Theyre Lee-Elliott (28 May 1903 – 24 December 1988) was an English artist who created notable

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

logos such as the

Speedbird The Speedbird is the stylised emblem of a bird in flight designed in 1932 by Theyre Lee-Elliott as the corporate logo for Imperial Airways. It became a design classic and was used by the airline and its successors – British Overseas Airways C ...

and painted the ballet and religious art. He was born David Lee Theyre Elliott in 1903 in

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...

. He was educated at

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

and

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

, where he read theology but was a

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

champion, won a

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

for

lawn tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...

and represented England at

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

. He graduated in 1925 and then spent two years at the

Central School of Art and Design The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Cr ...

followed by the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

. He then worked as a commercial artist and his work on book-jackets included '' Dodsworth'', ''

A Farewell to Arms ''A Farewell to Arms'' is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant () in the am ...

'' and

Eric Linklater Eric Robert Russell Linklater CBE (8 March 1899 – 7 November 1974) was a Welsh-born Scottish poet, fiction writer, military historian, and travel writer. For ''The Wind on the Moon'', a children's fantasy novel, he won the 1944 Carnegie Meda ...

's ''Juan in America''. He was a pioneer of informational posters which presented statistics in graphical form and created notable Art Deco logos including

Imperial Airways Imperial Airways was the early British commercial long-range airline, operating from 1924 to 1939 and principally serving the British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East, including Malaya and Hong Kong. Passenger ...

' Speedbird and the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

's symbols for

air mail Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be the ...

and the telephone. The Speedbird was designed in 1932 and its appearance was influenced by the ''

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

'' work of

Edward McKnight Kauffer Edward McKnight Kauffer (14 December 1890 – 22 October 1954) was an American artist and graphic designer who lived for much of his life in the United Kingdom. He worked mainly in poster art, but was also active as a painter, book illustrator a ...

, echoing Kauffer's angular bird forms in his 1918 poster for the '' Daily Herald''. Other clients during this period included the tailor Austin Reed. He also worked on the scenery at

Sadler's Wells Theatre Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-seat ...

and painted the ballet dancers there. His work there made him friends with the dancers and musical community. The paintings were exhibited at the theatre then San Francisco and Hollywood and were published as ''Paintings of the Ballet'' in 1947. In October of that year, he witnessed the marriage of conductor

Constant Lambert Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founder and music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton) he was a major figure in th ...

and artist Isabel Delmer. After an illness in the 1950s, he produced religious art such as ''The Agony'' and a selection was exhibited in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1965. His final years were spent in Chelsea, where he lived for most of his life. File:Daily herald.jpg,

's 1917 poster for the '' Daily Herald'' may have inspired the Speedbird logo. File:BOAC Speedbird.svg, Lee-Elliot's

logo created in 1932 for

File:Poster declaring fall in infant mortality Wellcome L0038328.jpg, A 1939 poster for the Ministry of Health showing statistical improvement in

infant mortality Infant mortality is the death of young children under the age of 1. This death toll is measured by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the probability of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births. The under-five morta ...

References

External links

Posters for London Transport 1936–52
at the London Transport Museum
Things. In archives.
– vintage posters by Lee-Elliott

– Oberon's Grove {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee-Elliott, Theyre 1903 births 1988 deaths Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Art Deco artists People educated at Winchester College English illustrators English male table tennis players People from Lewes Religious artists