New exhibition – Charles Hasler: A Mid-Century Graphic Designer and Collector

Our new exhibition invites you to explore the work and interests of Charles Hasler (1908-1992), typographer and graphic designer.

Hasler’s working life began in the modernist interwar years, and was punctuated by both World War II and the Festival of Britain in 1951. Throughout his life, Hasler worked on a range of design commissions for various clients, and also lectured, researched and wrote,
feeding his expertise back into the wider design community.

Festival of Britain

After the war, Hasler was a senior designer and chairman of the Typographic Panel for the Festival of Britain of 1951 which oversaw the visual identity of the exhibition. It drew up specimens of display letters, and developed guidelines on how the logo should be used on Festival-related publications and publicity. Hasler was the author of the Festival of Britain Flags pamphlet (CH/1/1/2) which is on display, along with a specimen of display letters designed for the Festival (CH/1/1/1) [see image above and below].

The Ministry of Information

Charles Hasler was involved as a designer in the Ministry of Information exhibitions from the mid- to late 1940s. He was therefore involved in the design of exhibitions for the ‘Dig for Victory’ and ‘Make Do and Mend’ campaigns, and photographs and leaflets relating to these campaigns are featured in the exhibition (CH/1/2/1 and CH/1/2/2). The Hasler archive also contains photographs for other exhibitions including the ‘Army Exhibition’ in Birmingham c. 1943 and the ‘Nation and the Child’ exhibition at Olympia in 1948.

Consultant Designer

Hasler also worked as a freelance graphic designer, and produced posters and literature for the British Transport Commission from the 1940s to the 1960s, amongst other commissions. On display are some examples of leaflet guides to tourist areas of Britain, produced to accompany short films issued by the British Transport Commission, printed by The Curwen Press (CH/2/19/20-21). His other clients included Waterlow & Sons Ltd, The Wolfe Society and local businesses.

Hasler’s research and writing

Charles Hasler was also interested in researching and writing, and the collection includes drafts and articles for publications like Penrose Annual, Architectural Review and Typographica. Hasler wrote about a wide variety of subjects, ranging from nineteenth century colour printing and arms, stamps and money to the emergence of the printer’s stock block. His writing culminated in a comprehensive book on heraldry, The Royal Arms; Its Graphic and Decorative Development, published in 1979.

Eclectic Collection

This exhibition celebrates not just Charles Hasler’s career, but also the wonderful collection he amassed to support his work. The collection is a valuable resource for students, designers and anyone with an interest in typography, graphic design and the printed page. The collection includes an extremely decorative ephemera collection of Christmas cards, almanacks, postcards, advertisements, Victorian scraps and trade literature, and a small selection of this material is featured in the exhibition.

Hasler was an avid collector of all forms of printed material. His collection contains some wonderful examples of early product branding, which were of interest for their typography and design and in the printing techniques used. He collected examples of 19th and 20th century packaging materials, including cigarette boxes, cigarette cards, balls of crochet cotton and boxes for camera film. The Peek, Frean & Co Biscuit tin (CH/5/4/1/2) which features in the display is dated around 1880, and is a particularly special acquisition as the University of Reading Special Collections also holds the Peek Frean archive covering the period 1831-1957.

Also on display are a selection of decorative Notgeld bank notes and some examples of colourful textile bale labels designed by Edward McKnight Kauffer for the Steinthal textile company from 1916-1926 (CH/5/1/1/1-26). McKnight Kauffer was an American artist and graphic designer who worked mainly in poster art, but was also active as a painter, book illustrator and theatre designer. He is perhaps best known for the many posters that he produced for London Underground, and later, London Transport.

Books, catalogues and periodicals

Hasler’s collection includes a wide range of books and other publications, with examples of work by a number of important illustrators and graphic designers from the 1930s to the 1950s, many of whom Hasler knew personally, including McKnight Kauffer and Abram Games. Exhibits in this display include publications from the Festival of Britain, a selection of Victorian music covers and a selection of issues of Shelf Appeal magazine from the 1930s [see image below]. Shelf Appeal was a magazine aimed at the newly emerging professional designers of packaging and promotional material. It considered typography, illustration and graphics to explore how products (especially in new materials such as plastics, Bakelite, aluminium etc.) might be marketed to consumers through the development of a ‘brand image’. Some of the exhibits on display in the exhibition are from the Great Exhibition Collection, which was acquired by the University of Reading from Hasler in 1966. 

Festival of Britain wall hangings cartoons

Also on display in the staircase hall are two cartoons by the artist Michael O’Connell (1898-1976) for The Diversity of British Farming wall hangings. They are designs for a series of large wall hangings displayed in the Country Pavilion of the Festival of Britain. Each section depicted farming in a different part of the United Kingdom. Although these items are not from Hasler’s collection, he was heavily involved in the Festival of Britain, and it seems likely that he would have seen the original wall hangings on display in the Country Pavilion. You can see the original wall hanging on display at the far end of The Museum of English Rural Life galleries next door. 

Until recently, the Charles Hasler Collection was held at the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture (MoDA) which is now closed. MoDA produced a publication, Charles Hasler Sends His Greetings, and you can pick up a free copy from the Reading Room.

The Charles Hasler archive material has now been fully catalogued on our online catalogue and is available for readers to consult, with work on cataloguing the book and other published material from his collection in progress. You can find out more about the Charles Hasler Collection here.

The exhibition will be on display in the staircase hall outside the Reading Room until 30 May 2025.

Look out for another Hasler blog post when we will focus on some of the women artists whose work is featured in the display.