Reginald Mount

Reginald Mount (1906–1979[1]) was a British graphic designer.

Reginald Mount
A wartime poster by Mount, showing a Hawker Hurricane aircraft, one of a series of posters intended to be sent to the Soviet Union
Born
Edward Reginald Mount

(1906-07-04)4 July 1906
Died31 January 1979(1979-01-31) (aged 72)
OccupationGraphic designer
OrganizationMinistry of Information (United Kingdom)

Mount was born Edward Reginald Mount,[2] on 4 July 1906. He worked as a designer for various advertising agencies in London in the 1930s, then joined the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War.[1]

Throughout the war, Mount worked extensively with the designer Eileen Evans. Together, they produced many posters for the Ministry's public awareness and propaganda campaigns, including their renowned anti-venereal disease campaign of 1943–1944.[1] Other designer colleagues in the Ministry of Information's "general division" included Maurice V. Bennett and Kenneth Bird, better known as the cartoonist 'Fougasse'. Their work was overseen by the Ministry's studio manager, Edwin Embleton.

Some time after 1941, he worked on a series of posters probably intended for export to the Soviet Union (they were accompanied by Russian text). The example pictured shows a hand, representing the merchant navy carrying a Hawker Hurricane to the USSR, to reinforce the Soviet air force.[3] Several of his wartime works depict an anthropomorphised, cartoon-style incendiary bomb, 'Fire-bomb Fritz'.[4][5][6]

Mount was subsequently a founding member of the Artist Partners agency, which was established in 1950 by the agent Donovan Candler in Lower John Street, Soho, London.[7]

Mount continued to work in partnership with Eileen Evans. In the 1950s and 1960s, their 'Mount/Evans studio' became closely associated with the post-war Central Office of Information, producing designs for a wide variety of government agencies. Mount also designed the cinema poster for the British comedy film The Ladykillers.[1]

His work is in collections including those of The National Archives,[1] The Science Museum,[8] and the Victoria and Albert Museum.[2]

Mount died on 31 January 1979.

References
  1. "Reginald Mount". The Art of War. The National Archives. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  2. "Cut it out or cut it down". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  3. "The Art of War - Propaganda - Production - Salvage". The National Archives. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  4. ""Fritz in Nazi bomber" by Reginald Mount, 1942. Inkwash & gouache on board". The National Archives. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  5. ""Fritz meets his Nemesis" Reginald Mount, 1942. Ink & inkwash on board". The National Archives. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  6. """Fritz is awakened" by Reginald Mount, 1942. Ink, inkwash & gouache on board". The National Archives. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  7. "History Intro & Index". Artist Partners. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  8. "Poster relating to smoking, London, England, c. 1965-1970". Science Museum, London. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  • Darracott, J. and Loftus, B., Second World War Posters, 1981 (1972), p. 47
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