Rufus Segar

Rufus Segar (28 August 1932 – 7 May 2015) was an English anarchist illustrator and graphic designer. He was born in Ipswich, Suffolk in England. His father's occupation as a pharmacist resulted in the family moving a lot in England and eventually to the North Wales coast. Segar initially attended grammar school and then enrolled on a course in the Liverpool College of Art. Following graduation in 1953, he and Sheila Bullard, his then-girlfriend, later to became his wife, moved to London. In 1961, while working for an advertising agency, he began to design the covers for the anarchist magazine Anarchy over ten years, for which he received critical acclaim. From 1964 to 1982, Segar worked freelance for the Economist Intelligence Unit. When he retired in the 1990s, he moved to Saltwood in Kent and then to Pershore in Worcestershire. He and his wife were life-long anarchists.

Early life Rufus Segar was born in Ipswich in Suffolk, England, on 28 August 1932, the second son of Eric and Ethel . He described his father as an "an itinerant pharmacist". The family moved a lot during his childhood, "as his father moved across the country setting up various ill-starred business ventures". They moved to Walsall in 1936, Bilston in 1938, and Bristol in 1939. In 1946, they moved to Colwyn Bay on the North Wales coast, from where, two years later, they moved fourteen miles east to Prestatyn.

Segar recalled that, at least at the age of 10 or 12 years old, he was convinced that he wanted to become a cartoonist. He initially attended Rhyl Grammar School, where he took an A-level in mathematics, and then attended St. Asaph Grammar School, where he took an A-level in art. While there, his teacher led him to enrol on a four-year course in the Liverpool College of Art, which he did in 1949. The course was split into halves. For the second half, students were asked to choose a discipline of applied art from about eight options. Seegar enrolled for illustration. He recalled in an interview which independent graphic designer Daniel Poyner undertook with him at home in 2009: 'At that time the idea of illustration was a book with maybe one picture on the cover and five or six inside, and that was an illustrated book. I said "bloody nonsense". I was much more interested in techniques like aquatinting, etching, engraving, lithography, block-making, tone and line process work. And so I did all of those things. I gave myself a brief of roving about what other people did. I went off to pottery and went off to theatre design, to textiles, and just roved.'

While Segar was a student in Liverpool, he moved into an anarchist collective in Upper Parliament Street, where he met Sheila Bullard, like him an anarchist, whom he later married.

Work in the private sector Segar graduated from the Liverpool College of Art in 1953, after which the members of the collective moved to London, where they shared a flat in Hackney. Soon after moving into the flat, he married Bullard and they started a family. The flat became crowded. Consequently Segar and his family moved to a flat in Pimlico.

Segar initially got a job as a box designer for Hunt Partners in Clapton. In 1955, he was imprisoned for three months for refusing to perform National Service on the grounds that, as an anarchist, "he could never obey an order to kill". Rupert Segar, his son, documented that, while in prison, his father "was head librarian, made chess sets for the warders and learned to roll cigarettes one-handed". Segar's second job was as an assistant designer in advertising for Horatio Myer & Co Ltd in Vauxhall. Three years later, he got a job in S.H. Benson in Kingsway, which he described as "a top rank advertising agency". However, he recalled: "You're nowhere, just an assistant in the system. I watched that for three years, just seeing how it worked, then I said, 'It's not for me.

In 1961, while Segar was working for S.H. Benson, he also worked freelance, illustrating books. From 1964 to 1982, he freelanced for the Economist Intelligence Unit, as an illustrator and graphic designer. In 1965, Segar had published his first book, Cockney Alphabet, a parody in which he cited the British comedy duo Clapham and Dwyer. In 1973, while he was working for the Unit, he joined a group of agents and illustrators to campaign for the safe return of their work after the completion of a commission. A committee was formed, in which Segar was a member, which created the Association of Illustrators. Also while working in the Unit, Segar designed the 136-page book Atlas of Europe - A profile of Western Europe, which was published jointly in 1974 by John Bartholomew and Frederick Warne. Segar recalled that he designed the book to be updated "statistically every two or three years." But no new edition was published, which he attributed to the cut to "the budget for further education [which] was aimed at six form upwards", which Margaret Thatcher implemented in her capacity as the Secretary of State for Education and Science.

Designing the covers for Anarchy magazine In 1961, Segar encountered Colin Ward. He began in April by designing the second issue of Anarchy which Ward had started, in Segar's words, "as a foil to Freedom". Ward recalled in his discussion with David Goodway:

From Issue Six onwards, Segar became the magazine's resident art director. He designed the covers of the issue in isolation from their contents and without any input from Ward, albeit while working to a tight deadline. Segar explained the process as follows:

Segar briefly briefly commented upon the context in which he worked and the quality of the covers:

The involvement of Segar with Anarchy came to a close when, as he recalled: "Colin lost interest in the magazine when he got to volume ten. There was a change in management style and in size, format, and technique too." Segar continued:

Tributes Segar's covers were published in their entirety by Hyphen Press in the 2012 book Autonomy: The Cover Designs of Anarchy 1961–1970, edited by Daniel Poyner. Kossoff (2016) opined: Anarchist author David Goodway (2012) described the covers as "superb". Graphic designer Richard Hollis (2012) observed: "Anarchy's covers stand out as a significant record of the early years of graphic design in Britain." Anarchist academic Sophie Scott-Brown (2023) described the front covers as "iconic" and opined: "the journal's success owed much to Segar".

Retirement Segar initially retired with his wife to Saltwood in Kent, where they lived in the 1990s. In 1992, he had published his book Remember Hythe The High Street 1902-1992 for The Hythe Civic Society.

Segar and his wife became friends with Mike Umbers, the editor of the newsletter of the nearby Hythe Civic Society, and his wife. Segar worked voluntarily as an illustrator for the Society. Umbers recalled: "... he was an entertaining conversationalist and we enjoyed supper and garden parties, setting the world to rights together." He cited Segar's production of a card, book Remember Hythe The High Street 1902-1992, for the Society, which was published by the MacSegar Press in Kent. He described his contributions of the extremely detailed designs of the covers for its newsletter, several of which are illustrated.

Around 1999, Segar and his wife moved to Pershore in Worcestershire to be near their children and grandchildren. In 2001, he collaborated with anarchist Donald Rooum on an obituary of anarchist psychologist Tony Gibson.

Segar died suddenly on 7 May 2015 at the age of 82, after a fall down the stairs at home. He was survived by his wife; his three sons, Rupert, BJ and Dan; and his two grandchildren. Rupert Segar recalled that his father's greatest love "was reserved for the books he illustrated ... all enriched with his visual wit.

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