Pentagram - the Design Firm

As their website will tell you, “Pentagram provides design services across the full spectrum of graphics, identity, architecture, interiors, and products. Our multi-disciplinary structure, with teams from different disciplines working in the same environment, promotes a culture of interchange that adds tremendous value to all creative thinking.” (Pentagram) This vision all began in London in 1962 when Colin Forbes, Alan Fletcher, and Bob Gill came together to form a graphic design consultancy. Fletcher, Forbes, and Gill came together in 1962 because they felt that they could present a better face as a business than as individuals. Forbes recalls, “Everything was right” that year because there was so much creativity around and they were all the right age. (Pentagram) After about two or three years they took a hard look at their business and realized that most of their business was troubleshooting for advertising firms and they decided that wasn’t what they wanted to do. In 1964, they were working on an exhibition in Milan with Theo Crosby and they decided to all join forces because more often than not, if someone “needed a letterhead” then they also had some kind of environment that would need work. (Pentagram) Bob Gill left the company in 1964 because he asked Crosby how long it would take to build a building and thought it would take too long. So they decided to tall themselves Crosby Fletcher Forbes. Mervyn Kurlansky became a partner in 1969 to help with the increasing load of graphic design projects. In 1972 Crosby Fletcher Forbes began a project for BP Oil, designing service stations and they approached Kenneth Grange to develop the pump equipment. Grange also redesigned the American parking meter that appeared in Britain in the 1960s. This was also the time that Grange starting working on designs for Kenwood appliances and has spent several decades designing for them. There were now five partners: Crosby, Fletcher, Forbes, Kurlansky, and

Cited: Curtis, Hillman. hillmancurtis :: film and video :: Artist Series: Pentagram 07 :: 9176792725. 2008. 11 2010 <http://www.hillmancurtis.com/index.php?/film/watch/pentagram_07/>. Design Museum British Council. Peter Saville / Designing Modern Britain - Design Museum Exhibition : - Design/Designer Information. 2010 <http://designmuseum.org/design/peter-saville>. —. Pentagram: The Compendium. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1998.