Born in Paris, Robert Bonfils (1886 – 1972) was a French graphic artist, painter, and designer.
Education
He studied at the École Germain-Pilon in 1903 and at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1906.
Biography
He worked for Henri Hamm, a furniture designer. His work included paintings, bookbindings, ceramics for Sèvres, Bianchini-Frerier silk, wallpaper and interior design layouts. He designed the tea room at the Au Printemps department store in Paris. With depictions of the seasons, he decorated the wall.
He was a professor of design at the École Estienne from 1919.
The work of Bonfils was shown at the 1909-38 Salons d’Automne, the 1938 Salon des Tuileries and the Société des Artistes Décorateuers Salons. At the 1913 Salon in Paris, he introduced his first book, Binding, Clara d’Ellebuese. He was an organiser of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925. He exhibited in nine categories, and he designed one of the posters and catalogue covers. He also participated in the 1937 Paris ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne.’ In 1939 he was at the ‘New York World’s Fair’. In 1958 he was at the ‘Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles.’
A selection of his work
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.
Shop Now
Books on French Design
More on Graphic Design
-
Enid Crystal Dorothy Marx (1902 – 1998) British textile and graphic designer
Designs for London Underground seats. She studied painting and wood engraving at the Royal College of Art in London, as well as at the Central School of Arts and Crafts.Read More →
-
William Morris – Beauty of Practicality
Morris believed his responsibility was “to revive a sense of beauty in home life, to restore the dignity of art to household decoration.Read More →
-
Paul Rand (1914 -1996) – Designer who led the way
Paul Rand, was a seminal figure in graphic design who made innovative visual identities for some of America’s major corporations and book and magazine publishers We all have seen the designs of Paul Rand at some stage of our lives. He had a career spanning nearly seven decades. There is the seminal logo for IBM…
-
Walter Allner (1906–2006), an American painter and designer
Walter Allner (1906–2006) was an American painter and designer known for his creativity, artistic skill, and imagination. He was trained at the Bauhaus under Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, and Joost Schmidt and used bold colours, strong typography, and striking imagery in his designs.Read More →
-
Adrian Frutiger (1928 – 2015) Typographer – creator of widely used fonts.
Adrian Frutiger was a Swiss graphic designer and typographer. Frutiger created some of the most widely used fonts of the 20th century, and they can be seen daily in airports on street signs and in subway stations. He was the creator of many internationally known and loved fonts such as Avenir, Frutiger, Univers and Vectora.Read…
-
Wolfgang Weingart – Swiss Typographer and Designer
He was dubbed “the father” of New Wave or Swiss Punk typography . LEARN MORERead More →
-
Keith Haring (1958 – 1990) – art that danced
Keith Haring was best known for his graffiti-like painting, initially on the black paper used to cover discontinued billboard advertisements in the New York subway. After after a feverish 1980’s style career of surging popular success and grudging critical attention, Haring died of AIDS in 1991 at the age of 31.Read More →
-
Ikko Tanaka (1930 -2002) 🇯🇵 Graphic Design blend of East and West
Ikko Tanaka was a Leading Graphic Designer in Japan. He had an enormous impact on the post-war visual culture in Japan.Read More →
-
Gustav Klutsis (1895 -1944) photographic montage
Gustav Klutsis was a Latvian artist and graphic, poster and applied arts designer who was a devoted supporter of the Boshevik regime and a member of the communist party. He was the pioneer of photomontage in the Soviet Union and an acclaimed graphic designer and painter. Influences included Suprematism and Constructivism. LEARN MORERead More →
-
Jan Tschichold (1902 – 1974) – Swiss Typographer
German-born, Tschichold is one of the most outstanding and influential typographers of the 20th century, He cleared away the old typography of pre-1925 and made room for a modern, structured and regulated new typography. His work is characterised by rigorous structure, asymmetrical placement of contrasting elements, and layouts based on horizontal and vertical underlying grids.Read…
-
Paul Bacon (1923 – 2015) – created looks for books
