NEWBOULD, Frank - Not Just Hockney (original) (raw)

Frank Parkinson Newbould (1887 – 1951) was a successful and prolific graphic designer who became well-known for his colourful travel posters.

Image: London Transport Museum

He was born at the family home at 174 Lumb Lane, Bradford. His father, John, was a local pharmacist and had a shop on Manningham Lane. Frank attended the nearby Bradford Grammar School, then studied commercial art between 1905-8 at Bradford School of Art.

He then found work in the art department of a reputable local publishers, Percy Lund, Humphries (PLH) & Co. Ltd. The company was at the forefront of printing technology at that time and had installed one of the first monotype machines in 1904 and became early specialists in the use of half-tone printing. PLH also printed The Penrose Annual, which was essential reading for anyone interested in the latest techniques in photography, graphic design & printing techniques.

Working for PLH was a significant step in Newbould’s development as a graphic design artist, as it would have given him a thorough inside knowledge of modern printing techniques, as well as a business-like approach to costings, profit, and the importance of working to deadlines.

Around 1911/12 he moved to London to continue his art studies to a more advanced level at the Camberwell School of Art, where in that year he won a National Schools of Art competition silver award for his designs. He graduated with a first-class honours degree in design.

When the Great War started he was already a Reservist with the First Battalion of Prince of Wales (West Yorkshire Regiment) so was called to serve at the start of the war and sent to France, landing at St Nazaire in September 1914. He survived the war unscathed, reached the rank of Corporal, and gained the Silver War badge for his service.

After his army discharge, he returned to commercial art, employed by Norfolk Studios, Fleet Street, before acquiring his own studio in Kensington, London. In 1919 was commissioned to design a recruitment poster: ‘The Call of the East’, for the RAF. The same year, he married Marion Jane Thompson and set up home together at Kensington.

From 1919 onward, he steadily gained a good reputation for his black and white J-nib illustrations and worked for publications, such as ‘Printers’ Pie’ and ‘Passing Show’, ‘Tatler’ and ‘The Sketch’ producing cartoon illustrations.

From 1921 he had begun to produce attractive colour posters for London Transport, and In 1924 designed posters for the British Empire Exhibition and later for the Empire Marketing Board. His commissions for the Empire Marketing Board took him overseas, and he and Marion travelled to many Empire destinations, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the West Indies, including Trinidad – where he painted ‘A Cocoa Estate in Trinidad’ (below).

A Cocoa Estate in Trinidad. Image: Manchester Art Gallery

In 1926 he began freelance work for the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) as a poster designer, with an emphasis on promoting the efficiency of the company, and on making the East Coast rail destinations it served as attractive as possible.

This was a significant step in his career and Newbould was one of just five artists appointed by William Teasdale, Publicity Manager of the LNER. Although Newbould was essentially a freelance artist with the LNER, Teasdale offered all the chosen artists a guaranteed minimum income, provided the artists did not accept work from the other three major railway companies.

One of Teasdale’s conditions of employment was that the artists should visit the destinations they were to promote to gain a sense of the place. Subsequently Newbould regularly visited destinations along the East Coast of England, as well as overseas, to sketch for the LNER.

Image: V&A.

Newbould produced many posters of British East Coast destinations characterised by their strong and bold use of colour, often with little detailing, but at the same time evoking a sense of the scene, as in the 1930 image below of a speedboat crashing through the surf at Scarborough.

Image: from ‘Unashamed Artists’ (see sources below)

He was later commissioned in 1933 by LNER to re-design the iconic ‘Skegness is so bracing’ poster (see below), originally drawn by John Hassall in 1908 for the Great Northern Railway.

The LNER held annual exhibitions of their posters around the country, including at the New Burlington Galleries, London. These were very popular with the public and did much to raise the profile and standing of graphic designers working in the field of travel poster design.

‘Skegness is so bracing’. Image: National Railway Museum.

Newbould also produced designs for passenger ship companies, as well as posters for the Ideal Homes Exhibition.

In 1938 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

During WW2, he designed posters for the War Office (see example below).

After the war he designed posters for other railway companies, including the GWR & LMS , and in 1947 designed a series of platform safety posters for the newly formed British Railways

His wife died in 1947 and Frank, who had suffered from diabetes for some time, was found dead on Christmas Day in 1951 at his London home.

Many of the posters he designed for the Empire Marketing Board are now in the permanent collection of the Manchester Art Gallery.

See also the book ‘_Poster Boy. The Life and Work of Frank Newbould’ at_ Poster Boy

Sources:

(Newbould’s Army Service): ‘_Men of Worth_‘ project, Keighley. Available at www.menofworth.org.uk

Artmonsky, R. (2014) Unashamed Artists: A Celebratory Miscellany of Advertising Art. Artmonsky Arts.

Lister, D. (2004) Bradford’s Own. Sutton Publishing.