As a female graphic designer in the 20th century, Dorrit Dekk, who has died aged 97, was a rarity. She began her career in the postwar years at the government’s Central Office of Information, where her public information posters conveyed such messages as “Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases” or “Bones Are Still Needed to Make Glue ...” Then, in 1949, she set up on her own as a freelancer, and became known as the “travel queen”, designing many posters for Air France and beginning a long professional relationship with the P&O shipping line.
Being an attractive woman usually working for male clients “confused the issue”, she said, so she learned not to accept invitations to discuss commissions over dinner. However, there were also advantages. The director of Air France would sometimes comment that she looked pale and could do with a holiday, then send her off to the South of France, gratis.
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