December's limited-edition cover, the eighth in our series celebrating our 10th anniversary, is by graphic designer Alan Fletcher, who sadly passed away soon after completing the work. Here, Wallpaper* Creative Director Tony Chambers pays tribute to the pioneering artist.
'Meeting your heroes is so often disappointing. And so it was with some trepidation that I first approached Alan Fletcher, one of the fathers of modern graphic design, to create the special limited-edition cover for this issue of Wallpaper*. But to see this maverick at work was an invigorating and inspiring experience — even when he mischievously suggested that we should exclude Wallpaper’s masthead from his cover. As he explained, gruffly, ‘If you’re gonna do it, you may as well bloody do it.’ Even more extraordinary —and something we were completely unaware of — was that Alan was battling with cancer as he worked on this project. It was only when he was unable to complete the cover with his customary calligraphic signature that we realised he was quite so ill. Despite this, he remained playful and irreverent to the end. When sending over the completed cover, he included this compliments slip. It summed up everything he stood for: brevity, wit and an effortless aesthetic.'
INFORMATION
The December issue of Wallpaper* is on sale from 9 November. To purchase a copy of this month's limited edition issue and all the other limited editions in the series, click here.
A retrospective exhibition Alan Fletcher: 50 years of graphic work (and play) is at the Design Museum, London; 11 November 2006-18 February 2007; www.designmuseum.org
