Tony Hart, an inspiration to generations of young designers, dies aged 83…
Posted: January 18, 2009 Filed under: Creative comment | Tags: Tony Hart 1 Comment »
Tony Hart dies, aged 83
It’s a rather sad day. Tony Hart, an inspiration to generations of young UK designers and would-be artist has died, aged 83. It seems he was ill for a while.
As with many other designers of my generation we were inspired by Tony’s iconic television programmes, ranging from Vision On, Take Heart and Hart Beat. There can’t be many designers out there who weren’t inspired by his 50 years on television.
On a personal note his Vision On logo defined my early understanding of what a great logo was all about, and to this day I still rate it as one of the best. The fact that in the late 1960′s this simple wordmark, hand drawn logo could be so striking to youngsters speaks tomes:
It’s a little known fact that Tony hart also created the original Blue Peter logo, as shown on this early sketch:
Tony Hart brought creativity to youngsters through the medium of television. What he did was to change the perception of ‘art’ from water colours, pencils and charcoal drawings to something wild, crazy and often surreal. As kids we marveled at his sculptures and paintings made from cornflake packets, egg boxes and emulsion. We were in awe of his famous 200ft picture of a tractor on a Sussex hill using 150 fabric roller towels. It was surely his ability to make young, creative minds see and think differently that has in part produced the artistic talent that we have in the UK today.
Morph Flash Mob remembers Tony Hart at London’s Tate Modern
Posted: March 3, 2009 | Author: Simon Verrall | Filed under: Creative comment, Simon's random blogs | Tags: Tony Hart, In the news, The Guardian, Morph, Experiential | Leave a comment »100s of Morphs take to the streets to remember Tony Hart
I’ve mourned the loss of Tony Hart elsewhere on this blog. An inspiration to generations of young UK designers and would-be artists, he died in January aged 83.
On 2nd March hundreds of Tony Hart fans descended on London’s Tate Modern to form a Flash Mob of plasticine figures on the pavement outside the gallery. Nearly 200 models drew crowds and on-lookers in a tribute to the children’s television presenter who died earlier in the year. Part of Tony Hart’s legacy was to tell people not to be scared of trying to make art – however it turns out – which is why Morph became so popular in the 80s and 90s. What a great, and fitting tribute to Morph and Tony Hart.
See more pictures of the Morph Flash Mob at The Guardian’s Media website...
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