Frederick Henri Kay Henrion, RDI,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(né Heinrich Fritz Kohn; 1914–1990), was a

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

-born German graphic designer.

Early career

After leaving school, Henrion went to Paris, and worked in textile design before studying with poster designer Paul Colin. In 1936, he moved to London, England where he set up his studio.

World War II

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Henrion was

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

on the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

as an alien, but subsequently worked for the Ministry of Information and the US Office of War Information, designing posters for campaigns like

Dig for Victory Digging, also referred to as excavation, is the process of using some implement such as claws, hands, manual tools or heavy equipment, to remove material from a solid surface, usually soil, sand or rock on the surface of Earth. Digging is actua ...

, Aid the Wounded, and Grow More Food.

Corporate Identity

After the war Henrion became

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

at Contact Books, and in 1951 he started his own design consultancy named Henrion Design Associates. As well as creating exhibitions, packaging, and book and magazine design, they worked within the then-emerging concept of

corporate identity A corporate identity or corporate image is the manner in which a corporation, firm or business enterprise presents itself to the public. The corporate identity is typically visualized by branding and with the use of trademarks, but it can also i ...

– with Henrion becoming a pioneer in the field. His clients included: *

British European Airways British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom. The ...

* Blue Circle Cement *

Coopers & Lybrand PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along ...

* Giro *

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, or simply KLM (an abbreviation for their official name Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. , ),

London Electricity Board The London Electricity Board was the public sector utility company responsible for the supply and distribution of electricity to domestic, commercial and industrial consumers in London prior to 1990. It also sold and made available for hire and ...

* The

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

. * The National Theatre *

Tate & Lyle Tate & Lyle Public Limited Company is a British-headquartered, global supplier of food and beverage products to food and industrial markets. It was originally a sugar refining business, but from the 1970s, it began to diversify, eventually dive ...

* Wates

Exhibition Design

Alongside his poster, packaging and advertising design work, Henrion was involved in the design of many exhibitions around the world. These included the Publicity Pavilion for the Paris International Fair, and the

MARS Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

(Modern Architectural Research Society) exhibition in London. He also worked on projects for the 1938 Glasgow Empire Exhibition, the 1939 New York World's Fair, and the Air France pavilion at the Tel Aviv Levant Fair, 1940, After the war, Henrion continued to develop a reputation as an exhibition designer. He designed two of the pavilions at the 1951

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

: The Country and The Natural Scene.

Henrion as an Educator

Henrion lectured at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

from 1955 to 1965, and was head of Visual Communication at the

London College of Printing The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. Its origins are in education for the printing and retail industries; it now specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation ...

from 1976 to 1979. He also worked as an art editor for various publications, and contributed to the Council for Industrial Design's Design magazine.

Affiliations and awards

Henrion was a member of the

Artists' International Association The Artists' International Association (AIA) was an organisation founded in London in 1933 out of discussion among Pearl Binder, Clifford Rowe, Misha Black, James Fitton, James Boswell, James Holland, Edward Ardizzone, Peter Laszlo Peri'Art ...

, the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers (later the

Chartered Society of Designers The Chartered Society of Designers (CSD) is a professional body for designers. It is the only Royal Chartered body of experienced designers. Its membership is multi-disciplinary – representing designers in all design, disciplines including I ...

), and the

Council of Industrial Design The Design Council, formerly the Council of Industrial Design, is a United Kingdom charity incorporated by royal charter. Its stated mission is "to champion great design that improves lives and makes things better". It was instrumental in the pro ...

; in 1952 he became one of the earliest members of

Alliance Graphique Internationale Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) is a club of the world's leading graphic artists and designers. There are 510 members from 46 countries. Its members have been collectively responsible for the identity design of most of the world's top cor ...

, in which designers from all over the world could meet and share ideas. He was elected a Royal Designer for Industry in 1959. He was appointed MBE in 1951 and elevated to

in 1985. Henrion was closely involved with design institutions such as the

(later the Design Council) and

ICOGRADA The International Council of Design (ICoD; formerly known as ico-D, International Council of Communication Design or Icograda, which was formerly an initialism for International Council of Graphic Design Associations) is an international organis ...

(International Council of Graphic Design Associations).

Personal life

Henrion married the British sculptor Daphne Hardy in 1947. Together they had two sons and a daughter. They separated in the 1970s.

Henrion's Archive and Library

Henrion's archive is held at The University of Brighton Design Archives. It covers his entire career and comprises correspondence with clients, original artwork, examples of packaging and graphic design and photography. It also includes Henrion's personal library of books on graphic and industrial design,

typography Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

and advertising, which is now fully searchable on the University's Library system. Photographs of Henrion's work featured at the Britain Can Make It Exhibition (1946) and The

(1951), have been made available on the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS), along with examples of his Wartime posters.

Gallery

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Henrion, Henri Kay 1914 births 1990 deaths German graphic designers German poster artists German expatriates in France German expatriates in the United Kingdom Officers of the Order of the British Empire Academics of the London College of Communication