Michael Harold Berry Peters OBE (born in Luton, UK in 1941) is a designer. He has been in the design industry for more than 35 years. Peters has started several design companies, including Michael Peters and Partners, Michael Peters Group PLC, and Identica.

Education

After completing Luton Grammar School, Peters studied at the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts (now

London College of Communication 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 ...

Tom Eckersley Tom Eckersley OBE (30 September 1914 – 4 August 1997) was an English poster artist and teacher of design. Early career Tom Eckersley was born on 30 September 1914 in Lancashire. His artistic training began in 1930 when he enrolled at Sa ...

John Gillard John Anthony Gillard (14 February 1933 – 28 October 2000) was an influential British teacher of advertising and graphic_design, design whose notable students included John_Hegarty_(advertising_executive), Sir John Hegarty, Michael_Peters_(desig ...

, and Harry Beck, the creator of the London Underground plan, were among his teachers. After graduating he won a scholarship to

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

's School of Art and Architecture in New Haven, Connecticut, where he studied under

Paul Rand Paul Rand (born Peretz Rosenbaum; August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was an American art director and graphic designer. He was best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, United Parcel Service, UPS, Enron, Morni ...

Josef Albers Josef Albers ( , , ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born American artist and Visual arts education, educator who is considered one of the most influential 20th-century art teachers in the United States. Born in 1888 in Bottrop, Westp ...

, Norman Ives,

Herbert Matter Herbert Robert Matter (April 25, 1907 – May 8, 1984) was a Swiss-born American photographer and graphic designer known for his pioneering use of photomontage in commercial art. Matter's innovative and experimental work helped shape the vocabular ...

and Alexej Brodovitch. He acknowledges these teachers and the Bauhaus School as influences on his career. He graduated in 1963 with a master's degree.

Career

Early years

After graduating from Yale, Peters worked under Lou Dorfsman and Teddy Andresakes on campaigns in advertising and design for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

Television in New York. In 1965 he moved back to London and set up Cato Peters O’Brien. Within six months he moved to the Collett Dickenson Pearce advertising agency in London. While there, he received a Designer and Art Direction Silver Award. In 1968 Peters formed a partnership with Lou Klein, Klein Peters, which specialised mostly in packaging and point-of-sale material.

Michael Peters and Partners

In 1970, Peters set up his own design company, Michael Peters and Partners, which in 1988 had worldwide sales of $40 million. Clients included the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, Virgin, Martell,

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

, Penhaligon, Abbey Life and Bird's Eye. Peters was an identity consultant to the Conservative Party, working with

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

. He did some packaging design in the marketing of consumer products. He helped found the Design Business Association and had roles in international design organisations. In 1985, he became one of the founders of the School of Communication Arts, run by his former teacher

. Michael Peters and Partners was renamed Michael Peters Group and became a publicly quoted company in 1983. MPG opened offices in New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Düsseldorf, Helsinki and Tokyo, and acquired a number of businesses including Cockade Ltd. and, in 1989, Duffy Design Group, now Duffy & Partners. The staff included Howard Milton, Jay Smith, Glenn Tutsell and Madeleine Bennett. In 1990, Michael Peters Group went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

, in what was described by the ''Guardian'' as a "spectacularly messy collapse". The company was acquired by The Princedale Group.

Identica

In 1992 Peters set up a new business, Identica, a branding and design agency. The company worked for

Universal Studios Universal Studios may refer to: * Universal Studios, Inc., an American media and entertainment conglomerate ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio ** Universal Studios Lot, a film and television studio complex * Various theme parks operat ...

Diageo Diageo plc ( ) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits and operates from 132 sites around the world ...

and other international brands. Identica was acquired by Cossette Communications Group, a Canadian advertising and communication firm, in 2004.

Awards and recognitions

Michael Peters won a

D&AD Design and Art Direction (D&AD), formerly known as British Design and Art Direction, is a British educational organisation that was created in 1962 to promote excellence in design and advertising. Its main offices are in Spitalfields in London. ...

Yellow Pencil in the 1960s. He received an OBE in June 1990 for services to design and marketing, and was nominated for the Prince Philip Designer's Prize in 2002. A book about his career, ''Yes logo: 40 years of Michael Peters: branding, design and communication'', was published in 2008.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20110717164743/http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/diad/article.php?title=297&year=1973&article=d.297.36 * http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/midweek_20081029.shtml Radio chatshow with Michael from 10:00 mins in. {{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Michael Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of the London College of Communication Officers of the Order of the British Empire British graphic designers People from Luton