The award-winning documentary, Designing from Home, which was produced by academics from the University of Brighton Design Archives and Centre for Design History offers an intimate portrait of pioneering graphic designer, FHK Henrion, widely known as one of the world’s pioneering graphic designers of the post-war era. The 16-minute film, co-directed by University of Brighton researchers Dr Harriet Atkinson and Dr Sue Breakell, won the top prize for short documentaries ahead of dozens of international entries at the London Independent Film Festival.
As an artist with Jewish heritage, Henrion fled Nazi Germany in 1933, moving first to Paris and then to London three years later, where he worked on wartime propaganda projects for the UK Ministry of Information and the US Office of War Information. Some of his most iconic work, including identities for Tate & Lyle, the National Theatre and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
The film centres on the house where Henrion lived and worked for over four decades in Hampstead, combining his family life with his creative practice until his death in 1990. It uses newly recorded interviews with his family as well as a collection of his most rarely seen works currently kept at the Design Archives, to highlight how everyday routines, relationships and domestic surroundings shaped his creative output.