Romek Marber Various Projects

Norvic by Barnards

Throughout his career, Romek Marber designed for a wide range of graphic materials, products and clients, creating corporate identity and promotional material. Frequently retained as a consultant designer, providing his clients with individualised, commercially successful design solutions, he brought the same clarity of thought and graphic immediacy to all his projects, including those that were of a more technical nature. Often the raw materials that he used for his designs were drawn directly from the ordinary objects or everyday ephemera that the clients produced. One such case was wire manufacturers Barnards Ltd who made Norvic, a range of fencing products, including wire netting, barbed wire, and chain-link fencing.

This commission coincided with Marber’s personal interest in engineering, machinery and woodworking which he had had since childhood. When Marber first arrived in the UK, his initial thought of a career was to make wooden toys – possibly due to his experience as a teenager working in a carpentry factory in the Bochnia Ghetto during the war. He shared this interest with one of his oldest and closest friends – the graphic designer, and Marber’s colleague at Middlesex University – David Collins (1932-2018), who he met at the Royal College of Art, and they would often go to tool and machinery auctions together.