H A Rothholz Archive

The archive comprises correspondence and business papers, posters, and extensive artwork relating to his commissions. There are also some personal and student papers, including his diploma, sample assignments and letters of reference.

Hans Arnold Rothholz was born in Dresden in 1919. He arrived in Britain with his mother in 1933 and later enrolled at the Reimann School, where he studied commercial art and display design (1938-9), after study at the Willesden School of Art. During the Second World War, because of his German nationality, he was interned in Liverpool, on the Isle of Man and in Canada.

Back in London in 1942, Rothholz designed posters for various clients, among them the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and the Post Office. In the late 1940s he designed promotional material for Wembley Stadium including the Olympic Games of 1948. In 1951 he was commissioned to work on the Land Travelling Exhibition for the Festival of Britain. Other clients from this time include airlines BEA and BOAC, the tea company Perera, and the shoe company Splendida. A keen Scout, Rothholz designed the programme for the World Scout Jamboree when it was held in Britain in 1957. He designed murals and graphic schemes for the Bacon & Egg restaurants and the Grill & Cheese chain. Throughout the 1960s he re-branded Winsor & Newton art materials and towards the end of this decade, he created a new corporate identity for Wellcome to include pharmaceutical packaging, stationery and vehicle liveries.

It is arranged in the following series:

RHZ/1 Client and business papers

RHZ/2 Personal papers

RHZ/3 Printed material

RHZ/4 Posters

Researchers wishing to consult the collection should make an appointment. Telephone 44 (0)1273 643217 or email designarchives@brighton.ac.uk.

Transferred to the Design Archives by the Rothholz family in April 2008.

Collection level description created by Catherine Moriarty, 2008, and amended by Sue Breakell, 2010.

Permission must be sought to publish any material from the collection. Email designarchives@brighton.ac.uk.

Land Travelling Exhibition: See related files in the Design Council Archive and in the Natasha Kroll Archive (Kroll also designed components of this exhibition).

Suga, Yasuko "Modernism, Commercialism and Display Design in Britain: The Reimann School and Studios of Industrial and Commercial Art", Journal of Design History, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 137-154.

'Backgrounds to Dining', Art & Industry, vol. 61, no. 363, (September 1956) pp. 92-95.