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Bob Gill (artist)

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Bob Gill
Born
Robert Charles Gill

(1931-01-17)January 17, 1931
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 9, 2021(2021-11-09) (aged 90)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
EducationPhiladelphia Museum School of Art
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
City College of New York
Occupation(s)Graphic designer, illustrator
SpouseSara Fishko
ChildrenTwo

Robert Charles Gill (January 17, 1931 – November 9, 2021) was an American illustrator, graphic designer and author. Prolific and influential creative[1][2] who popularized the use of visual puns and short, direct copy in advertising,[3][4] Bob Gill co-founded British design company Fletcher/Forbes/Gill that after his departure grew into the international consultancy Pentagram.[5][2][6] Together with Alan Fletcher and Colin Forbes, he also founded D&AD, a long-standing British educational organization in design and art direction.[7][8]

Gill was known for his work as design educator and as author of 19 widely referenced[3] books on graphic design, advertising and visual culture.[9][10] His book Forget All the Rules You Ever Learned About Graphic Design—Including the Ones in This Book was first published in 1981 and according to Steven Heller of Print magazine, "it vividly represented Gill’s irrepressible, rebellious wit".[10] The Branvetica said it "...encapsulated his philosophy that design should be about solving problems creatively rather than adhering to established norms."[9] Gill co-created 1977 Broadway musical Beatlemania and designed film titles for films by the animator Ray Harryhausen.[11]

Early life and education

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Robert Charles Gill was born on January 17, 1931, in the Crown Heights neighborhood[8] in Brooklyn, New York. He was raised by a single mother,[12] Frieda Gill (née Gotthelf), who struggled to earn a living as a piano teacher.[1][2] Gill learned to play piano from his mother, and was in a jazz band by age 10.[2] He played the piano at summer resorts in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to pay his school tuition.[2]

He attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (1948–1951), Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1951), City College of New York (1952, 1955). After serving in the U.S. Army in Washington D.C. from 1952 until 1954, he moved back to New York City.[1]

Career

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After returning to New York in 1954, Gill established himself as freelance graphic artist and illustrator.[2] His early work included film and TV title graphics, and illustrations for children’s books and magazines like Glamour, Esquire, Fortune, Seventeen, and The Nation.[13][2] Early in his career, he was awarded Art Directors Club Gold Medal for the design of title card of Private Secretary, a CBS sitcom.[13] Gill also acted as a film title designer, referred to as a production designer, for several films of Ray Harryhausen.[11]

In 1960, after an interview in a New York hotel room for a job in London, he moved to the UK to work for Charles Hobson.[9]

On April Fools' Day 1962, Gill, Alan Fletcher and Colin Forbes established Fletcher/Forbes/Gill design studio, the forerunner of Pentagram.[5] In addition to the three founding partners, Fletcher/Forbes/Gill initially only employed two assistants and one secretary,[14] and worked out of a former mews house near Baker Street in London.[15] Their early clients included Penguin, Pirelli and Time Life.[15] F/F/G soon outgrew their small studio and moved into a huge Victorian former gun factory on a canal. Discussing the company’s founding in 1999 Gill told the Eye magazine:

I met Forbes through Fletcher – they were working in Forbes's apartment as freelancers sharing expenses. This was after becoming disenchanted with the agency. It was a strange situation because if I had told Nicholas Kaye (the owner of the agency, who liked to think of me as his son) I was going to quit, as kind as he was and as generous as he was, he could have had me assassinated.

And then I had an inspiration. I went to him after Fletcher, Forbes and I decided to get together and I said: “Nicholas – let’s quit” and he said: “What are you talking about?” I said “Let’s get out of here and start a design office.”

Well, he was so moved by the fact I wanted to take him with me so he said: “No, you go. I’ll finance it and I’ll feed work to it from the agency – packaging and so forth, and I’ll be a silent partner – I don’t want my name on it."[16]

In 1962, Gill, Fletcher and Forbes started the British Design and Art Direction, now known as the Designers and Art Directors Association, abbreviated as D&AD.[17][18][3]

Gill would go on to influence 1960s music by telling his then assistant, Charlie Watts that he was better drummer than a designer[19] and urging him to join a then-unknown band The Rolling Stones.[2]

In 1967, Gill left the partnership and assumed independent freelancing again, including teaching, filmmaking and writing children's books. He later said that he considered leaving Fletcher/Forbes/Gill the biggest mistake he ever made.[1]

He returned to New York in 1975 to write and design Beatlemania, the largest multimedia musical up to that time on Broadway, on which he worked with Robert Rabinowitz.[20] He also proposed a peace monument for Times Square, for which Gill wanted to collect military junk from all over the world, pile it 40 feet high, spray it matte black, and mount it on a block of white marble. The New York City Fine Arts Commission rejected the project.[17]

