"The Man Who Postered the Republic"
İhap Hulusi Görey was the founder of Turkish graphic design and one of the prominent names in advertising. İhap Hulusi Görey's most famous works were created for Turkish brands. He also designed the corporate identity of many Turkish state institutions, and in doing so contributed to the visual identity of the newly founded Republic of Turkey.
The son of the famous architect Ahmet Hulusi, İhap Hulusi was born in Egypt in 1898. İhap Hulusi's grandfather was a soldier in the service of the Egyptian Khedive. That's why the family came to Egypt, but shortly after the British occupation they returned to Istanbul.
İhap Hulusi attended primary and secondary school in Cairo. These were British schools. In 1917, he took correspondence lessons by mail from a German painter in Germany. In 1920, İhap Hulusi went to Germany and studied painting specializing in illustration between 1920-1925. He participated in an exhibition at the Galatasaray College exhibition hall with the works he had done in Germany.
He rejected a white-collar life and decided to make his living through painting.
His father pressured him to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs because of his language skills. He knew Arabic, German, English, and French. He couldn't stand against his father and worked at the Ministry for some time. Eventually, he rejected a white-collar life and decided to make his living through painting. He worked as a cartoonist along with Münif Fehim and Ramiz Gökçe at the magazine called Akbaba.
After a while, he focused on poster design. He received his first order for an advertising poster from İnci Toothpastes in 1927. In 1929, he opened his first studio because he was receiving many orders from different brands. In his studio, which was a first in Turkey and which İhap Hulusi Görey used until his death in 1986, he designed the famous bottle label for the rakı brand "Kulüp Rakısı". In 1932, he designed the cover of the ALFABE, taught for years in elementary schools, on the order of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
In 1935, İhap Hulusi opened his first solo exhibition in Beyoğlu.
He began to be recognized as Turkey's first graphic designer. Atatürk gave him a watch to honor his service on the 10th Anniversary of the Republic. In 1948, İhap Hulusi was awarded for his poster titled "Bursa and İzmir" at the International Poster Exhibition in Vienna. This award was the first poster award received abroad by a Turkish designer.
İhap Hulusi died at age 88 in his apartment in Şişli. His works are still an important milestone and inspire Turkey's modern graphic design.
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The first private studio
İhap Hulusi, who used a commercial narrative language as well as humor in his designs, opened his first private studio in 1929 when he started receiving many newspaper ads and posters following his groundbreaking work.
İhap Hulusi, who worked for 45 years for Teyyare Piyangosu (today's Milli Piyango) and 35 years for the State Monopoly Administration, designed the cover image of the first alphabet written in Latin letters in our country (Atatürk, Ülkü 1932), and served Ziraat Bankası, İş Bankası, Yapı Kredi, Garanti, Sümerbank, Emlak Kredi, Türk Ticaret Bankası, the Ministry of Finance (bonds), the Turkish Aeronautical Association, the Red Crescent, the Green Crescent, Tariş, the Agricultural Equipment Institution, and many private organizations with his various works. During this period, İhap Hulusi also made a name for himself abroad.
The posters and labels for Bayer (1932), the posters and ads of Egypt's State Monopoly Administration, State Railways, and City Lines, the posters and labels of the famous British whisky John Haig, and the Italian Cirzano and Fernet Brenca were all done by İhap Hulusi.
Both an artist and a psychologist
I'd like to share a passage from the countless writings I've read about İhap Hulusi with you. Journalist-writer Fatih Türkmen says: "He is a poster painter, an artist, and a psychologist. He addresses people exhausted by the troubles of daily life. He is an educator who instills the appreciation of art into the masses in its broadest sense."
For two years, we have been working on the İhap Hulusi Görey Visual Arts Museum, which is planned to be opened in order to know him and introduce him to wider audiences. We are minting commemorative stamps and coins for his 100th anniversary. Everything is for the master whose every word lives today, who put his sweat and labor into it...
When we look at the master's works, this work was not easy in that era. As if it weren't him who created and produced these... That silent simplicity in his art... Sometimes when I'm classifying and arranging his works, I feel like saying, "Master, what amazing things you've made." It's impossible not to be moved. After all, in our country, while there are "artists" who cry as if singing songs even at forty days old...
