Ian Mackenzie-Kerr (18 November 1929 – 27 May 2005) was a British book designer. He worked for

Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

for almost fifty years, where he was instrumental in transforming the appearance of their books.Alan Powers
Ian Mackenzie-Kerr: Thames & Hudson book designer
Obituary, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 6 June 2005.Brian Morley
Obituary – Ian Mackenzie-Kerr: Designer who transformed the appearance of Thames & Hudson books
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 27 July 2005.

Life and work

Ian Mackenzie-Kerr was born and died in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and was the son of a hotel manager. He was educated at

Bryanston School Bryanston School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18) located next to the village of Bryanston, and near the ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, where he developed his interest in art and drama under the leadership of the headmaster,

Thorold Coade Thorold Francis Coade (3 July 1896 – 1 February 1963) was a British schoolmaster. Thorold Coade was born in Dublin, the son of C. E. Coade, a methodist minister, and educated at Glebe House School in Hunstanton, Harrow School (1910–15), and ...

. He undertook

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

as an intelligence officer monitoring

Arabic language Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

broadcasts. In 1950, he started four years at

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a Member institutions of the University of London, constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The G ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, and was inspired enough to attend the

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 ...

on the

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial area on the south bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Lambeth, central London, England. The South Bank is not formally defined, but is generally understood to be situated betwe ...

twice in 1951. He then moved to 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 ...

(1954–57), where he was taught about

illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...

Edward Ardizzone Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, (16 October 1900 – 8 November 1979), who sometimes signed his work "DIZ", was a British painter, printmaker and war artist, and the author and illustrator of books, many of them for children. For ''Tim All Al ...

and

Edward Bawden Edward Bawden, (10 March 1903 – 21 November 1989) was an English painter, illustrator and graphic artist, known for his prints, book covers, posters, and garden metalwork furniture. Bawden taught at the Royal College of Art, where he had be ...

. Early on in his publishing career, with his theatrical background, he was offered

Peter Cook Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English comedian, actor, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishmen ...

's role in

Beyond the Fringe ''Beyond the Fringe'' was a British comedy Play (theatre), stage revue written and performed by Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore. It debuted at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival and went on to play in London's West End the ...

on the tour of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. When Mackenzie-Kerr joined Thames & Hudson in 1957, the art department was almost non-existent. Previously, illustrations in T&H books had been badly implemented, with poor colour reproduction. Mackenzie-Kerr transformed the situation for the company. In 1962,

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

persuaded Mackenzie-Kerr to become designer and joint editor of the Victorian Society Annual with Ian Sutton, a colleague at Thames & Hudson. He produced the drawings for ''Strong Points'' by

Roy Strong Sir Roy Colin Strong, (born 23 August 1935) is an English art historian, museum curator, writer, broadcaster and landscape designer. He has served as director of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. ...

. Mackenzie-Kerr has featured in books about book design, being very adaptable as the technology of book design changed during his career.Rosemary Sassoon,
Computers and Typography 2
', Volume 2. Intellect Books, 2002.
Ian Mackenzie-Kerr – Book design: before and after
page 69.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mackenzie-Kerr, Ian 1929 births 2005 deaths Artists from London People educated at Bryanston School Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Alumni of the Royal College of Art English designers English book publishers (people) 20th-century English businesspeople