Cooper Hewitt says...
Abram Games’ career as a graphic designer spanned over 60 years. Though his most well-known works are those he produced during World War II, he also designed stamps, books jackets, logos, and posters outside the war effort. In his modernist designs, he strove for "maximum meaning, minimum means." Though he was the Official War Poster Designer during WWII, he preferred to work independently, following the war. Trained at St. Martin’s School of Art in London, his early poster designs were featured in the Art & Industry journal. Some of his earliest commissions came from clients such as London Transport, the GPO, and Shell. It was Jack Beddington, the design director at Shell, who helped to secure Games’ position in the War Office.
Though other poster designers of his time incorporated photography into their practice, Games used airbrush to produce his own instructional and educational graphic images during the war. Games' rich array of concise and effective wartime images cajoled soldiers about personal cleanliness, warned against careless talk and horse-play with weapons, persuaded civilians to give blood, grow their own food, and even knit socks.
Games also held many patents, including a copying process in which many electronics companies became interested, and the Cona Coffee New Table Model (1959). He also worked with companies to design corporate identities, some of which are still in use today.
