2

Designing WomenRuth Artmonsky

Women working in advertising andpublicity from the 1920s to the 1960s

2

Designing WomenRuth Artmonsky

Women working in advertising andpublicity from the 1920s to the 1960s

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Much of what I have previously written has come about by chance rather than intent, by my coming across an odd sentence in someone else’s book that triggers off a Tony Buzan mind-mapping ‘tree of ideas’, branching off wildly in many directions, demanding to be re-arranged in book format. But other ideas have come about more by default, when I had intended to write on a topic but found someone else had got there first, so I had had to turn elsewhere.

‘Designing Women’ is more a matter of default. After I had written a small monograph on Jack Beddington of Shell, which I had subtitled ‘The Footnote Man’ [as his name appeared in so many books on other people but he did not have one to himself ], I decided to ‘dig up’ other ‘footnote’ men and women, building up into a series.

The next person on my list was William Crawford, the rumbustious advertising man, but I discovered I had been pipped at the post by the National Galleries of Scotland book on Ashley Havinden, Crawford’s Art Director, which covered much of my intended ground. But my Crawford research had thrown up the formidable Margaret Sangster [Mrs. Ashley Havinden] as a character worth exploring more. Then chance struck. I was visiting the Design Archives of the University of Brighton when I was shown the splendidly researched book of essays ‘Women Designing, redefining design in Britain between the wars’. Suddenly I saw that there could be some mileage in collecting together a number of forgotten or under-rated women who had worked in advertising and publicity, in addition to Margaret Sangster, and record something of their careers.

So here is a miscellany of ‘footnote’ women who worked either as executives or artists and designers in British advertising and publicity in the inter- and immediate post-war period; these are mere cameos, but it may be that a reader will find herein their own trigger to dig more deeply and restore, more fully, some forgotten reputations.

Introduction

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Much of what I have previously written has come about by chance rather than intent, by my coming across an odd sentence in someone else’s book that triggers off a Tony Buzan mind-mapping ‘tree of ideas’, branching off wildly in many directions, demanding to be re-arranged in book format. But other ideas have come about more by default, when I had intended to write on a topic but found someone else had got there first, so I had had to turn elsewhere.

‘Designing Women’ is more a matter of default. After I had written a small monograph on Jack Beddington of Shell, which I had subtitled ‘The Footnote Man’ [as his name appeared in so many books on other people but he did not have one to himself ], I decided to ‘dig up’ other ‘footnote’ men and women, building up into a series.

The next person on my list was William Crawford, the rumbustious advertising man, but I discovered I had been pipped at the post by the National Galleries of Scotland book on Ashley Havinden, Crawford’s Art Director, which covered much of my intended ground. But my Crawford research had thrown up the formidable Margaret Sangster [Mrs. Ashley Havinden] as a character worth exploring more. Then chance struck. I was visiting the Design Archives of the University of Brighton when I was shown the splendidly researched book of essays ‘Women Designing, redefining design in Britain between the wars’. Suddenly I saw that there could be some mileage in collecting together a number of forgotten or under-rated women who had worked in advertising and publicity, in addition to Margaret Sangster, and record something of their careers.

So here is a miscellany of ‘footnote’ women who worked either as executives or artists and designers in British advertising and publicity in the inter- and immediate post-war period; these are mere cameos, but it may be that a reader will find herein their own trigger to dig more deeply and restore, more fully, some forgotten reputations.

Introduction

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Mary Gowing was possibly one of the most versatile women working in British advertising mid-twentieth century – a trained artist, a copywriter and an executive director – and, additionally, a generous publicist on behalf of others in the industry, as well as herself active in professional bodies. Mary Gowing, born Edytha Mary Rabyslade, grew up above a small general shop run by her father in Manchester. Although it is presumed that at some time Mary had a husband, there is no archival trace of him and, independently, she built a distinguished career for herself by herself, her Northern heritage giving her a practical grounded approach to challenges and a blunt straightforward manner in arguing her case. Mary studied at the Manchester School of Art, becoming a pupil-teacher there. Any idea of a career in art had to be deferred when she joined the Women’s Army AC in 1916, becoming a member of their first contingent to be sent to France. Her traumatic war experiences showed her that men and women with common goals could work effectively alongside each other. On returning to civilian life Mary worked, for a short time, at the Kendal Milne Department Stores in Manchester, before she got a post as a commercial artist for C.P. Vernon in Liverpool, a post she was to hold for some five years. Whether the role of advertising designer did not entirely suit her or whether she saw that she could progress more quickly via an executive route, by the mid-1920s she had returned to Manchester to join Herbert Greaves as an account executive. Her next move was to London where she worked firstly for Service Advertising and with, by now, a considerable experience

Mary Gowing – John Tait & Associates; Bensons; Mather & Crowther.

