Abram Games

Most designers can identify a pivotal moment in their lives which confirmed that they really did want to be a designer. My moment occurred 12 years ago when a graphics lecturer showed me a poster by Abram Games. Titled Your Talk May Kill Your Comrades, it shows a ghostly spiral emitting from a man’s mouth which becomes a bayonet through the chest of three soldiers. As a piece of propaganda it’s extremely powerful. As a poster design it’s stunning and many people considered it to be the poster of the war.

Games’ work is a vital link between 1930s and 1950s design and has been incredibly influential for at least three decades.

Any designer whose first task is to distil the problem down into the simplest form owes Games an enormous debt. Any designer that doesn’t know who he was should hang their head in shame.