Magyar Hírek, 1985 (38. évfolyam, 2-26. szám)

1985-06-08 / 12. szám

An affable, moustached man of smallish stature received me in his office. He is a forceful personality. The first question I asked Pál Gá­bor, the 71 years old graphic artist was: how he found himself in France? “I left Budapest on the Arlberg­­express at 9.50 p.m. on the 23rd of October 1956. I was going to Paris on an official mission, with a load of exhibition material, meant for an international children’s exhibition. My wife gave me the news from Budapest by phone. I looked for some work. Time and again I have seen the name of the same publish­ers on advertising posters in the Paris Metro. I presented myself to the manager, and they immediately put me on the pay roll. After three months they extended my contract for a year, then, after eighteen months I left them, because I could not bear the pressure imposed by work of such defined nature. From then on I have been a freelance, receiving a flood of commissions and succeeded to establish myself financially and professionally so well that together with my son we could start laying the foundations of a photo setting centre.” “We have gone a bit too far ahead in time, so may I ask you to make a backward detour to tell me how you started to work?” „I attended the Budapest Atelier school. It was an avantgarde institu­tion. I graduated in graphics and inte­rior design. A scholarship allowed me to spend nearly a year in Paris in 1937, then I came here again in 1938 and sldudied at the Grand Chaumiére Academy, and in the workshop of Vasarely, whom I met back in Buda­pest. Vasarely recommended me to a number of agencies, thus I had enough work until Christmas 1940. Then I returned to Budapest, where the publisher Imre Cserépfalvi or­dered two dust-jackets from me at first, then I designed more than one hundred dust-jackets and posters in three years.” The poster of an English graphic art exhibition in the fifties TypoGabor CHRONICLE Pál Gábor Péter Gábor PHOTOS: JANOS BOONÄR “Apart from your work in graph­ics, you have also been an executive of various organizations, and also wrote theoretical articles.” “Once I wrote about the inferior quality of festive decorations in a weekly. When the article was pub­lished I received a confidential let­ter, under seal, with the following text.—1 appoint you forthwith to Head of the National Enterprise for Decorations as Ministerial Commis­sar.—Signed: Minister of Educa­tion. It could have been a very nice assignement, but for three months, while I was at the helm of this enter­prise as ministerial commissar noth­ing at all happened. I carried out surveys, wrote reports in vain.” “And you gave up the battle after three months?" “Yes. Then I became president of the judging panel for graphic works. Some artists produced, boring rou­tine work. But some outstanding creations also came before the panel. I still remember with pleasure the posters by filo.” “You have always preferred type­faces, as dominant elements on your posters. Did you do that exclusively for aesthetic reason?” “The appropriate use of type-faces creates a clear, light and decorative effect. The type-face itself is also able to communicate ideas. It is im­possible to make a poster without a text.” The title page of the catalogue of TypoGabor firm “Evidently it was also your rela­tionship to type-faces that deter­mined your later works as well, also that you established your photo set­ting centre in Paris.” “Yes. The starting point of success here was that I designed new type­faces for each of my posters. I did not draw a full alphabet then, but now all these figure in our cata­logue. When you look at any cata­logue of type-faces, you will observe that they are full of those in fashion. But those who peruse them today will say in two years time that these type-faces have gone out of fashion. This is the very reason why it is important to remember, that when we design the graphic identity of a company we must not use type-faces that are fashionable now. We have to think far in advance, and must be able to assess whether the type­faces chosen will remain modern even in years to come.” The work of Pál Gábor infected also his son, Péter, who has from the time of the establishment of the photo setting centre taken part in its work. They divided the firm into two independent units in 1983: one of them is TypoGabor Ltd. (of which Pál Gábor is president), while the other is the Centre de Creation Ty­­pographique (CCT), under the gen­eral managership of Péter, who summed up the essence of the work of the centre as follows: “We want to establish a school for advertising specialists, that will put them on the right track about the scope offered by typography, making them understand the refinements. Our other, not less important, aim is to awaken press experts to the great importance of the typography of a daily or a periodical. That also depends on their readership. We feel that having set out from several centuries old traditions of typogra­phy we succeeded in taking things to standards of modern idea-com­munication.” JANOS BODNÁR Vatican delegation in Budapest A Vatican delegation led by Arch­bishop Luigi Poggi, a Papal Nuncio spent some time in Hungary on an official visit. They visited Cardinal László Lékai, Archbishop of Eszter­gom, met with the members of the episcopate and visited a number of ecclesiastical institutions. Secretary of State Imre Miklós, President of the State Office for Church Affairs, received the dele­gation. Opinions were exchanged on questions of mutual interest and the development of bilateral relations. Commemorations of the 40th an­niversary of the liberation of con­centration camps A commemorative meeting was held in Budapest, organized by the Committee of People Persecuted by Nazism, in remembrance of the for­tieth anniversary of the liberation of concentration camps. The cere­mony was also attended by Róbert Ribánszki, Secretary of the National Committee of the Patriotic People’s Front and Lajos Bakos, Vice-Presi­dent of the National Board of Hun­garian Jews. The „part-theft of the century” Shooting of a crime-comedy, “in­spired” by the sensational art-theft from the Museum of Fine Arts is proceeding in Budapest and at other locations. The makers of the film planned a thriller that was to stick to the story of the actual crime, but it changed as the script took shape, and it shifted to­wards becoming crime-comedy. The scene of the story is the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, as in real life, but the development diverges somewhat from the historic truth for the sake of more belly laughs, which a genuine reconstruction of the events could hardly provide. Miklós Szurdi, is the director, and András Kern, Péter Andorai and Ta­más Végvári appear in the roles of the “three robbers”. The film is ex­pected to be completed by autumn 1985, and released under the title “Picture-hunters”. Pictogrammes Good business-year of a Budapest bank The Budapest-based Közép-euró­pai Nemzetközi Bank Rt. (Central- European International Bank Ltd.), the first joint—enterprise in Hun­gary with majority foreign share­holding—closed a fruitful year in 1984. Total assets increased by 30 per cent, and reached $ 332 million. The board declared a 12 per cent dividend and 3 per cent premium. The bank began operating on 1st January 1980 with a paid up capital of $ 20,000.000. As a financial institu­tion of off shore status, it has been enjoying exemption from Hungarian foreign currency regulations and central bank supervision. The deals of the bank concern mainly the financing of international trade deals and international money­­market operations. One of its im­portant activities is providing export finance for Hungarian exports. >1 30

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