Paul Bacon was not a household name, but anyone who has a passion for books will have seen his works. Bacon was an artist, who used minimal imagery and bold typography to sell famous novels such as, “Catch 22” by Joseph Heller, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest’s and Phillip Roth’s “Portnoy’s complaint?Read More →
-
Robert Bonfils (1886 – 1972) French Graphic Artist
Born in Paris, Robert Bonfils was a French graphic artist, painter, and designer. He studied at the École Germain-Pilon in 1903 and at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1906. He worked for Henri Hamm, a furniture designer. His work included paintings, bookbindings, ceramics for Sèvres, Bianchini-Frerier silk, wallpaper and interior design layouts.…
-
Dan Friedman (1945 – 1995) American Graphic Designer
Dan Friedman (1945–1995) was a prolific graphic and furniture designer, artist, writer, and educator. Friedman’s work posed a radical challenge to tradition and commodification in design practice. His work is held in the collections of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.Read More →
-
Giovanni Pintori (1912 – 1999) Italian Graphic Design
Giovanni Pintori (1912–1999) was an Italian graphic designer best known for his advertising work with Olivetti. His posters for the Lettera 22 and Olivetti logo are renowned for their use of geometric shapes and minimalist design. Read More →
-
Poster for Nikon (1957) by Yusaku Kamekura
Yusaku Kamekura’s poster emphasises the brilliance and clarity attained with the Nikon lens and the technical perfection of his client’s camera by using brilliant optical patterns and powerful, white letter-forms against an intensely dark background. Read More →
-
René Kieffer (1875 -1964) – French Bookbinder
René Kieffer was a gilder at the Chambolle-Duru bindery for ten years. In 1903, set up his workshop at 99 boulevard St-Germain, Paris. Later he moved to 41 rue St-Andre-des-Arts and finally, in 1910, to 18 rue Seguier. A disciple of Henri Marius Michel, his work shifted from classical forms to motifs in the Art…
-
Robert Oxenaar (b.1939) Designer of Dutch Banknotes
Robert Oxenaar (1929 – 2017) Designer of Dutch banknotes and stamps. Head of the Art and Design branch of the Dutch postal service. Helped launch a new generation of Dutch designers in the 1970s, including notables like Gert Dumbar.Read More →
-
Herbert Bayer (1900 – 1985) American multi-disciplined designer
Herbert Bayer was one of the Bauhaus’s most influential students, teachers, and proponents. Most of Bayer’s photographs come from the decade 1928–38, when he was based in Berlin working as a commercial artist. He designed the show Road to Victory (1942), which would set the course for Steichen’s influential approach to photography.Read More →
-
Hiroshi Awatsuji (1929 – 1995) Japanese Textile Designer
Hiroshi Awatsuji (1929- 1995) was a Japanese textile and graphic designer: born in Kyoto. He was considered the first Japanese textile designer to be recognised for contemporary design rather than for traditional art and craft. The main characteristic of his work was over sized motifs.Read More →
-
František Zelenka (1896 – 1942) – Czech architect and stage and graphic designer.
František Zelenka (1896 – 1942) was a Czech architect and stage and graphic designer. He was born in Prague. Zelenka’s career in the theatre was initiated by K.H. Hilar, the National Theatre director in Prague in 1926.Read More →
You may also be interested in
École Estienne – 120 years of design training – Encyclopedia of Design
L’école Estienne is the traditional name of the École supérieure des arts et industries graphiques (ESAIG) (Graduate School of Arts and Printing Industry). The property is located in the 13th Paris district of Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui, at 18, not far from the Butte-aux-Cailles. The front façade of the École Estienne.
French fabrics in the art deco style – Encyclopedia of Design
Ruhlmann used the same basic motif-a stylized Cedar of Lebanon tree set within an irregular circle-on this textile and related wallpaper (MMA 2005.334), though on the textile each motif is offset by an added circle of dots. The pattern was produced in alternate colorways.
École Boulle – College of fine arts and crafts, Paris – Encyclopedia of Design
École Boulle is a college for fine arts and crafts and applied arts in Paris, France. The École Boulle was created in 1886 and is named after the cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle, who during the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715), the Sun King, was commonly considered to be the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry or inlay.