Percy Delf Smith

Born Percy John Smith in Dulwich, London, Delf Smith took an apprenticeship with furniture maker Frederick Staddon[9] before studying at Camberwell and the Central Schools of Arts and Crafts. His instructor in lettering at Camberwell was Edward Johnston, an extremely influential calligrapher and lettering artist whose Arts and Crafts movement style of lettering and use of Roman capitals had a strong influence on Delf Smith's career.[10] Johnston's successor was Graily Hewitt, one of Johnston's pupils; Hewitt when he left recommended Delf Smith for the position himself.[10] Delf Smith then established a career as a lettering artist and teaching the topic, publishing Lettering & Writing, a slipcase of lettering models, in 1908.[11]

Johnston and his pupils' lettering work used calligraphy and extensive use of Roman capitals, such as those on Trajan's Column. Johnston wrote that "The Roman capitals have held the supreme place among letters for readableness and beauty. They are the best forms for the grandest and most important inscriptions."[12][13][14] Delf Smith shared this style, naming his workshop the Roman Lettering Company[15] and commenting that Roman lettering has "content and atmosphere, and good examples convey a sense of stability and satisfaction",[16] although his textbooks showed a wide range of styles and work by other artists and in other writing systems.[17]

"Solitude (Thiepval after the Battles, 1916)"

During the First World War, Delf Smith enlisted in the Royal Marines as a volunteer, serving on the Western Front in France.[18] In his early thirties, he was older than most men serving.[18] A lot of his war service was spent digging trenches behind the front lines, at one point coming under bombardment, seeing four men killed and six wounded nearby.[19]

Delf Smith as a serving soldier and not an official War Artist was several times reprimanded for drawing because of security concerns, although he received more freedom to carry out art over time through making connections with other soldiers.[19] Finding sketching unsatisfying, he requested that his parents send him some copper plates and he created drypoint engravings of the war around Thiepval before and after being invalided out from France in June 1917.[20][21][22][lower-alpha 2][25][26] After his set of realistic depictions of the battlefield, he created a later series of seven prints, Dance of Death, updating the medieval imagery of the dance of death to the war:[27][28][29][30]

After the war, Delf Smith returned to London, where he worked as a designer and artist through his company, the Dorno Workshop and Studio (earlier Dorian Workshop and Studio),[31] creating and executing designs for clients including The Sunday Times,[32] the National Museum of Wales,[33] King's College London,[34] Southampton Civic Centre,[35] the BBC,[36] the Boy Scouts Association[37] and London Transport. He also worked as a book designer. Reading Wuthering Heights had a strong effect on him and he created several sets of art inspired by it.[38]

In 1928 he married botanist Ellen Marion Delf, both from then on using the name Delf Smith.[39] His wife's friend Margaret T. Martin described it as "the happiest of marriages".[40][41][42] One of his assistants was William Sharpington, who later established his own successful studio.[43][44]

One of his last projects was two war memorial panels for the Free Church, Hampstead Garden Suburb.[45]

Delf Smith believed strongly in the artistic value of lettering, and wrote several books and lectures teaching the topic.[46][47][48] Shown are some lettering models from his book Civic and Memorial Lettering (1946):[1]

Shown are some designs created by Delf Smith's workshop:

For the LPTB he worked on a variant of its corporate Johnston typeface with serifs for its 55 Broadway headquarters.[52] The same design was also used at some stations, especially Sudbury Town and Arnos Grove.[52][53] Several digitisations of it have been published,[54][55] and one made privately for Transport for London.[56][lower-alpha 3] Delf Smith's drawings are now at St Bride Library.[63]

Roundel at Sudbury Town station

Delf Smith became a Royal Designer for Industry for lettering in 1940[64] and in 1941 he was elected Master of the Art Workers' Guild.[65] He died in 1948.[66][67][68][22]

• Exhibition brochure for a 2018 exhibition, showing a range of art by Delf Smith on a range of subjects
• 1934 Dorian Workshop and Studio prospectus: pages 1-2, 3 and cover