This material was the working collection of designer and typographer, Charles Hasler (1908-1992). It’s now a great resource if you are interested in nineteenth and twentieth century printing, typography and ephemera, or if you are looking for visual inspiration for creative projects.
Charles Hasler played a significant role in many high-profile exhibitions, displays, poster campaigns and book publishing in Britain from the mid-1930s to the mid-1980s.
He was interested in the newly emerging field of packaging and branding and in the role of typographical design. His collection reflects his keen interest in all kinds of printed material and includes postcards, playbills, sheet music, packaging and posters dating from the nineteenth century onwards
During the Second World War, Charles Hasler was an exhibition designer for the Ministry of Information and the Central Office of Information. He worked on displays such as ‘Dig For Victory’, ‘Make Do and Mend’ and ‘Nation and the Child’. After the war he became a senior designer and chairman of the Typographic Panel for the Festival of Britain of 1951.
Throughout his career Hasler was involved with the education and professional development of print and graphic designers. His collection continues to be a great visual resource for artists and designers, as well as for historians of twentieth century graphic design.
We’ve put together a short online reading list on Typography, Graphic Design and Ephemera with reference to Hasler and his role within British graphic design, and another list on MidCentury Design.
Jane Audas: Charles Hasler Sends his Greetings
MoDA's new book on the Ephemera Collection of mid-century designer, Charles Hasler
Hasler-Handel-Hendrix
The designer and typographer Charles Hasler collected Victorian sheet music. But what happened when we let Middlesex students loose on them? [Video]
The Hasler Gallery (2014-15)
How can a museum without a public venue showcase collections, and work inspired by those collections?
Sahava Baranow: Notgeld
MoDA holds a total of sixty Notgeld or 'emergency money' banknotes in the reference collection which belonged to the designer Charles Hasler. UCL student Sahava Baranow found out more about them.
Object Focus: Publicity, Packaging and Postcards
The particular details of everyday inspiration
Yemi Awosile: designer-maker
Find out about how Yemi's work was inspired by MoDA's Charles Hasler collection