In the shop: Three Framed printers proof designs by Barnett Freedman. Perfect for an artistic bibliophile £250each #barnettfreedman (at Cambs Antiques Centre) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoXJ-YNIoTs/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Happy Christmas 1950 Barnett Freedman His autolithographed Xmas cards are amongst the highlights of his illustration career. The majority commissioned by Faber and similar clients and it’s fairly common to see signed examples, but rarer to find them signed on behalf of his son,Vincent. #barnettfreedman #curwenpress #xmas50 #autolithography https://www.instagram.com/p/BrcUQ1TAevG/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=jcvw4zhez723

Great visit to #pallanthousegallery today > Barnett Freedman: Designs for Modern Britain + An Outbreak of Talent: Bawden, Marx, Ravilious, and their Contemporaries + Drawn to Nature: Gilbert White and the Artists. Afterwards found a copy of PROCESSES OF GRAPHIC REPRODUCTION IN PRINTING by Harold Curwen in Oxfam. 👍 . #BarnettFreedman https://www.instagram.com/p/CEpClkAn8UI/?igshid=15cu8r7o3mtmd

In the shop: An original early drawing by Barnett Freedman in the original mount. Likely when he was at the Royal College of Art as a pupil. From the estate of Vincent Freedman, the artists son. £350 #barnettfreedman #royalcollageofart A good friend of #ericravilious (at Cambs Antiques Centre) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnjrh7zoF7S/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

DANCING SKELETONS: For Halloween, here’s Barnett Freedman’s book jacket for Sacheverell Sitwell’s ‘Dance of the Quick and the Dead’, published by @faberbooks in 1936. It’s a great title, and I’m always fascinated by such evocative idioms that you catch in plays and poetry. In this case, it has its origins in William Tyndale’s 1526 translation of the New Testament, and later in 1603 appears in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (when the Danish prince and a gravedigger converse about the burial of Ophelia) and then in 1611 in the King James’ Bible. The imagery makes me think of cross-cultural imagery: of Edward Burra’s ‘Dancing Skeletons’ of 1934, of which I imagine Freedman would have been aware. They were fellow students at the Royal College of Art and part of what Paul Nash describes as an ‘Outbreak of Talent’. I loved having it in the Burra exhibition I curated in 2011 - and wrote about in the @lhartbooks monograph. Burra of course loved the macabre - from Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies to the Mexican artist José Guadalupe Posada Aguilar. Happy Halloween! #halloween #dancingskeleton #skeleton #edwardburra #barnettfreedman #modernbritishart #pallanthousegallery #book #bookstagram #design #sacheverellsitwell #illustration #quickandthedead (at Pallant House Gallery) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHAq3dhFYur/?igshid=1ucjcnl89b618

D-DAY PREPARATIONS (and other works)... I love the quality of light in this interior by Barnett Freedman, and little details such as the open window and the colour spectrum chart stuck to the board. It’s on loan to the exhibition @pallanthousegallery from the @benurigallery and is one of a number of works Freedman produced when he was an Official War Artist. Others include works from @imperialwarmuseums and Tate. I shall miss all of these when the exhibition ends on Sunday. Until then we are opening the Gallery for an extra hour every day this week - extending out covid-19 hours until 5pm to enable more people through to see the show. It’s been the first opportunity to see many of his works together in 60 years, so don’t miss it! #barnettfreedman #warart #modernbritishart #history #secondworldwar #pallanthousegallery (at Pallant House Gallery) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGz_9hDFYSf/?igshid=1qzwz6jq1uk1l

THE KING’S STAMP: a newspaper in the 1930s declared Barnett Freedman to be “the world’s best-selling artist.” Technically this claim was true, for he had designed the stamp for HRH King George V’s Silver Jubilee in 1935, which sold in the millions. It was a striking fusion of typographic, figurative and decorative design, achieved via the lithographic medium: the antipathy of oil and water. Freedman was even the subject of a film by the GPO Film Unit, directed by William Coldstream, which showed him working on the design. He also designed posters for the Post Office, and lots of greetings cards - he seemed to derive pleasure from designing for communication. #barnettfreedman #design #philately #kingsstamp #modernbritishart #pallanthousegallery (at Pallant House Gallery) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFh4IC1luCf/?igshid=5uczwedmnp7i

