The Channel Islands - British Railways (1956)
Year: 1956
Format: Booklet
Illustrator: Dorrit Dekk (1917-2014)
Client: British Railways
Details: This 1956 British Railways booklet publicises their services and fares to the Channel Islands. The artwork is by Dorrit Dekk (1917-2014).
Dorrit Dekk was born Dorothy Karoline Fuhrmann in Brno, Czechoslovakia. She moved to Austria with her mother and brother when she was four years old. Her father Hans stayed behind and later died in Auschwitz. While attending art school to become a theatre designer, the Nazis occupied Austria and she fled using her Czech passport. Dekk moved to London and switched to studying commercial design at the Reimann School.
Following the Reimann School's closure, Dekk started working in the navy's top secret "Y" service as a radio intelligence officer, intercepting encrypted German military messages. In 1940 Dekk married Leonard Klatzow, a South African physicist who had a key role in the invention of infrared night vision for the navy. Leonard died two years later after a plane crash.
After the war she worked in the design studio of the UK government's Central Office of Information. She left in 1948 to spend a year in Cape Town before returning to set up as a freelancer in London. She exhibited a large mural as part of the 1951 Festival of Britain after fibbing that she had designed murals before. She went on to run an incredibly successful practice, creating work for clients including London Transport, British Rail, Penguin Books and the Post Office.
She married Kurt Epstein in 1968, with whom she travelled widely. Travel was clearly an important aspect of Dekk's life - she was even known as the ‘travel queen’ for her work with companies such as Air France and P&O.
After Dekk lost the use of her right hand in 2001 following a stroke, she continued to produce a daily piece of art with the help of her much-loved carer, Mary Mendis. She retired from graphic design in 1982 but continued working as a painter and printmaker until the end of her life.