World Poster Forum
The forum to bring together the world’s most influential designers and poster artists. During the event, ideas, knowledge and opinions about the impact of the poster on our lives will be exchanged.
Mervyn Kurlansky
Mervyn Kurlansky was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1936, and left for England in 1958, to study at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London (now known as Central St. Martins). He began his freelance practice in 1961, followed by five years as graphics director of Planning Unit, the design consultacy service of Knoll International. In 1969 he became a partner in the design firm, Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes and in 1972 co-founded Pentagram with Theo Crosby, Alan Fletcher, Colin Forbes and Kenneth Grange, from which he resigned in 1993 to live and work in Denmark.
He is equally at home designing brand identity programmes, sign systems, annual reports, newspapers, magazines, brochures, catalogues, books, book jackets, posters, packaging and websites. His clients have included; the Aga Kahn, Akari Therapeutics, the Architects Association, Avent, Barclays Bank, Bionor Pharma, Boosey and Hawkes, the British Library, British Telecom, Caribbean Enterprises, The Capital Group, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Chora Connection, the Copenhagen Post, Danmarks Designskole, Dartington Hall Trust, Dow Corning, Eclipse Entertainment, Eureka (the Museum for Children), Export Promotion Copenhagen, Geigy, the Glass Museum, Golden Days in Copenhagen Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, IBM, ICI, Image Bank, Inchcape, Kenwood, the Latin American Arts Association, Lee Cooper, Longman Video, L’Oréal, Lyons Tetley, Mazda, the Museum of Modern Art Oxford, Novo Nordisk, Olivetti, Penguin Books, Polaroid, Rank Xerox, Reuters, ROR (Ringo Star and Robin Cruickshank´s design firm), Rotring, Ruskin College Oxford, Saint Tropez Fashion, Sappi fine papers Europe, Silence Therapeutics, Thorpac, Solaglas, Shiseido, STC, Sund Capital, Toyota, the Queen´s 60th Birthday Committee, Wilkinson Sword, World Health Organisation,and Zealand Pharma. He is currently design consultant to Pharnext, and Advicenne (pharmaceutical companies based in Paris).
He has won a number of important awards, including a bronze medal from the Brno Biennale of Graphic Design, a gold award from the Package Designers Council, silver awards from the Designers and Art Directors Association, London,a silver award from the New York Art Directors Club, a gold award from Japan’s Minister of Trade and Industry, the Gustav Klimt prize, Austria, 1995, and the Danish IG design prize 1996. In 2006 he was inducted into the South African Design Hall of Fame, and in 2011 he received the International Council of DesignPresident’s award, for his outstanding contribution to design. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Design Museum in Copenhagen and the Poster Museum, Aarhus, Denmark, and has been featured in several publications and exhibitions in Austria, China, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Israel, Iran, Japan, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, UK, and USA. He conceived, designed and edited the book ‘Watching My Name Go By,’ the first documentation of New York’s extraordinary graffiti, with text by Norman Mailer and photographs by Jon Naar.
He was also a co-author of four books about Pentagram; ‘Pentagram, The Work of Five Designers’, ‘Living by Design’, ‘Ideas on Design’ and ‘The Compendium’. His book, ‘Masters of the 20th Century – The Icograda Design Hall of Fame’, celebrates the work of the 110 speakers of the Icograda London Design Seminars, 1974 to 1999, of which he was chairman for the three years leading up to its 25th anniversary
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