My friend Patrick Burke, who has died aged 92, was a crusading and inspirational designer, teacher, novelist and sculptor who was head of graphic design at Ravensbourne College of Art in London for 12 years.
He was born in Ealing, west London, the elder son of Patrick Burke, an engineer’s toolmaker, and his wife, Leonora (nee Maud-Humfrey). Leaving Hayes county grammar school aged 17, he enrolled at Camberwell School of Art, specialising in graphic design and typography.
After graduating in 1951 he served an apprenticeship with HMV and then worked for a series of companies designing promotions and consumer goods. By 1958, with a reputation for striking graphics and exhibitions, he became head of industrial design for J Lyons and Co, creating furniture and interiors. He also designed the auditorium and sets for the May Fair theatre in London. In 1963 he launched his own freelance practice.
In 1967 Patrick began teaching part-time at Hornsey College of Art in north London as leader of its industrial design course, giving it a seismic redirection. In 1969 he became head of graphic design at Ravensbourne College of Art (now Ravensbourne University London), where he introduced radical improvements to the course.
To free students from conventional layout grids and give them insight into their own thinking, he introduced communication theory, semiology, kinesics, language systems and creative problem-solving strategies – including game playing and cryptic crosswords. The emphasis was always on divergent thinking.
In 1971 he was appointed editor of Icographic, the quarterly magazine of the International Council of Graphic Design Association, creating its design, writing, content and form for 15 issues up to 1979. Then after leaving Ravensbourne he taught courses in Israel, Canada and Ireland before retiring from teaching in 1995.
In 1980 he married Alison (nee Dunsmore). When in 1990 they moved to Ramsgate, Kent,he wrote a novel, Gullscliff, about a colourful sculptor, published in 1998. It prompted him to try sculpture himself, and thereafter he devoted his time both to writing and sculpture. His 2018 exhibition of drawings and carvings at the Pie Factory Gallery, Margate, was sensational.
I became friends with Patrick and Alison in Ramsgate. We often met at the Vinyl Head coffee house (now Eats ’n’ Beats), where people came to talk, rail at the Tories, discuss Ramsgate and art, and the latest devious clues in the day’s Guardian cryptic crossword. We both took part in the monthly poets’ performances in the cafe. He was warm, interesting, clever and funny.
Patrick is survived by Alison, by his daughter, Kirsten, from his earlier marriage to Marijke Singer, which ended in divorce, and by his stepchildren, Victoria and James.
