My wife, Maureen Roffey, who has died aged 87, began her career in 1959 when her graduation exhibition at the Royal College of Art in London made an impression. Though she went on to become an illustrator of children’s books, she did much else on the way.
FHK Henrion, the most successful graphic designer in the UK, offered her a position in his company. But Maureen had a better offer: as a designer at Associated-Rediffusion Television. The work involved the design of title sequences for programmes such as Murder in Shorthand (1962), illustrations for the company magazine Fusion, and huge window displays for their central London premises in Kingsway, Holborn. Rediffusion Television, broadcasting on weekdays, was five years old, and the only London rival to the BBC.
The graphic design studio at Rediffusion had a happy-go-lucky atmosphere, where all the designers could manage their freelance work. So Maureen made contacts. It was a period of dynamic magazine production, and she made drawings for the men’s magazine Town. Its art director Tom Wolsey also got her involved in the design of clothes tickets for Mary Quant, who in 1963 was then at her zenith. They were typical of Maureen’s drawings – light and funny – and were featured in the 2020 Mary Quant exhibition at the V&A.
I was also working as a graphic designer in TV – at the BBC – and we got married in 1960. She quit Rediffusion in 1963 when she was pregnant with David, the first of our three children. When he was two years old, David made drawings that had a naive charm and influenced Maureen’s illustrations for her first book, Who Killed Cock Robin?, published by Bodley Head in 1971.
For more than 50 years she was a freelance illustrator, and produced almost 100 books. Some were obviously children’s subjects, including Look, There’s My Hat (1984), Mini Beasty’s Itch (1993) and Family Flip Flap (1990). Many were pop-up editions. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor (1976) and The Grand Old Duke of York (1975), made fun of the military men and the pompous duke.
She drew a series of basic baby stories, printed on thick card, for the Lego company that were sold with its Lego pieces. There was a design for a PG Tips ad campaign that was displayed on double decker buses. She also started to produce toys, cardboard doll’s houses and a Noah’s ark, which were interactive, for children to press out and assemble. Her last book project was a revised version of Family Flip Flap, in 2019.
Maureen was born in Eltham, south-east London, the only child of Eva (nee Starling) and Bert Roffey. Bert studied decorative design and became a senior design supervisor at the construction company Cubitt.
Our family home – for many years in Surbiton, south-west London – was an “arty” one. Growing up, our children sat in Maureen’s studio playing with bits of paper, and all three went on to work in art and design, as did our four grandchildren.
Maureen is survived by me and our children, David, Josephine and Katherine, and grandchildren, Ben, Louis, Eli and Sofia.
