Romek Marber Centenary

Centenary of Romek Marber’s Birth

2025 is the centenary of Romek Marber’s birth and marks nearly fifteen years since he first contacted me at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and invited me to look over his archive. Our fascinating and memorable conversations led to his generous offer to donate a collection of his work and his working records, which I was delighted to accept for the V&A’s Archive of Art and Design (AAD).

The particular role of the AAD within the V&A is to document in depth the history of British applied art and design by collecting the working papers of artists and designers. For students and academics especially, these are an invaluable resource for research and teaching; they complement what is to be seen on display in the Museum’s galleries and study rooms.

There is no doubt that Romek deserves a place in the AAD. He was modest about his achievements, but through his work and his teaching as head of department at Hornsey College of Art and Middlesex University, he became an influential and inspirational figure in the post-war graphic design profession. Romek was an influence on public sensibility, too, notably through his celebrated work for Penguin Books, for whom he created the distinctive ‘Marber Grid’ design template and illustrated in the region of 100 book covers for the Penguin Crime Series, and as the founding art editor of the Observer colour supplement, initiating their cutting-edge, thought-provoking cover images and innovative artwork layouts . Romek’s moving personal biography, and his important place, with other Jewish émigrés, as a pioneer of modernist design in Britain, will ensure an enduring scholarly and public appetite to see his work and learn more about his life.

Early in our conversations, Romek diffidently suggested that the V&A might like to accept some examples of his Penguin book covers and the best of his other work, and we gladly did so. With a little encouragement, however, he admitted that he had also kept, and would donate to us, drawings, notes and correspondence – the irreplaceable evidence of a rich creative life, which I am proud to say now forms one of the highlights of the V&A Archives Collections at V&A East Storehouse.

Christopher Marsden
V&A Senior Archivist (2003-2022)