Last week Harry Pearce gave an inspiring talk for 26 at Pentagram where he’s a design partner. The title of his talk was “The schizophrenic road” from a comment by the legendary Alan Fletcher. The street sign “Avenue Road” that prompted the comment led to an exchange over several years of similar “schizophrenic” place names. Pink Green for example. Once you start looking you see them all around you.
That ability to use your eyes to a real purpose – even if it’s just a playful purpose – is something I admire in the best designers. Harry’s unusual, though, in being particularly responsive to the playful and visual qualities of words. He’s forged a style of his own through the use of typographic conundrums. With limitations on typefaces (one) and colours (two) he creates visual interpretations of common words and phrases.
When 26 launched in 2003 Harry designed the broadsheet newspaper setting out our manifesto. And he made it both a visual and a verbal joy with the creation of new typographic conundrums. Tim Rich and I enjoyed contributing a few as writers but most of them were Harry’s. The twelve copies of the broadsheet we still had left from the launch, tucked away in cupboards, were signed last Thursday night by Harry and offered to members of the audience in return for a donation. They disappeared in the blink of an eye. (But send donations to…) The 26 broadsheets – for those lucky enough still to have one – are real collectors’ items.
There was much more than conundrums in Harry’s talk. I was particularly fascinated by his recording of dreams and the serendipitous story of looking for Jung, seeing a whale in a dream, and finding the trail coming together in a lake near Zurich called Wallensee. Magical thinking and storytelling.
I realise too why I feel such a connection with Harry’s work. It all relates to the theme of this website: the liberating power of constraints. A couple of weeks ago Harry said this to me: “Sometimes the more cornered you are, the more fun you have.” I’ll go along with that.
Perhaps the most inspiring talk I’ve been to…
Harry’s work has the ability to make you smile, to make you look at things in a different light and to make you think “I wish I’d thought of that”. For me, the latter has always been my benchmark for great work – indeed the great Alan Fletcher was the master of work that challenged perceptions and made fellow designers both envious and proud.
A brilliant evening John, I very much look forward to the next!