Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

For the past few weeks I’ve been working on the design and illustration of several series of quirky greeting cards (to be produced in conjunction with Ev’s What? Clay Art & Curios). In the research and discovery process, I’ve stumbled across some remarkable sources of inspiration—such as these beautifully crafted images by Sir William Nicolson (1872-1949).

He has been called “perhaps the most influential graphic designer of all time,” and his woodblock prints of the 1890s were amongst the most revolutionary British print images of the era. His graphics used “a treatment of form, with a stylised simplification of shape, and a handling of perspective and picture space which had had no precedent in British art.” Under the pseudonym of ‘The Beggarstaffs,’ Nicholson, along with his Scottish brother-in-law James Pryde (1866-1941), “virtually created the modern poster,” with its clear outlines and large areas of flat colour.

Thanks for your contribution to contemporary visual language, Sir William!