In 1924 he moved to New York City to work in the publishing and advertising industry, initially as a freelance designer, illustrator, and magazine layout artist, and later as an art director;[1] he began using the pseudonym 'Zéró' in 1926, when he founded his own firm on Madison Avenue,[2][3] and would continue to use the name for the rest of his career.

He became an integral part of London's early 1930s avant-garde design community, and helped spread the aesthetics and philosophy of modernism in Britain.

[5][6] Among his most well known work is the London Transport bus-stop sign, which was commissioned in 1935 by Frank Pick, and is still in use today, largely unchanged from the original.

He created corporate identities, posters, and campaigns for companies such as Penguin Press,[12] John Lewis Partnership,[13] ICI, British Coal, Shell-Mex & BP,[14] Finmar Furniture,[15] the British Sugar Corporation, and the Edinburgh Festival,[16] and designed the triangular bottle for Glenfiddich and Grant's Scotch Whisky.

[17][18][19] He married Patricia Maycock (later known as Pat Schleger), also a graphic designer, in 1956, forming a husband and wife creative partnership.