Summary: Born in England, Richard Hollis has been a freelance graphic designer since 1958. He has worked as a printer, art editor, production manager, writer, teacher and lecturer. Hollis taught at various London art schools, as well as co-founded, with Norman Potter, the Graphic Design Department at the West of England College of Art in Bristol in 1964. His book design includes John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’, and a large body of work for the Whitechapel Art Gallery. He has also made a significant contribution to the history of graphic design in through his books including ‘Graphic Design: A Concise History’. In the interview with Richard Hollis we talk about his personal values. And how your own values are expressed through the way you work and the way you behave towards the people you’re working with or working for. Richard explains how he hardly ever changes typefaces. He always uses the same typefaces in making catalogues and books. We wonder, apart from the kind of job or the topics that he’s designing for, if his political views can be seen in his design work. We also talk about his fascination for Swiss Graphic Design and he explains why he has written a book about the topic: ‘Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style’. We end the interview with how a painting of two tortoises, that Richard has seen at the Mauritshuis, is related to writing. Recorded at the Karel Martens Symposium at KABK, The Hague, the Netherlands.
