Dorrit Dekk, 1917-2014

All you need is love, plus POSB Investment Account, c.1960 by Dorrit Dekk

Dorrit Dekk was born Dorothy Fuhrmann in Brno, in today’s Czech Republic. As a Jewish artist, she moved to London in the late 1930s to escape persecution by the Nazis and served as a radio intelligence officer.

After the end of the Second World War, Dorrit worked as a government poster designer in the Central Office of Information. Within a few years, she became a freelancer with the professional name ‘Dorrit Dekk’.

She designed commercial posters for the Post Office Savings Bank (POSB), London Transport, P&O and Air France, among other businesses, and she also illustrated for Tatler Magazine and Penguin Books. Dorrit died in 2014. Naomi Games wrote her very affectionate obituary in the Guardian.

If you visited a post office in the swinging 60s, you might have seen this rather groovy poster on the wall by Dorrit Dekk. It was meant to get you thinking about opening an account with the Post Office Savings Bank.

'LOVE' was everywhere in the late 1960s. It's the biggest thing in the poster. The bride's dress turns the text into a giant arrow pointing to the bottom right-hand corner of the poster.

'All you need is love...' is familiar enough, but as our eye follows the arrow shape we reach the little addendum: '...plus a Post Office Savings Bank investment account'. The poster creates a tension between idealism and practicality.

The happily married couple are made in Dekk's home-made collage style. Weddings are expensive, and your future together isn't taken care of on your wedding day! The poster taps into all of our worries about planning for what's to come. But in a cheerful way.

Dorrit Dekk's signature in the top right-hand corner.

More by Dorrit Dekk

Here are 12 more Dorrit Dekk posters from our collections.

‘Warning: Is your wireless set licensed?’. PRD 547, 1949, POST 110/1236.
‘Save through the Post Office Savings Bank’. PH 899, 1950s, POST 110/4332.
‘Books of stamps save time’. PRD 837, 1956, POST 110/2525.
‘Cheer up! The outlook is brighter with money in the Post Office Savings Bank’. Unnumbered poster, c.1960, POST 110/4204.
‘For home makers’. Unnumbered poster, 1960s, POST 110/4195.
‘Save for something special’. Unnumbered poster, 1960s, POST 110/4196.
‘On pay day remember the Post Office Savings Bank’. Unnumbered poster, 1960s, POST 110/4201.
‘Planning ahead’. Unnumbered poster, 1960s, POST 110/4197.
‘A sense of security’. Unnumbered poster, 1960s, POST 110/4199.
‘On the up and up’. Unnumbered poster, 1960s, POST 110/4194.
‘A lot of interest for you’. Unnumbered poster, 1960s, POST 110/4193.
‘Save for something special: National Savings Bank at the Post Office’. Unnumbered poster, c.1969, POST 110/4200.