Ruari McLean
Encyclopedia
John David Ruari McLean CBE
, DSC
(10 June 1917 – 27 March 2006) was a leading British typographic designer.
, Galloway
, Scotland
and educated at the Dragon School
and Eastbourne College
. He was apprenticed in the printing trade at the Shakespeare Head Press, Oxford
, where he worked on limited edition fine books. He went on to train in Germany and at the Edinburgh School of Printing, and worked at Waterlow and Sons
Printing in Dunstable
, Bedfordshire
and at The Studio magazine. In 1938 he joined the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, later moving to Lund Humphries printing in Bradford
, Yorkshire
.
McLean was profoundly influenced by the work of Jan Tschichold
, the German typographer, and he visited him at his home in Switzerland
shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War.
and was attached to Combined Operations Pilotage Parties, involved in daring explorations on enemy beaches in small craft in northern France
. He served for more than a year in the Far East
, his role being to reconnoitre Japanese beaches in Burma and other potential targets in Sumatra
. In 1943 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross
, having been a recipient of the Croix de Guerre
in 1942, and was three times mentioned in dispatches.
Ruari McLean married Antonia Maxwell Carlisle in 1945.
in 1946, with special responsibility for design of the Puffin
range, bringing Tschichold to advise on design. From 1949 he taught at the Royal College of Art
, and at the same time became involved with Rev. Marcus Morris in the planning the layout of the new boys’ comic, the Eagle
.
In 1951 he entered into partnership with George Rainbird, designing and contributing to high-quality reproductions of bird and flower books, as well as the About Britain guides. By 1958 he was ready to move to a smaller concern, going into partnership with Fianach Jardine and resuming general design work. He also edited 13 issues of Motif, a quarterly magazine which incorporated painting and sculpture to its typographical content.
books and became an expert and well-known author of works on the subject. His Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing was published in 1963 with a second edition in 1972. This was followed by books on Victorian Bookbindings in Cloth and Leather (1973) and on those in paper (1983). He translated some of Tschichold’s books and wrote about him in Jan Tschichold: Typographer (1975) and Jan Tschichold: A Life in Typography (1997). He later wrote his “typographical autobiography”, True to Type (2000), and Half Seas Under, a record of his naval career (2003).
His best-known work is Magazine Design, published in 1969. McLean was of the opinion that the design and layout of magazines was of crucial importance and significance in the pre-television era, and this work became known as a practitioner’s manual for those in the profession. He wrote the Thames & Hudson
Manual of Typography, published in 1980, which drew on his unusually wide experience of the subject, as did his historical survey How Typography Happens, published by the British Library
in 2000.
McLean was author of numerous other works, including Modern Book Design (1958), and many of these have become standard reference works.
weekend review, The Economist
, New Scientist
and The Twentieth Century, Later in life he was to move, along with his wife and family and his business partner Jardine, to the relative seclusion of Dollar
, Clackmannanshire
, Scotland.
After moving to Scotland, he continued to be involved in major national projects, including the design of the Concise Scots Dictionary and the New Testament in Scots, with which he collaborated with Jardine.
Ruari McLean was Typographic Adviser to HMSO 1966-90, and much involved in assessing graphic design courses at art colleges all over Britain. From 1981 he also became a trustee of the National Library of Scotland
. He gave the Sanders Lectures in Bibliography at Cambridge
in 1983.
He was appointed CBE
in 1973.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, DSC
Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)
The Distinguished Service Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers, and other ranks, of the British Armed Forces, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and British Merchant Navy and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries.The DSC, which may be awarded posthumously, is...
(10 June 1917 – 27 March 2006) was a leading British typographic designer.
Early life and apprenticeship
Ruari McLean was born in Newton StewartNewton Stewart
Newton Stewart is a burgh town in the south of Scotland in the west of the region of Dumfries and Galloway and in the county of Wigtownshire....
, Galloway
Galloway
Galloway is an area in southwestern Scotland. It usually refers to the former counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and educated at the Dragon School
Dragon School
The Dragon School is a British coeducational, preparatory school in the city of Oxford, founded in 1877 as the Oxford Preparatory School, or OPS. It is primarily known as a boarding school, although it also takes day pupils...
and Eastbourne College
Eastbourne College
Eastbourne College is a British co-educational independent school for day and boarding pupils aged 13–18, situated on the south coast of England, included in the Tatler list of top public schools. The College's current headmaster is Simon Davies. The College was founded by the Duke of Devonshire...
. He was apprenticed in the printing trade at the Shakespeare Head Press, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, where he worked on limited edition fine books. He went on to train in Germany and at the Edinburgh School of Printing, and worked at Waterlow and Sons
Waterlow and Sons
The Waterlow and Sons Limited was a major worldwide engraver of currency, postage stamps, stocks and bond certificates established in 1897, in England.-Portuguese Bank Note Crisis:...