CHAPTER 04

Mary Gowing Advertising Woman Extraordinaire

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Mary Gowing was possibly one of the most versatile women working in British advertising mid-twentieth century – a trained artist, a copywriter and an executive director – and, additionally, a generous publicist on behalf of others in the industry, as well as herself active in professional bodies. Mary Gowing, born Edytha Mary Rabyslade, grew up above a small general shop run by her father in Manchester. Although it is presumed that at some time Mary had a husband, there is no archival trace of him and, independently, she built a distinguished career for herself by herself, her Northern heritage giving her a practical grounded approach to challenges and a blunt straightforward manner in arguing her case. Mary studied at the Manchester School of Art, becoming a pupil-teacher there. Any idea of a career in art had to be deferred when she joined the Women’s Army AC in 1916, becoming a member of their first contingent to be sent to France. Her traumatic war experiences showed her that men and women with common goals could work effectively alongside each other. On returning to civilian life Mary worked, for a short time, at the Kendal Milne Department Stores in Manchester, before she got a post as a commercial artist for C.P. Vernon in Liverpool, a post she was to hold for some five years. Whether the role of advertising designer did not entirely suit her or whether she saw that she could progress more quickly via an executive route, by the mid-1920s she had returned to Manchester to join Herbert Greaves as an account executive. Her next move was to London where she worked firstly for Service Advertising and with, by now, a considerable experience

Mary Gowing – John Tait & Associates; Bensons; Mather & Crowther.

CHAPTER 04

Mary Gowing Advertising Woman Extraordinaire

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in the industry, she moved to John Tait & Associates, in Grand Building, Trafalgar Square, as Director alongside John Tait. When John Tait was away in the Navy in World War II, Mary was left to virtually run the agency single-handedly, largely managing to keep it afloat by obtaining government propaganda commissions, supplemented by her own writing and broadcasting [the last along the lines of rallying ‘Women of Britain’!]. From 1947 to 1949 Mary worked as Public Relations Officer for the Peckham Health Centre which, at that time, was causing something of a stir as a possible model for health care of the future. Whether this was an insufficiently challenging role, or for some other reason, from 1949 Mary returned to agency work, joining S.H. Benson as Head of its Woman’s Department, her return making something of a splash in the advertising press. After some six years with Benson’s Mary rounded off her career by becoming a consultant to Mather & Crowther with whom Bensons was to merge. During her career Mary was to work with a string of artists and designers and, presumably helped by her own art training, built up creative and sympathetic relationships with them – with Ruth Gill at John Tait, Fred Adams at Bensons, and Stanhope Shelton at Mather & Crowthers. She ran a remarkable campaign for Decca with Tom Eckersley, but perhaps worked most closely and empathetically with Hans Schleger. They were to work together on a number of projects, including those for Lavenda Wools and Scottish Oatmeal, but their most successful campaign was for the recruitment of women into the Services during World War II. Their campaign for the Auxiliary Territorial Service [ATS] was run from 1943 to 1945. The Service had a rather poor reputation, particularly in the eyes of husbands and boyfriends of potential recruits, and was failing to attract sufficient applicants. Mary and Hans threw themselves into the recruitment publicity campaign, seeing it as their own contribution to the ‘war effort’. Mary is reported to have focused entirely on it, whether she was in her office, in an air raid shelter, or, if bombing was too heavy for her to return home, in an hotel

Mary and Hans Schleger working together on the ATS campaign.

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in the industry, she moved to John Tait & Associates, in Grand Building, Trafalgar Square, as Director alongside John Tait. When John Tait was away in the Navy in World War II, Mary was left to virtually run the agency single-handedly, largely managing to keep it afloat by obtaining government propaganda commissions, supplemented by her own writing and broadcasting [the last along the lines of rallying ‘Women of Britain’!]. From 1947 to 1949 Mary worked as Public Relations Officer for the Peckham Health Centre which, at that time, was causing something of a stir as a possible model for health care of the future. Whether this was an insufficiently challenging role, or for some other reason, from 1949 Mary returned to agency work, joining S.H. Benson as Head of its Woman’s Department, her return making something of a splash in the advertising press. After some six years with Benson’s Mary rounded off her career by becoming a consultant to Mather & Crowther with whom Bensons was to merge. During her career Mary was to work with a string of artists and designers and, presumably helped by her own art training, built up creative and sympathetic relationships with them – with Ruth Gill at John Tait, Fred Adams at Bensons, and Stanhope Shelton at Mather & Crowthers. She ran a remarkable campaign for Decca with Tom Eckersley, but perhaps worked most closely and empathetically with Hans Schleger. They were to work together on a number of projects, including those for Lavenda Wools and Scottish Oatmeal, but their most successful campaign was for the recruitment of women into the Services during World War II. Their campaign for the Auxiliary Territorial Service [ATS] was run from 1943 to 1945. The Service had a rather poor reputation, particularly in the eyes of husbands and boyfriends of potential recruits, and was failing to attract sufficient applicants. Mary and Hans threw themselves into the recruitment publicity campaign, seeing it as their own contribution to the ‘war effort’. Mary is reported to have focused entirely on it, whether she was in her office, in an air raid shelter, or, if bombing was too heavy for her to return home, in an hotel

