Regina May

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Graphic title line Frankfurter Allgemeine, newspaper for Germany from November 1, 1949, designed by Regina May

Regina May (born in 1923 in Dusseldorf , died 22. September 1996 ) was a German commercial artist , illustrator and fashion illustrator . She was the designer of the title head and lettering of the Frankfurter Allgemeine, newspaper for Germany - still typographically unchanged today, the trademark of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung .

Live and act

Regina May completed an apprenticeship as a font illustrator in a printing company. During her four and a half years in a typical “male printer's job”, she gained important professional experience in typography and various printing processes and thus saved herself from having to do important activities in the Second World War.

Regina May graduated from the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main , then still in Offenbach am Main . She then worked as a freelance commercial artist and fashion illustrator. She acquired the license for Der Bogen , the first German magazine in the American sector after 1945.

Facsimile Frankfurter Allgemeine, November 1, 1949

In 1949, at the age of twenty-six, she received an order from the founders of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, whose headline she designed within 10 days. The first draft was particularly displeasing to the deputy editor-in-chief Erich Welter , which is why the lettering was initially only called Frankfurter Allgemeine with the subline newspaper for Germany , which came onto the market on November 1, 1949. Der Spiegel disrespectfully formulated in 1949: “Regina May painted the new newspaper head in ten days.” The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote in an obituary in 1996 that she was proud of the design of the lettering.

Regina May died on September 22, 1996 at her vacation spot.

Fashion graphics

From 1950 to 1975 Regina May was part of the newspaper's team and worked as an illustrator and fashion designer. She developed a modern style for fashion drawings, which, in addition to the FAZ, were also published in Vogue , Constanze , Für die Frau or in specialist journals such as Modellhut .

In 1948, just three years after the end of the war, she attended the first fashion shows in Paris . During the shows she secretly drew what she saw. Drawing was forbidden because of the fear of imitation. She had been given access to the fashion shows as a “correspondent”, not as a draftsman. Influenced by Christian Dior, she created a linear black and white style that is typical for her during this time. The caricature-like exaggeration was typical of her fashion illustrations., Exaggeration, reinforcement. “She had a thieving pleasure in exaggeration,” said curator Leena Moehn, describing the fashion drawings. Regina May herself called her illustrations “ caricatures ” and her job as a “fashion interpreter”.

Regina May taught at the Wiesbaden University of Applied Sciences as a lecturer and taught typeface , design and typeface. In addition, she also worked as a fashion consultant for various companies. The fashion designer Jil Sander was a volunteer with her .

Exhibitions

  • 1999: Regina May and fashion. Sign of time. Retrospective, Wiesbaden
  • 2000: fashion on paper. Lipperheid costume library, Berlin

Publications

  • Johanna Spyri: In a safe hat. Illustrations by Regina May. Kesselringsche Verlagbuchhandlung, Wiesbaden 1950.

factories

  • Achim Koch: Regina May and fashion. Sign of time. Koch, Wiesbaden 1999

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c m.f .: title header . Regina May's death . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . September 28, 1996.
  2. ↑ a b Simona Pfister: handwriting . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung . Frankfurt a. M. January 15, 2015, p. 3 .
  3. ↑ a b Ingrid Heinrich-Jost: Regina May and Mode: Signs of the Times . Ed .: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. August 25, 1989.
  4. ↑ a b K.K .: New line. Regina May turns sixty. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . February 24, 1983.
  5. ↑ a b c Alfons Kaiser: A dress, a smile, an abyss . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . July 13, 1999, p. 12 .
  6. ↑ You edit and write . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine, newspaper for Germany . 7th February 1959.
  7. ↑ a b Achim Koch: Regina May and fashion. Sign of time. Koch, Wiesbaden 1999, p. 8 .
  8. ↑ Newspaper for Germany . In: Der Spiegel . Hamburg November 17, 1949, p. 12 .
  9. ↑ a b Achim Koch: Regina May and fashion. Sign of time. Koch, Wiesbaden 1999, p. 9-10 .
  10. ^ Children's books 1950. Retrieved January 8, 2021 .
personal data
SURNAME May, Regina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graphic artist, illustrator and fashion designer
BIRTH DATE 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 1996
PLACE OF DEATH Wiesbaden