Printing in Dunstable
Dunstable
Dunstable is a market town and civil parish located in Bedfordshire, England. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, 30 miles north of London. These geographical features form several steep chalk escarpments most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north.-Etymology:In...
, Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
and at The Studio magazine. In 1938 he joined the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, later moving to Lund Humphries printing in Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
.
McLean was profoundly influenced by the work of Jan Tschichold
Jan Tschichold
Jan Tschichold was a typographer, book designer, teacher and writer.-Life:Tschichold was the son of a provincial signwriter, and he was trained in calligraphy...
, the German typographer, and he visited him at his home in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Wartime service
During the war, he served in the Royal Naval ReserveRoyal Naval Reserve
The Royal Naval Reserve is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. The present Royal Naval Reserve was formed in 1958 by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve , a reserve of civilian volunteers founded in 1903...
and was attached to Combined Operations Pilotage Parties, involved in daring explorations on enemy beaches in small craft in northern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He served for more than a year in the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
, his role being to reconnoitre Japanese beaches in Burma and other potential targets in Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
. In 1943 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross
Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)
The Distinguished Service Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers, and other ranks, of the British Armed Forces, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and British Merchant Navy and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries.The DSC, which may be awarded posthumously, is...
, having been a recipient of the Croix de Guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
in 1942, and was three times mentioned in dispatches.
Ruari McLean married Antonia Maxwell Carlisle in 1945.
Early career
McLean joined Penguin BooksPenguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
in 1946, with special responsibility for design of the Puffin
Puffin Books
Puffin Books is the children's imprint of British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s it has been the largest publisher of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world.-Early history:...
range, bringing Tschichold to advise on design. From 1949 he taught at the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
, and at the same time became involved with Rev. Marcus Morris in the planning the layout of the new boys’ comic, the Eagle
Eagle (comic)
Eagle was a seminal British children's comic, first published from 1950 to 1969, and then in a relaunched format from 1982 to 1994. It was founded by Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar from Lancashire. Morris edited a parish magazine called The Anvil, but felt that the church was not communicating...
.
In 1951 he entered into partnership with George Rainbird, designing and contributing to high-quality reproductions of bird and flower books, as well as the About Britain guides. By 1958 he was ready to move to a smaller concern, going into partnership with Fianach Jardine and resuming general design work. He also edited 13 issues of Motif, a quarterly magazine which incorporated painting and sculpture to its typographical content.
Writing on design and typography
He was a prolific collector of VictorianVictorian literature
Victorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Queen Victoria . It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different literature of the 20th century....
books and became an expert and well-known author of works on the subject. His Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing was published in 1963 with a second edition in 1972. This was followed by books on Victorian Bookbindings in Cloth and Leather (1973) and on those in paper (1983). He translated some of Tschichold’s books and wrote about him in Jan Tschichold: Typographer (1975) and Jan Tschichold: A Life in Typography (1997). He later wrote his “typographical autobiography”, True to Type (2000), and Half Seas Under, a record of his naval career (2003).
His best-known work is Magazine Design, published in 1969. McLean was of the opinion that the design and layout of magazines was of crucial importance and significance in the pre-television era, and this work became known as a practitioner’s manual for those in the profession. He wrote the Thames & Hudson
Thames & Hudson
Thames & Hudson is a publisher of illustrated books on art, architecture, design, and visual culture. With its headquarters in London, England it has a sister company in New York and subsidiaries in Melbourne, Singapore and Hong Kong...
Manual of Typography, published in 1980, which drew on his unusually wide experience of the subject, as did his historical survey How Typography Happens, published by the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
in 2000.
McLean was author of numerous other works, including Modern Book Design (1958), and many of these have become standard reference works.
Later work
McLean continued as a practising typographer, and was called upon by well-known British journals and magazines, such as The Observer’sThe Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
weekend review, The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, New Scientist
New Scientist
New Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...
and The Twentieth Century, Later in life he was to move, along with his wife and family and his business partner Jardine, to the relative seclusion of Dollar
Dollar
The dollar is the name of the official currency of many countries, including Australia, Belize, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States.-Etymology:...
, Clackmannanshire
Clackmannanshire
Clackmannanshire, often abbreviated to Clacks is a local government council area in Scotland, and a lieutenancy area, bordering Perth and Kinross, Stirling and Fife.As Scotland's smallest historic county, it is often nicknamed 'The Wee County'....
, Scotland.
After moving to Scotland, he continued to be involved in major national projects, including the design of the Concise Scots Dictionary and the New Testament in Scots, with which he collaborated with Jardine.
Ruari McLean was Typographic Adviser to HMSO 1966-90, and much involved in assessing graphic design courses at art colleges all over Britain. From 1981 he also became a trustee of the National Library of Scotland
National Library of Scotland
The National Library of Scotland is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. It is based in a collection of buildings in Edinburgh city centre. The headquarters is on George IV Bridge, between the Old Town and the university quarter...
. He gave the Sanders Lectures in Bibliography at Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
in 1983.
He was appointed CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1973.