Reginald Mount (1906–1979) was a British

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

er. Mount was born Edward Reginald Mount, 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Throughout the war, Mount worked extensively with the designer

Eileen Evans Eileen Margaret Evans (8 November 1921 - August 2006) was a British graphic designer who co-founded the Mount/Evans design studio with graphic designer, Reginald Mount after World War II. Biography Evans studied commercial art at the Reimann ...

. Together, they produced many posters for the Ministry's public awareness and propaganda campaigns, including their renowned anti-

venereal disease Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral se ...

campaign of 1943–1944. 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 Edwin Embleton (1907 – 2000) was a commercial and graphic designer who is widely recognised for his work in the Publications Division of the Ministry of Information during the Second World War. His archive is located at the University of Brighto ...

. Some time after 1941, he worked on a series of posters probably intended for export to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(they were accompanied by Russian text). The example pictured shows a hand, representing the merchant navy carrying a

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

to the USSR, to reinforce the Soviet air force. Several of his wartime works depict an

anthropomorphised Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

, cartoon-style

incendiary bomb Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, th ...

, 'Fire-bomb Fritz'. 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 Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

, London. 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 The Central Office of Information (COI) was the UK government's marketing and communications agency. Its Chief Executive reported to the Minister for the Cabinet Office. It was a non-ministerial department, and became an executive agency and a ...

, producing designs for a wide variety of government agencies. Mount also designed the cinema poster for the British comedy film '' The Ladykillers''. His work is in collections including those of

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

The Science Museum The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

, and the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

. Mount died on 31 January 1979.

References

*Darracott, J. and Loftus, B., Second World War Posters, 1981 (1972), p. 47

External links

Works in the Victoria and Albert MuseumCigarettes, Germs and Paper
- blog post with images and biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Mount, Reginald 1906 births 1979 deaths British graphic designers Film poster artists Propaganda art