Funeral of Rex Ripley: The man who designed the logo for the launch of Yorkshire television

Yorkshire Post

Originally it was going to be a Yorkshire rose but then Rex Ripley was inspired by his simple ‘Y’ idea to enter the competition to design the logo for the launch of Yorkshire television in 1963.   Rex won which led to his Yorkshire Television ‘Chevron’ becoming an iconic emblem.  He earned 370 pounds and 10 shillings for designing the logo.   Rex, from Garforth, sadly died in February aged 93. His funeral took place today in Leeds with a vinyl of the chevron placed in the funeral vehicle.

Transcript

00:00 The funeral has taken place today of Rex Ripley, a wonderful man, 93 years old.

00:06 He was the man that designed the iconic yellow Yorkshire television chevron back in 1968 when

00:12 the channel launched. He got £370 and 10 shillings for his efforts, which was probably quite a lot

00:18 then back in the day. But I met him and I was lucky enough to meet him with John and Duncan

00:23 in 2018 on our 50th anniversary programme when he came into the Calendar Studio and

00:29 stayed in touch ever since. But one of the amazing things I've been finding out today

00:33 at his funeral, meeting all his family and friends, is what a positive, friendly, happy man

00:40 he was who everybody loved. He made friends wherever he went, he would meet someone in a cafe,

00:45 just get chatting to them, have breakfast with them and apparently walking down the streets of

00:50 Garforth where he lived, everyone would shout out "it's Mr Yorkshire Television" and he was

00:55 very proud of his links with the channel and the channel is very proud of its links with him. So

01:01 a life very well lived. Rest in peace, Rex Ripley.

01:05 So I'm joined now by Michael Ripley and Katie Wilkinson who are the son and daughter of Rex

01:13 Ripley and we've had his funeral this afternoon, the man that designed the iconic ITV, Yorkshire

01:19 Television chevron that was on our screens for over 30 years. What an amazing man your dad was.

01:26 How do you think he would like to be remembered? He was 93 when he sadly passed so our beloved

01:32 father had a lot of connections in Yorkshire so I think he'd like to be remembered for being a good

01:39 teacher, which he was, with lots of people who went on to do great things and he just had an

01:46 incredible long happy life. He was well known in Garforth as well, he was a bit of a celebrity in

01:51 Garforth for designing the Yorkshire TV logo so everybody knew him. We used to go to Wetherspoons,

01:57 Cookloons, Co-op and he used to always say "oh hello Rex" and that's it, he's a lovely man,

02:03 very lovely man and he was really smiling everywhere he went, he smiled. He was absolutely

02:07 brilliant, brilliant father to his own. Yeah he's very happy. Very happy, very happy man, lovely.

02:11 And I believe he was known by everyone as Mr Yorkshire Television. Yes he was, he was his tagline.

02:18 I know he designed it from a competition didn't he but he was a prolific graphic designer wasn't

02:25 he? Yeah. Tell us about his career because he designed many cards that we now see still in

02:30 our shops. Well he's got the, we found when we've been going to his studio about 300 or 400 cards,

02:36 different designs of everything and he had a couple of bestsellers and then he's just done

02:44 loads and loads of like Schofields and stuff like that for everybody like that. It's unbelievable

02:49 what he's been doing. And always a sense of humour. Yes, all the humourous cards, everything he did.

02:54 The iconic Chevron, it's a very simple idea, what was it though about it do you think that

03:01 captured everybody's imagination? Well my dad said when he was doing it, he said he was going

03:06 to do the Yorkshire White Rose but then he thought that was, everyone's going to do that but he just

03:12 thought this Y like for Yorkshire and he thought that would be more iconic to everything and also

03:17 it could do everything to it like in 321, like a Chevron going through like that. They could do it

03:24 in wood, in sculpture, metal, you know you can sort of design it. It's just a simple design,

03:28 simple design that could be created in any kind of format. Yeah, what a special one. It's something

03:34 everybody still remembers don't they? To this very day. But one of the great things is that he was

03:41 so proud of his links with Yorkshire Television. I remember meeting him when he came in for the 50th

03:46 anniversary and he was a joy to be with wasn't he? He was, he certainly was. And you paid tribute to

03:52 his links to Yorkshire Television today at his funeral, can you tell me how you did that?

03:55 Well we wrote to you as well, we wrote to Ian White and we just asked for a real good thing

04:03 for the end of the show and on the Monday he died, Ian White did a tribute to my dad at the end and

04:09 that was absolutely brilliant. It was only about a minute and a half or something like that but it

04:12 was so special, absolutely super. I was really touched by that one, what he did to us. But yeah,

04:17 it was just absolutely superb. And you had the Chevron on the funeral card didn't you? Yes,

04:20 that's right. Well I did that. The funeral card came up, I had a spare vinyl that I'd done for

04:25 the flowers and they said to me you can put it on the front of the vehicle so I did it. I put it on

04:30 the front of the vehicle, it took me two minutes but then they just said to me that's brilliant,

04:34 that'd be really iconic and people will stop and look at it and say that's brilliant. Well Michael

04:40 and Katie I'll get back to your guests here because everybody here is celebrating the life

04:45 of a wonderful man, a very positive, sunny man who brought such joy to all of us in our homes

04:50 for so many years. Well that sadly missed his funeral. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much.

04:55 Thank you. Thank you.

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