There’s an abundance of wry innovation in modern illustration, but I'm sympathetic to the mania for classic kid's lit and the wistful retreat into yesteryear. For reassurance on layout work recently, I looked to one vintage book in particular; Maureen Roffey's Who Killed Cock Robin? is a paean to bold, cut-out simplicity, integral text and colourful spreads.
Though still wonderfully prolific, it's Roffey’s earlier output that feels so fine-tuned to the here-and-now. Sadly, this period gets short-shrift online: a flat-pack dolls' house from 1967; a pretty poster for London Underground in 1968 and some silk-screened toys in 1977s Things to Make and Do... in short, enough to keep me searching every-now-and-then.
As if one talent in the family wasn't enough, this astonishing study is from Bernard Lodge, Roffey's husband; a pivotal figure in TV graphics, latterly turned wood-block/lino-cut printer. Lodge’s interests are broadly mythical, but it's when focus pulls to the contemporary or quotidian that the work, paradoxically, grows wings.
• Who Killed Cock Robin?, Maureen Roffey, 1971, Bodley Head
• Girls' Night Out, Bernard Lodge, three-block linocut, undated
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