In 1975 Abram Games, one of Britain’s greatest graphic designers, was commissioned to make a fund-raising poster for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His brilliant solution was to become iconic: the face of Shakespeare built up from the titles of all the plays as they appear in the First Folio. This tea towel replicates that original poster.

Pallas Athene is excited to be producing this little monument in the history of design, and will also be producing, as Games originally intended, other products using the design: posters, T-shirts, mugs, bags, scarves and deckchairs.

A first-generation Londoner born in 1914, Abram Games designed some of the most iconic and recognisable images of the twentieth century. His work was known for its efficiency, directness and humour, and included public information posters, advertisements, book jackets and stamps. From 1942 he was the official war artist for posters, and later he worked for London Transport, BEA and BOAC, the Financial Times and Guinness amongst many others. Most famously, he designed the logo for the Festival of Britain in 1951. His motto was ‘maximum meaning, minimum means’. Games was awarded the OBE for services to graphic design and appointed Royal Designer for Industry (RDI), by the Royal Society of Art. He died in 1996.