About this site

This website is devoted to the career and work of the British graphic designer, visual journalist, graphic activist, collector and visual historian David King (1943-2016). King was a designer of exceptional vision and his achievement and legacy as a new kind of graphic author, working with his unparalleled private archive, deserve to be widely known and discussed. 

The site is launched in support of the book David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian by Rick Poynor (Yale University Press). In its early stages, the site will act primarily as a supplement to the book, showing designs by King that couldn’t be featured owing to lack of space. The first of these collections focuses on King’s activist posters. 

Over time, this collection will be supplemented by new sections addressing other areas of King’s work. The aim is to document every aspect of his interrelated activities as a designer, activist and visual historian. 

The site’s blog will spotlight significant areas of King’s output in regular posts ranging from short items to longer, more discursive and heavily illustrated articles. As the project develops, we hope that contributions about King by other writers can also be posted. 

Our aim is to update the site regularly and make it a lively and stimulating resource. Please sign up to our mailing list. 

Site credits 

Site owners: Rick Poynor and Simon Esterson
Editor: Rick Poynor
Design: Simon Esterson and Ester Mejibovski
Site Build: Sam Watts 

Posters courtesy of the Estate of David King
Poster images courtesy of Twentieth-Century Poster Collection, Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading