became one of Britain's most influential graphic designers, producing iconic images for, among others, London Transport, Shell, and the General Post Office, and creating over a hundred wartime educational posters. He also designed the logo for the nationwide 1951 Festival of Britain, the first insignia for BBC television and covers for Penguin books.
Graphic designer Abram Games (ne Abraham Gamse) was born into a Jewish immigrant family in Whitechapel, London, England on 29 July 1914. His father, Joseph Gamse, a Latvian photographer, and his mother Sarah (née Rosenberg), a Polish seamstress, had escaped anti-Semitic persecution, immigrating to England as refugees in 1899 and 1904, respectively. Surrounded in childhood by the paraphernalia of his father's darkroom and studio, Games learnt to hand-render his images, developing a taste for drawing and for making things. Games briefly attended St. Martin's School of Art, but, dissatisfied with the teaching, he left after only two terms in 1930, thereafter attending evening classes in life drawing. Largely self-taught as a designer, in 1935, at the age of 22, he won first prize in a poster design competition for London County Council. Afterwards, he established himself as a freelance poster designer, gaining commissions from London Transport, Shell, and the General Post Office, among others. From 1936–39, Games worked as a freelance poster artist, his work featuring in the prestigious journal Art and Industry.
During the Second World War Games joined the infantry as a private in 1940 and, after designing a recruiting poster for the Royal Armoured Corps in 1941, he was appointed an official war poster designer (1942–6) with Frank Newbould as his assistant. Games created over a hundred iconic wartime information posters, many celebrated, others controversial. His set of three propaganda posters for the ‘Your Britain … fight for it now' campaign (1942, V&A) were considered too political, as they depicted modern public buildings superimposed over bomb sites, juxtaposing images of 1930s poverty with symbols of progressive public architecture, thus revealing Games's socialist sympathies. His recruiting poster for the Auxiliary Training Service (1941), the women’s branch of the British Army, was nicknamed the ‘blonde bombshell’, as it featured a young woman with a fashionable hairstyle and red lipstick. The feminist Conservative politician Thelma Cazalet-Keir criticised the design, stating that ‘Our girls should be attracted into the army through patriotism and not glamour’ (The War on Glamour) and it was subsequently withdrawn after questions in Parliament.
An extremely prolific artist, working within the limits of craft production, Games designed around 80 posters during 1941–46, corresponding to one design every three weeks. In addition, he designed wall charts and educational material for the Army Bureau of Current Affairs (ABCA) at the rate of a double-sided poster every fortnight. Influenced by Surrealism, he combined striking silhouettes and abstract or geometric shapes to capture the viewer’s attention. Despite the wartime limitation of using a maximum of four colours, given the restrictions on ink, Games was still able to produce vibrant images. In 1945 Games married Marianne Salfeld, a textile designer born in Mainz, Germany, and set up his commercial design practice in the family home in north-west London. Postwar, he continued his freelance commercial work for clients including London Transport, BOAC, and the Financial Times, coining the phrase 'maximum meaning, minimum means', to describe his approach to design. He also produced posters for Jewish charities, such as the arresting 'Give Clothing for Liberated Jewry' for the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad. In 1948 Games won a competition to design stamps for the 1948 London Olympics, and in 1951 he created the iconic 'Festival Star' logo for the Festival of Britain, combining the head of Britannia and the compass points, surrounded by flags, which was used on posters, guides, leaflets, souvenirs, on the side of the Festival Ship Campania, and at events nationwide. The 'Festival Star' displayed the essential features of what would become known as ‘Festival Style’: romantic, patriotic, but also modern. Games also created logos and symbols, including the first insignia for BBC television in 1953 and the Queen's Award to industry (1965). In 1956 Games was invited by publisher Allen Lane and émigré, Hans Schmoller, to commission cover images for Penguin fiction. Games himself designed eight, while ten other artists produced a further 26 illustrations.
In 1957 Games was awarded an OBE and, in 1959, was appointed Royal Designer for Industry (RDI). He was a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London (1946–53), and in 1968 the United Nations Industrial Development Organization appointed him consultant at the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem, Israel. In 1966 Games used his trademark style to create a 50th anniversary graphic for Ben Uri, which appeared as a catalogue cover in alternative colourways. He also designed a Ben Uri logo which was used on publications and as a letterhead from the late 1970s to the 1990s. Four major Ben Uri exhibitions were devoted to Games' oeuvre. In recognition of a lifetime's achievement Games was awarded the Designers and Art Directors Association president's award in 1991. Abram Games died in London, England on 26 August 1996. His work is held in numerous UK collections, including the Ben Uri Collection, V&A and Imperial War Museum, London.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Abram Games]
Publications related to [Abram Games] in the Ben Uri Library