Design Based on Jeremiah 29: 12-14
Artist Abram Games
Accession number 1987-107
Abram Games was one of the twentieth century’s great graphic designers. For over 60 years he produced some of Britain’s most memorable images including the ‘Blonde Bombshell’ ATS poster of 1941. His clients included the United Nations, London Transport, British Airways, Shell, the Financial Times and Guinness. He designed stamps for Britain, Jersey and Israel, book jackets for Penguin books and emblems for the Festival of Britain and the Queen’s Award for Industry. He coined the phrase 'maximum meaning, minimum means', to describe his approach to design.
He also volunteered to design, free of charge, badges, posters and banners for the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad. He would also design covers for the Jewish Chronicle, and prayer book prints for the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain (now the Movement for Reform Judaism).
Naomi Games and Brian Webb write that “Judaism was central to Abram Games’s life. At first glance this prayer book print for the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain, 1977, is illegible, but it is meant to be. Hold the page flat at eye level to read the text from the Bible: Jeremiah 29:12–14” (N. Games & B. Webb, ‘Abram Games: Design’, Antique Collectors Club, 2013, p.92). In this passage, God suggests that restoration from exile will only be possible when the people of God are in a place where they will seek him with all their heart. Games’ design for this message, by needing to be viewed from a particular perspective in order to be read, mirrors the content of the message it shares.