Gill designed for Apple Corps records, Rainbow Theatre, Pirelli, Nestlé, Universal Pictures, Joseph Losey, Queen (now Harpers & Queen), High Times magazines and the United Nations. He was elected to the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1991[17] and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Designers and Art Directors Association of London.[8][14]

Personal life

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He lived in New York with his wife, New York Public Radio's Sara Fishko. They had a son, Jack Gill, and a daughter, Kate Gill.[21] Gill died on November 9, 2021, in Brooklyn, aged 90.[2]

Teaching posts

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Awards (partial)

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  • 1955, Gold Medal, New York Art Directors Club, for a CBS television title, US
  • 1999, President's Award, D&AD (British Design & Art Direction), UK

Books written

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  • Bob Gill's Portfolio, Amsterdam: Wim Crouwel / Stedelijk Museum, 1967
  • Bob Gill’s Portfolio, London: Lund Humphries, 1968
  • I Keep Changing, New York: Scroll Press, 1971. | ISBN 0-87592-025-X)
  • Bob Gill's New York, London: Kynoch Press, 1971.
  • Ups & Downs, Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1974.
  • Forget All the Rules You Ever Learned About Graphic Design, Including the Ones in this Book, New York: Watson-Guptill, 1981. | ISBN 0-8230-1863-6
  • Graphic Design Made Difficult, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992. | ISBN 0-442-01098-2
  • Unspecial Effects for Graphic Designers, New York: Graphis, 2001 | ISBN 1-931241-00-7
  • Graphic Design as a Second Language, Victoria: Images Publishing Group, 2003 | ISBN 1-920744-39-8
  • Illustration, Victoria: Images Publishing Group, 2004 | ISBN 1-920744-73-8
  • LogoMania, Gloucester: Rockport Publishers, 2006 | ISBN 1-59253-252-7
  • Words into Pictures, Victoria: Images Publishing Group, 2009 | ISBN 1-86470-326-1
  • Bob Gill, so far., London: Laurence King Publishing, 2011 | ISBN 1-85669-819-X

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Eye Magazine | Blog | Bob Gill obituary (17 January 1931 – 9 November 2021)". Eye Magazine. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Green, Penelope (2021-11-16). "Bob Gill, Graphic Designer Who Elevated the 'Message,' Dies at 90". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  3. ^ a b c "What Made Bob Gill So Brilliant?". Eye on Design. 2022-01-24. Archived from the original on 2025-02-16. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  4. ^ PrintMag (2011-11-04). "Rereading Bob Gill for the First Time". PRINT Magazine. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  5. ^ a b "In Memory of Bob Gill, 1931–2021". Pentagram. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  6. ^ Inglis, Theo (2023). Graphic Design Bible: The Definitive Guide to Contemporary and Historical Graphic Design for Designers and Creatives. Prestel Verlag. p. 140. ISBN 978-3-7913-8990-5.
  7. ^ Bonner, Mark. ""I remember you"". D&AD. Retrieved 2025-06-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ a b c Medeiros, Itamar (2021-11-15). "Remembering Bob Gill". { design@tive } information design. Retrieved 2025-06-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ a b c Ola, Deepak Singh. "Bob Gill". The Branvetica. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  10. ^ a b Heller, Steven (2021-11-15). "The Daily Heller: Bob Gill Made History Making Books and Many Other Things". PRINT Magazine. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  11. ^ a b "Bob Gill | Additional Crew, Art Department, Production Designer". IMDb. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  12. ^ "Remembering Bob Gill: "There's no such thing as a bad client"". Design Week. 2021-11-23. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  13. ^ a b TypeRoom. "Bob Gill: a tribute to the feisty American design pioneer - TypeRoom". www.typeroom.eu. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  14. ^ a b "Bob Gill". Design Observer. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  15. ^ a b "Remembering Colin Forbes: designer and Pentagram co-founder". Design Week. 2022-05-31. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  16. ^ "Eye Magazine | Feature | Reputations: Bob Gill". Eye Magazine. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  17. ^ a b c "Bob Gill - ADC Hall of Fame". Creative Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  18. ^ Creative Bloq Staff (2013-09-19). "Six decades of D&AD awards: the 1960s". Creative Bloq. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  19. ^ "What Made Bob Gill So Brilliant?". Eye on Design. 2022-01-24. Archived from the original on 2024-09-17. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  20. ^ "bob gill". www.norwichgallery.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  21. ^ "Gill, Bob - HL. 34 - Nouveau Salon des cent". www.yaneff.com. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  • "Bob Gill" in Morgan, Ann (1984). Contemporary Designers, New York: Macmillan. | ISBN 0-333-33524-4
  • Baglee, Patrick (1999). "Reputations: Bob Gill”, an interview, Eye magazine, vol. 33, no. 9, Autumn. [1]
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