Bob Gill

They also founded D&AD, a long-standing British educational organization in design and art direction. Gill was known for his work as design educator and as author and designer of many widely referenced books on graphic design, advertising and visual culture. He also co-created 1977 Broadway musical Beatlemania, illustrated multiple children's books, and designed film titles for films and TV.

• Name — Bob Gill • Birth Name — Robert Charles Gill • Born — 17 January 1931 • Birthplace — Brooklyn, New York, U.S. • Died — 9 November 2021 • Place of death — Brooklyn, New York, U.S. • Occupation — Graphic designer, illustrator • Education — Philadelphia Museum School of Art Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts City College of New York • Spouse — Sara Fishko • Children — Two

Robert Charles Gill was born on January 17, 1931, in the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. He was raised by a single mother, Frieda Gill (née Gotthelf), who struggled to earn a living as a piano teacher. Gill learned to play piano from his mother, and was in a jazz band by age 10. He played the piano at summer resorts in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to pay his school tuition. He attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (1948–1951), Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1951), City College of New York (1952, 1955). After serving in the U.S. Army in Washington D.C. from 1952 until 1954, he moved back to New York City.

After returning to New York in 1954, Gill established himself as freelance graphic artist and illustrator. His early work included film and TV title graphics, and illustrations for children’s books and magazines like Glamour, Esquire, Fortune, Seventeen, and The Nation. Early in his career, he was awarded Art Directors Club Gold Medal for the design of title card of Private Secretary, a CBS sitcom. Gill also acted as a film title designer, referred to as a production designer, for several films of Ray Harryhausen. In 1960, after an interview in a New York hotel room for a job in London, he moved to the UK to work for an advertising agency Charles Hobson.

On April Fools' Day 1962, Gill, Alan Fletcher and Colin Forbes established Fletcher/Forbes/Gill design studio, the forerunner of Pentagram. It was one of the first designer-led agencies in London. In addition to the three founding partners, Fletcher/Forbes/Gill (commonly abbreviated as F/F/G) initially only employed two assistants and one secretary, and worked out of a former mews house near Baker Street in London. Their early clients included Penguin, Pirelli and Time Life. F/F/G soon outgrew their small studio and moved into a huge Victorian former gun factory on a canal. Discussing the company’s founding in 1999 Gill told the Eye magazine: In 1962, Gill, Fletcher and Forbes also started the British Design and Art Direction, a long-standing educational organization now known as the Designers and Art Directors Association, abbreviated as D&AD. Graphic design: Visual Comparisons, a 1963 book co-authored by the three partners of F/F/G, sold more than 100,000 copies. Gill would go on to influence 1960s music by telling his then assistant, Charlie Watts that he was better drummer than a designer and urging him to join a then-unknown band The Rolling Stones. In 1967, Gill, reluctant to grow the company, left the partnership and assumed independent freelancing again, including teaching, filmmaking and writing children's books. He later said that he considered leaving Fletcher/Forbes/Gill the biggest mistake he ever made.

He returned to New York in 1975 to write and design Beatlemania, the largest multimedia musical up to that time on Broadway, on which he worked with Robert Rabinowitz. He also proposed a peace monument for Times Square, for which Gill wanted to collect military junk from all over the world, pile it 40 feet high, spray it matte black, and mount it on a block of white marble. The New York City Fine Arts Commission rejected the project. Gill designed for Apple Corps records, Rainbow Theatre, Pirelli, Nestlé, Universal Pictures, Joseph Losey, Queen (now Harpers & Queen), High Times magazines and the United Nations.

He lived in New York with his wife, New York Public Radio's Sara Fishko. They had a son, Jack Gill, and a daughter, Kate Gill. Gill died on November 9, 2021, in Brooklyn, aged 90.

Bob Gill is recorded with the occupation picture book writer. Recorded with the occupation graphic designer. Recorded with the occupation typographer. Recorded with the occupation illustrator. Recorded as graphic designer, illustrator, typographer and picture book writer. Established in Bibliothèque nationale de France under 12560284z. Established in Library of Congress under n50027761. Established in RKDartists under 282688. Established in Discogs under 2068423. Established in FAST under 9185. Formation and teaching. Gill studied at Philadelphia Museum School of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and City College of New York.