George Him was born Jerzy Himmelfarb into a Jewish family in Łódź, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland) in 1900. After establishing a celebrated design partnership with Jan Le Witt, he immigrated to England in 1937, later enjoying a highly successful career as an independent graphic designer. His work is held in UK collections including the Ben Uri Collection, the Imperial War Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum; a retrospective was held at the House of Illustration in London in 2020.
Illustrator and graphic designer George Him (né Jerzy Himmelfarb) was born into a Jewish family in Łódź, Congress Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire (now Poland), on 4 August 1900. His mother's family were textile manufacturers (Kipper brothers) in the city and his father's family were shoe manufactures (Slon Shoes) in Warsaw, and the family spoke Polish instead of Yiddish at home. After attending school in Warsaw, Him studied law in Moscow, but left following the 1917 October Revolution, moving to Germany.
In 1924 he completed a PhD in the comparative history of religions at the University of Bonn, before enrolling at the Leipzig Academy for Graphic Art and Book Industry, and even before his graduation in 1928, began to undertake a number of commercial commissions. After returning to Poland in 1933 and changing his surname to its shortened form (he Anglicised his first name later), he helped to establish the KAGR (the Circle of Advertising Graphic Artists). Following a fortuitous meeting with fellow graphic artist Jan Le Witt in a Warsaw café, the pair established a famous design partnership working under the name Lewitt-Him. Together they established a distinctive design style, which combined cubist and surrealist elements, often in a humorous context. Their first success, was their illustrations to three poems by Polish poet Julian Tuwim Locomotive, Turnip and Bird Radio, probably first published in Poland in time for Christmas 1937, then republished in 1938 and 1939, in English and French editions (Correspondence with family, September 2020). Their work was subsequently written up in the Berlin-based commercial graphic design journal Gebrauchsgraphik, bringing them international attention.
In autumn 1937 the duo was sponsored by the Victoria & Albert Museum to come to London to take up an invitation from the art book publishers Lund Humphries, who hosted the Exhibition of Commercial Art and Book Illustrations by Lewitt and Him; both stayed on throughout the Second World War – and beyond. They received notable commissions for information and public safety posters from, among others, the General Post Office, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, and the Ministry of Information, and gained commercial contracts with London Transport and Imperial Airways. They also designed murals for factory canteens and illustrated a number of children's books, including Diana Ross’ The Little Red Engine Gets a Name (1942). Further commissions included designs for the 1946 Britain Can Make It exhibition and the 1951 Festival of Britain, to which many émigrés made an important contribution. Him was naturalised British in 1948, and in the same year, the Lewitt-Him partnership received a diploma at the International Poster Exhibition for a London Transport design. Following Le Witt's decision to focus on painting, the Lewitt-Him partnership dissolved on 1 January 1955 and George Him continued to work as a highly successful independent graphic designer. In 1954 he moved into a studio at 37b Greville Road, north London.
In 1952 Him was one of the first members of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), and among his advertising campaigns were the 1950s’ Schweppeshire campaign for the Schweppes drinks company, as well as campaigns for the Pan-American Airways, El Al and American Overseas Airlines, and the publishers of Punch and Penguin Books. Him continued to illustrate books but also designed exhibition stands and large window displays, notably for the De Bijenkorf store in Rotterdam and the 1961 Christmas windows for the Design Centre in London. In 1968 he married Shirley Elizabeth Harman (née Rhodes) in Hampstead Town Hall and the couple remained devoted to one another throughout their marriage, with Shirley often accompanying him on his trips abroad.
Between 1969 and 1977, Him taught graphic design at the Leicester Polytechnic. Following his first visit to Israel in 1951, he also undertook a variety of projects connected with Jewish history and culture including designing the Warsaw Ghetto exhibition (London and Frankfurt) in 1961 and taking part in the Children and Youth Aliyah card designs exhibition held at Ben Uri the same year (examples are held in the Ben Uri archive); in 1966 he also conceived and designed the touring Masada Exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall. Two retrospective exhibitions of his work were organised during his lifetime, one at the London College of Printing in 1976, and a second, at Ben Uri Gallery in 1978. In 1977 Him was awarded the Francis Williams Book Illustration Award, and in 1978, he became a Royal Designer for Industry. George Him remained active as an artist until the end of his life and died in London on 4 April 1982. A posthumous exhibition was held in Jerusalem the same year, showing paintings he had executed in Israel the previous year, with a publication dedicated to his memory by Mayor Teddy Kollek in appreciation of Hims 'deep friendship and devotion to Jerusalem’. Him’s work is held in UK collections including the Ben Uri Collection, the Imperial War Museum and the V&A, as well as collections abroad including MoMA, New York. A retrospective was held at the House of Illustration in London in 2020 and a further tour is planned.
George Him in the Ben Uri collection
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [George Him]