Edward McKnight

Kauffer
Edward McKnight
Kauffer, an American
designer who lived
for much of his
professional life in
London, made a major
contribution to British
graphic design in the
interwar years.
He was a highly gifted
artist who applied his
understanding of
modern styles of
painting, particularly
those associated with
Paris, in a range of
striking designs for
important clients.
Kauffer studied for a
few months at the Art
Institute of Chicago
before
being sponsored to
travel to Paris in 1913.
He took the name
McKnight in tribute to
his sponsor, Professor
McKnight of Utah
University. In Paris,
Kauffer drew in the
museums and attended
the Academie Moderne.
He became immersed
in the rapid succession
of art movements of
Post-Impressionism,
Cubism and Futurism.
On the outbreak of
World War I, however, it
became necessary for
him to leave France,
and he settled in
London in 1914.
An overriding interest
for Kauffer was the
poster, and in 1924 he
published

a book on the subject,

The Art of the Poster.
His first designs were
painted landscapes,
adapted as posters to
advertise the
destinations offered by
the London and North
Eastern Railway. By
contrast, a 1919 poster
advertising a
newspaper, "Soaring to
Success! Daily Herald the Early Bird", was his
first distinctively
modern design. In this
Kauffer integrated a
graphic symbol of
flying birds with
carefully chosen
lettering, all placed in a
distinctive vertical
format. The design
reflected his awareness
of Japanese prints. Like
many artists and
designers of his
generation, he was
inspired by the
simplicity of
composition and the
striking use of
silhouette in such work.
An important challenge
for Kauffer, with his
strong commitment to
modern design, was to
identify like-minded
people who would
commission his
work.Unlike many parts
of continental Europe,
Britain showed little
enthusiasm for
modernism. An
important professional
relationship
for Kauffer began in
1915, when he first
worked

for Frank Pick, the

publicity manager for
London Transport, who
was a strong advocate
of improved links
between art and
industry. Through Pick,
Kauffer's mature style
was introduced to a
wide public in the form
of travel posters, of
which he
designed 141 for
London Transport. Pick
pioneered modern
approaches to
publicizing
transportation
services, especially the
London Underground.
As part of his strategy
for the design of
stations and trains, he
asked Kauffer and
other designers familiar
with modernism to
design posters for
display on stations.
These stressed the
attractions of locations
served by the
Underground, such as
department stores,
museums or country
walks on the outskirts
of the city, as well as
the convenience
and pleasure of this
form of travel.
Kauffer also benefited
from the patronage of
Jack Beddington,
advertising manager of
the ShellMex and BP petroleum
company, and this led
him to design another
series of high-profile
posters in the

1930s. In this
campaign Beddington
responded to criticism
of advertisers for
despoiling the
countryside by
introducing
posters for use on the
sides of delivery lorries.
While always
concerned to produce
modern designs in
a variety of styles,
Kauffer also felt a deep
empathy with England.
He expressed this in his
romantic
interpretations of
landscape, which drew
on a more traditional
sensibility.
Kauffer knew many
figures from literary
circles and
designed book jackets
for Gerald Meynell of
the
Westminster Press,
Francis Meynell of the
Nonesuch Press, and
the publisher Faber.
This work allowed him
to pursue a more
private approach to
imagery.
In the late 1920s and
the 1930s Kauffer
continued
to produce posters and
book covers but also
took on
designs which offered
new opportunities to
work
threedimensionally,
devising interior
designs, theatre sets
and
shop windows. He also
designed rugs for the

Royal Wilton carpet

factory with his future
wife, Marion Dorn. His
association with
modern architects led
to commissions for
photo-murals, in which
his fluency with
Constructivism and
Surrealism was clear. In
1930 he became art
director at Lund
Humphries, a London
publisher firmly
committed to the
promotion of
modernism. He also
assisted with a series
of design exhibitions,
several devoted to
newly arrived emigre
graphic designers from
Europe, among them
Ian Tschichold and
Hans Schleger.
Kauffer's work was
shown in an exhibition
at the Museum of
Modern Art, New York,
in 1937, a sign of his
international standing.
In 1940, soon after the
start of
World War II, he
returned to the United
States, where he
and Marion Dorn
established themselves
in New York. He
continued to design
posters, working for the
Museum of
Modern Art, New York;
the Greek War Relief
Association; American
Airways, and the New
York Subway
Advertising Co., as well
as for prominent
American publishers.