Richard Beck's design for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games poster was one of five designs submitted to the design competition organised by the Melbourne Olympic Committee in 1954. Selected as the winning entry, the design was first released in December 1954 as a postage stamp to draw attention to the forthcoming Games. The stamp was awarded a bronze medal at the International Stamp Congress in Milan in 1956.
Richard Beck (1912-1985) was an accomplished, professionally trained and experienced English graphic designer who migrated to Australia in 1940. For Australia's first Olympic Games poster, he aimed to create a clean, fresh and colourful design that communicated an international message from Australia clearly and concisely to the rest of the world. The resultant design presents an arresting and distilled graphic image - the single visual symbol being an oversized invitation to the Games. This invitation floats out from a blue background surrealistically suggesting the Australian continent in a vast sea or sky of blue (similarly the 'Sydney 2000 Olympic Games' emblem poster also draws on the vast waters and blue skies that symbolically encircle Australia). The instantly recognisable international emblem of five interlocking Olympic rings project towards the viewer from the front of Beck's invitation while the official Coat of Arms of the City of Melbourne appears on another fold. Above and below this graphic symbol are the salient typographical elements, 'OLYMPIC GAMES' and 'MELBOURNE 22 NOV - 8 DEC 1956' under which the designer has confidently incorporated his own signature.
Although this was the only poster commissioned to officially promote and commemorate the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, it was accompanied by Max Forbes's 'Melbourne Olympic City' poster for the Victorian Promotion Committee - a less officious image depicting a joyfully over burdened bellboy who winks to indicate pleasurable pursuits available in and around the Olympic city. In contrast to Beck's solitary Olympic Games poster of 1956, the Sydney Organising Committee for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games commissioned numerous posters including the official Olympic emblem poster, eight designer posters, a mascot poster and a range of sports posters.
Beck's 'Olympic Games Melbourne' poster was purchased by the museum from the designer's widow, Mrs Barbara Beck in 1991 in conjunction with the acquisition of his graphic design archive.
Richard Beck, graphic designer and photographer (b England 1912, arrived Australia 1940, d Melbourne 1985).
Trained and studied in England (Slade School of Art)and Germany (Blocherer School, Munich) prior to migrating to Australia. In England, Beck had his own freelance design consultancy creating work for London Transport (posters in collections of London Transport Museum and Design Museum, London), Shell Mex Ltd and the Orient Line. In Australia, Beck served with the AIF 1940-1945. Married Barbara Joan Isaacson in 1943. Established Richard Beck Associates, design consultancy producing packaging, corporate image design, exhibitions and general advertising work. Created Coonawarra Estate vineyard advertising and labels in the 1950s as well as the Olympic Games Melbourne poster of 1956. Won many prizes in the Outdoor Advertising Association of Australia and the Australian Commercial and Industrial Artists Association annual competitions and exhibitions. Member of the design committee for the design of the Australian Decimal Currency Banknotes 1964-1966.
See 'Richard Beck Designer/Photographer', Horsham Art Gallery, Victoria, exhibition catalogue 1996
Printed by Containers Ltd, Melbourne 1954-1956
The design was submitted to a design competition organized by the Melbourne Olympic Committee in 1954. Selected as the winning entrant, the design was first released as a postage stamp in 1954 and then as a poster in 1956.
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