Mary and Hans Schleger working together on the ATS campaign.

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In the period covered by this book several women produced artwork for advertising and publicity alongside their husbands, lovers, or just business partners, their partner’s name usually remembered more than their own, even when the signature to the work included both. For their ‘commercial’ work Rosemary Ellis’s is rarely seen unattached to that of her husband, Clifford, whose name usually comes first [it is, of course, first alphabetically]; Claudia Guercio, worked under the shadow of her altogether more extroverted husband, Barnett Freedman. Whilst working with Cyril Power, Sybil Andrews

‘Come out to play’ panel poster, Clifford & Rosemary Ellis, 1936.

Previous spread Barbara Jones, who produced publicity and advertising in the 1950s for both commercial firms and government agencies.

CHAPTER 06

Creative Partnerships

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In the period covered by this book several women produced artwork for advertising and publicity alongside their husbands, lovers, or just business partners, their partner’s name usually remembered more than their own, even when the signature to the work included both. For their ‘commercial’ work Rosemary Ellis’s is rarely seen unattached to that of her husband, Clifford, whose name usually comes first [it is, of course, first alphabetically]; Claudia Guercio, worked under the shadow of her altogether more extroverted husband, Barnett Freedman. Whilst working with Cyril Power, Sybil Andrews

‘Come out to play’ panel poster, Clifford & Rosemary Ellis, 1936.

Previous spread Barbara Jones, who produced publicity and advertising in the 1950s for both commercial firms and government agencies.

CHAPTER 06

Creative Partnerships

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School relocated to Corsham in 1946; and Rosemary taught there. The pair produced a hundred or so book jackets, between 1945 and 1982, for the ‘New Naturalist’ series, published by Collins. Their work for advertising and publicity is altogether less well known and was largely produced in the 1930s, mainly for Shell and for London Transport, although they also carried out the odd commission for the Empire Marketing Board and the Post Office. For Shell their best known posters are of ‘Chanter’s Folly and Dry Dock’ for the ‘To Visit Britain Landmark’ series, ‘Lower Slaughter’ for the ‘Everywhere you go’ series, and ‘Antiquaries Prefer Shell’ in the ‘You Can be Sure of Shell’ series [although there is some doubt as to what extent this last was used]. The Ellises work for London Transport was more extensive, around twenty posters in all. Some of these were in the genre of their book jackets, particularly ‘Wood’, ‘River’, ‘Heath’ and ‘Down’ featuring birds associated with the respective environments, encouraging city dwellers to go out into the countryside. But they also produced quite modernist posters, one of their most original being for the England-West Indies test series of 1939. It is known that they frequently worked together on an image. Although there seems no archival material as to how they went about this, Rosemary, when once asked, replied that whoever had the original idea put pen, pencil, or brush to paper first, and then they both fledged out the image together. Claudia Guercio does not strictly come into the ‘partnership’ category, although she certainly helped her husband, Barnett Freedom occasionally, with

Baynard ‘Flora’ initials for the Baynard Press, Claudia Freedman, 1947.

A Poster for Shell-Mex & B.P. Ltd., Rosemary & Clifford Ellis, 1934.

