Self-written biography
Joined Ceefax at its beginning in 1974 as news and general sub-editor, gradually developing the graphics side of things.
Eventually became full time graphic designer with Intelfax Ltd in 1986, designing for a wide range of teletext services, including Channel 4’s 4-Tel service and the popular 4-T cartoon series.
teletextart.co.uk bio
Ian Irving was chief designer in the budding Ceefax newsroom from 1974, expanding the service’s graphical output from simple headers and graphs to full-page graphics, forging the way for teletext art as we know it today.
His first baby, The Fantastic Adventures of 4-T, was conceived with a teletext dog he had drawn while at the BBC. Colin McIntyre, now acting as a consultant for Intelfax, suggested Irving turn it into a cartoon strip with the name 4-T, a play on the popular film dog K9.
Irving would go on to create hundreds of artworks for the service, including many for the in-vision broadcast 4-Tel on View. Off the back of his animations (or 4-Telimations) for that show, he was approached to create the Channel 4 children’s educational series Hands Up!, which would be made up entirely of teletext graphics.
— Dan
Interviews
Interview with teletextart.co.uk, published February 2023
Media
- Listen to Ian talk about his work on the Teletext R Podcast (April 2021).
- Listen to Ian on Carl’s Teletext People Podcast (November 2022).
- Watch Ian on the teletext artists panel at Teletext50 (September 2024)
Art samples
Links
- Home page – 4-T Bounds Back!
Recent Comments