Graphical House director Colin Raeburn tells Grafik about growing up in a house surrounded by the big red T logo of Tennent’s brewery (although not for the reason you might think), and how the sturdy logo has continued to mean something to him down the years.
I have a strange relationship with the bright red upper case ‘T’ of Tennent’s brewery. Growing up in the 1970s and 80s it was emblazoned across a multitude of objects in our home. Milk jug, tea towels, salt and pepper shakers, ashtrays, clocks, even the pen I sat my exams with carried the scarlet letter. That pen is still in my desk drawer – I later found out that it was a Parker designed by Sir Kenneth Grange, which is possibly why I keep it, sentimentality apart.
Our home was like the Grapes, though we didn’t own a pub and weren’t really familiar with them growing up – my parents rarely, if ever, drank – but if you add in the horse brasses the house did a reasonable impersonation of an old Scottish boozer. The reason for this? My Dad was in sales and delivery for the Tennent’s brewery for almost twenty-five years. A promotion in 1971 took the family to Dundee – it’s why I have this accent. Everything that had some sort of capital ‘T’ branding was test run on the family.
At primary school our teacher once asked us to draw what our parents did for a living. I drew a delivery truck. Dark green livery with a bright red ‘T’ on the side, kegs of beer on the back. The drawing sat for years pinned to a gigantic map of the north-east of Scotland in the depot. In pre-computer days each delivery was recorded on a flag and stuck to the map on the location where it was to be sent.
For me the ‘T’ has strong memories of this time. It’s a brand that smells of stale beer, cigarettes and diesel. It resounds of clanking kegs, chatter and radio music. It has roots more akin to the blue star of Newcastle Brown or the iconic triangular Bass logo – with its incongruous cameo in Manet’s Bar at the Folies-Bergere. Its form is symmetrical, heavy but balanced, like a liner’s mass distributed evenly over its keel.
My Dad passed away the month before I started studying graphic design: another relationship started then and has lasted almost twenty-five years too. It’s given me friends, colleagues, a workplace, a livelihood and it’s supported my family. Often we end the week with a drink in the bar across the road and sometimes my pint glass has a bright red ‘T’ on the side.
graphicalhouse.co.uk
Graphical House
….is a design consultancy located in Glasgow producing thoughtful and beautifully crafted work across digital, analogue and environmental media, with clients including the BBC, Paul Smith and Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Art.
Tennent’s Lager
…was first brewed in Scotland in 1885 but hasn’t always had a big red ’T’ as the most distinctive feature on its cans: the sides of the cans used to have images of female models, nicknamed the ‘The Lager Lovelies’, printed on them right up until 1989.