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School relocated to Corsham in 1946; and Rosemary taught there. The pair produced a hundred or so book jackets, between 1945 and 1982, for the ‘New Naturalist’ series, published by Collins. Their work for advertising and publicity is altogether less well known and was largely produced in the 1930s, mainly for Shell and for London Transport, although they also carried out the odd commission for the Empire Marketing Board and the Post Office. For Shell their best known posters are of ‘Chanter’s Folly and Dry Dock’ for the ‘To Visit Britain Landmark’ series, ‘Lower Slaughter’ for the ‘Everywhere you go’ series, and ‘Antiquaries Prefer Shell’ in the ‘You Can be Sure of Shell’ series [although there is some doubt as to what extent this last was used]. The Ellises work for London Transport was more extensive, around twenty posters in all. Some of these were in the genre of their book jackets, particularly ‘Wood’, ‘River’, ‘Heath’ and ‘Down’ featuring birds associated with the respective environments, encouraging city dwellers to go out into the countryside. But they also produced quite modernist posters, one of their most original being for the England-West Indies test series of 1939. It is known that they frequently worked together on an image. Although there seems no archival material as to how they went about this, Rosemary, when once asked, replied that whoever had the original idea put pen, pencil, or brush to paper first, and then they both fledged out the image together. Claudia Guercio does not strictly come into the ‘partnership’ category, although she certainly helped her husband, Barnett Freedom occasionally, with

Baynard ‘Flora’ initials for the Baynard Press, Claudia Freedman, 1947.

A Poster for Shell-Mex & B.P. Ltd., Rosemary & Clifford Ellis, 1934.

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‘Crocuses are out’ poster, Dora Batty, 1927.

‘Rugby at Twickenham’ poster, Dame Laura Knight, 1921.

‘School and Pleasure Parties’ poster, Kate Burrell, 1928.

‘General Joy’ poster, Vera Willoughby, 1928.

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‘Crocuses are out’ poster, Dora Batty, 1927.

‘Rugby at Twickenham’ poster, Dame Laura Knight, 1921.

‘School and Pleasure Parties’ poster, Kate Burrell, 1928.

‘General Joy’ poster, Vera Willoughby, 1928.

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My thanks go to Chloe Veale at the History of Advertising Trust for the images which make up much of the first part of the book, and for her selection of material which helped the shaping of the book: to Jasmine Rogers at the Science & Society Picture Library for the railway publicity pictures; to Catherine Moriarty at the Design Archives, Brighton University and to Crown Royal for the Daphne Padden illustrations; to London Transport Archives for the images appearing both in the ‘Partnership’ and the ‘Women Underground’ sections; to the V&A Art & Design Archive for some images of Eileen Evans’ work; to Margaret Havinden’s son, Michael, for so generously making available to me family records; to Nicholas Kroll who talked to me about his mother, Maria; to Margaret Calvert and Pat Schleger who spoke of their friend, Ruth Gill and to Dr. Andrea Tanner who provided me with examples of her work; to Ben Duncan who sent me some notes of his work in advertising; and to Felicity Green who had such wonderfully amusing anecdotes to tell of her short period working at Crawfords. Of course I am most grateful of all to the book’s designer, David Preston, for sharing my interest in advertising and publicity, and for supporting me throughout.

Germaine Greer once remarked that her idea of Heaven was a library; mine is an archive, with the many archivists who have shared my enthusiasms, be it for only a brief time, as my guardian angels!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We were in love with advertising. Mad women. Mad women. Mad men. Mad days. I had a wonderful time, too. Looking back, there isn’t a single thing I would do differently. Jane Maas, ‘Mad Women’, 2012

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My thanks go to Chloe Veale at the History of Advertising Trust for the images which make up much of the first part of the book, and for her selection of material which helped the shaping of the book: to Jasmine Rogers at the Science & Society Picture Library for the railway publicity pictures; to Catherine Moriarty at the Design Archives, Brighton University and to Crown Royal for the Daphne Padden illustrations; to London Transport Archives for the images appearing both in the ‘Partnership’ and the ‘Women Underground’ sections; to the V&A Art & Design Archive for some images of Eileen Evans’ work; to Margaret Havinden’s son, Michael, for so generously making available to me family records; to Nicholas Kroll who talked to me about his mother, Maria; to Margaret Calvert and Pat Schleger who spoke of their friend, Ruth Gill and to Dr. Andrea Tanner who provided me with examples of her work; to Ben Duncan who sent me some notes of his work in advertising; and to Felicity Green who had such wonderfully amusing anecdotes to tell of her short period working at Crawfords. Of course I am most grateful of all to the book’s designer, David Preston, for sharing my interest in advertising and publicity, and for supporting me throughout.

Germaine Greer once remarked that her idea of Heaven was a library; mine is an archive, with the many archivists who have shared my enthusiasms, be it for only a brief time, as my guardian angels!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We were in love with advertising. Mad women. Mad women. Mad men. Mad days. I had a wonderful time, too. Looking back, there isn’t a single thing I would do differently. Jane Maas, ‘Mad Women’, 2012

Detail from P&O/Orient Line menu, Daphne Padden.