Alison Forbes
, b. 1933
Alison Forbes was born in Melbourne in 1933 and attended Camberwell Grammar School. In the early 1950s she undertook an illustration and design course at Melbourne Technical College. She worked on the Herald newspaper from 1953 as an illustrator for five years, during which time she freelanced after hours as a book designer. In 1963 she moved to the UK for ten years to work with Oxford University Press.
Alison Forbes was the first full-time independent book designer in Australia. Her career evolved over the transformative period of Australian publishing. She designed hundreds of books, including titles that are iconic in the development of Australian culture, including the first edition of Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967).
Neville Smith describes Alison Forbes as “a gifted young artist” on the flyleaf of Animal Talk and Other Stories.
Bio prepared by Margaret Bromley, mbromle5@une.edu.au, brom_ken@bigpond.net.au
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