GHOST STORIES: there is a Barnett Freedman’s illustration for everything, not to mention Halloween. This is the @foliosociety edition of Walter de la Mare’s Ghost Stories which he illustrated in 1956. There are no headless corpses, or made-up zombies, this is a gentler take on the macabre. Apart from a toothless moon, this is about the creaks in the house, the shafts of light and unsettling shadows in a long corridor, the late entrant to a public lecture or how our mind plays tricks on us in the half light. Just two days left of the exhibition @pallanthousegallery . #ghost #ghoststories #halloween #book #instabook #bookstagram #barnettfreedman #illustration #modernbritishart #walterdelamare #foliosociety (at Brighton Seafront) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHARdrYl6JP/?igshid=1hvlnnf2i0hjd

LOVE: Lytton Strachey once told Dora Carrington that there were ‘a great deal of a great many kinds of love.’ Of course, he was talking in part about the complexities of sexuality, but I couldn’t help thinking of his words when looking at Barnett Freedman’s 24 vignette drawings representing the different kinds of love. They were made for a 1942 anthology of love poetry published by @faberbooks and compiled by Walter De la Mare. Each ink drawing represents a different kind of love and opens the sections of the anthology on these themes. This book was my first proper introduction to Freedman’s work (when I received a copy at Christmas 2011) and so I’m pleased that we have the original studies on loan from @tate in the current exhibition @pallanthousegallery - it closes on Sunday. #love #illustration #instabook #barnettfreedman #modernbritishart #faberandfaber #walterdelamare #lithography #book #design #poetry #sacredlove #exhibition (at Pallant House Gallery) https://www.instagram.com/p/CG9iZnWlNgM/?igshid=1gougr0pfr6nu

Wassailing Barnett Freedman As we head off for Xmas the chance to thank everyone who has supported Design For Today during 2018. As an independent small press I’m so grateful to everyone who has liked these posts, come to Fairs, bought online and stopped by to chat. Next year sees some amazing books and projects but I’m looking forward to reading & relaxing over Xmas and digging out more things to post. This is from Freedman’s 1954 Xmas card for Leighton-Straker. #barnettfreedman #curwenpress #stonelithography #wassailing https://www.instagram.com/p/BrrtGrdgnmM/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=gckaod6qq7m7

Front Parlour Carols Barnett Freedman Stone lithographed Xmas card printed at The Curwen Press in 1950 for the directors of Faber. (see today’s other post for the cover) #barnettfreedman #carols #atthepiano #frontroomcarols #curwenpress #stonelithography #faberandfaber

Barnett Freedman Xmas Card 1950 A stone lithographed card for 1950, printed at The Curwen Press for the directors of Faber. This is one of Barnett’s personal cards, signed from his family. (See today’s other post for the inside of the card) #barnettfreedman #stonelithography #xmas1950 #curwenpress #faberandfaber @ianarchiebeck

Bit late now ... Barnett Freedman Just one of his astonishingly good posters you can find on the London Transport and various internet sites. The lithographers lithographer, he trained in stone carving as a lad, engraving names for WW1 war memorials, lessons well learned. All round genius! #barnettfreedman #lettering #lithography #posterdesign #londontransport #gpo @debbiegeorgeartist

Barnett Freedman Detail from a 1953 stone lithographed card for the Directors of Leighton-Straker Bookbinding Company. Printed at the Curwen Press. #barnettfreedman #stonelithography #curwenpress

Barnett Freedman The Anatomy of Melancholy Drawn on the stone and then printed by offset litho in six colours. This printing example was used by John Lewis in Cowell's Handbook of Printing Types for which he persuaded his artist friends to illustrate the examples of type used at the printer. #barnettfreedman #johnlewis #stonelithography #offsetlithography #wscowells

Braintree Market Edward Bawden On show at the Original Print Fair yesterday, Bawden's 1937 contribution to the Contemporary Lithograph scheme, aimed at brightening the nursery and home. Like many attempts in the following decades to bring modern contemporary art to the home and school this wasn't a commercial success and few copies have survived. #edwardbawden #braintreemarket #lithography #johnpiper #zwemmers #robertwellington #barnettfreedman