John Lewis

John Lewis (1912–1996) was a Welsh typographer, printer, illustrator and collector of printed ephemera. Early life Lewis was born in Rhoose, near Cardiff. The family moved to Farnham in 1920. He was educated at Charterhouse and Goldsmiths', where his contemporaries included Denton Welch and Carel Weight. First career Lewis set up as a freelance illustrator in 1935, but when the United Kingdom entered the Second World War, he became involved with developing camouflage working in Canada and doing some work on secret devices in Italy. Through this work he met Victor Stiebel, Oliver Messel, Gabriel White, Lynton Lamb and Edward Ardizzone who was to become his brother-in-law. Work with W. S. Cowell Ltd Lewis joined W. S. Cowell Ltd. in 1946. The company published his first book, A Handbook of Printing Types with Notes on the Composition and graphic processes used by Cowells in 1947. The book featured illustrations by Henry Moore, John Piper, Blair Hughes-Stanton, John Nash. Barnett Freedman, Edward Bawden, and Graham Sutherland, as well as a weather chart by the Isotype Institute.