A few memories from my years at AFGL:  we were located at 425 Bush St. on the 3^rd floor—we had most of the floor while a competitor, Doremas Advertising occupied the rest.  P&H art was on the 4^th floor and P&H typographers were on the 5^th as I recall.  I worked frequently with Tom Hall and Chet Patterson and with their type shop.  Our manager until the mid 60s was Lucrecia Kemper, an eccentric 6’ 2” lady who wore enormous hats and had a reserved table at the Palace Hotel, where she dined everyday with clients.  During the holidays she invited the staff to join her—what a treat!  She had worked on the United Nations formation in 1945, handling PR and knew everybody in town.  She knew beans about advertising and once told Harvey Ward, a new client and amateur golf champion, that he had to pay less attention to golf and more to business (I was there and almost fell off my chair).  Sadly she became senile and the two VPs took over management—Richard Cruikshank and Richard Kreuzer.  She kept her title, office and secretary for a few more years till she retired. In the early 60s AFGL was asked by Bank of America (a client) to put on our payroll a fellow from Cuba.  Tony had been the ambassador to Spain under Batista and had fled during the revolution; through contacts at the bank he went to work for us as a courier, sharing an office with me.  He was the best dressed and best groomed employee in the office.  Tony left us before we moved in 1968 to spiffier offices on Sutter St., in the remodeled old White House building.

Before I joined the agency Dick Kreuzer was handling art and production and getting more involved in account handling.  The agency hired Eulalie Fuller as production manager shortly before I joined.  We had several copywriters/AEs over time—Eddy Bennett, Bob Connolly, Bob Johnston, Larry Larson, Ralph Grady and Bill Robin.  Other production managers who came and went included:  Alice Wells, Jane McKenzie, John Madden and Shawn Miller.  I was the only art director.  Some of the free lance artists and photographers I worked with back then:  Bob Thorsen, Bob Tamura, Ed Gross, Al Joe, Lon Fox, Lowell Herrero, Bayne Kihneman, Nick Carter, Ted Castle, and many I can’t remember.  Our branch office usually employed about 20–24 people and when we closed there were about 15 of us.

In the early 70s we had a tiny client named Charles Schwab & Co.  Mr. Cruikshank who was by then sole manager advised Dick Kreuzer, the AE, to get rid of that client—it was too small and required too much time.  He was right, but Dick K. was even more right—he saw the growth potential.  When Foote Cone closed the AFGL office in 1978 Chuck Schwab asked Dick K. to open an agency to serve his account, he did and asked me to join him, which I did.  Boy, were we smart!  It proved to be an exciting and rewarding 10 years.  Dick Kreuzer moved to Oregon after he retired in 1987…my wife and I visited him and his wife there every year until his death in 2004.  Dick Cruikshank passed away a couple of years after that, he was a great guy to work for.  After I retired I painted watercolors and showed my work in galleries and entered shows.  I’m a member of the California Watercolor Assoc. (along with Al Joe and David Broad) and served on its board for many years.  I’m not active with the Association anymore and don’t enter many shows, but I occasionally get a commission to paint a landscape or portrait.  I enjoy painting plein air, especially when traveling to Alaska and Washington to visit two of my sons and grandkids, or on vacation trips.  Last October I traveled with three sons (no wives) to France where I enjoyed painting in Honfleur on the Normandy coast.

I still keep in touch with Vicky Quattro and Eulalie Fuller Glaser from AFGL.  On a personal note, in addition to three sons I have one daughter and a five year old grandson living here in Walnut Creek.  Two of my sons each have two children, ages 10 to 16.  I don’t have any work samples handy from the AFGL days…some are probably packed in the attic but I have no desire to get up there.

I’d never get a job in advertising these days, nor would I want one.  Everything is so high tech now and from my “Old Geezer” point of view the quality of the ads do not compare with the golden days of advertising—the 1960s.  I’ve never made the picnic because we’re either traveling or it’s my wife’s birthday, maybe I’ll make it this year.  My regards to the Old Geezers who might remember me.

Regards, 

(Dee) Wayne White 2/1/12

Richurd Somers

I was there with Larry Duke (a genius art director and later Levis Poster, etc. Illustrator). Our chosen actor for our commercial was Pat Buttrum (Gene Autry’s former movie side kick). Mr. Buttrum was currently appearing in a T.V. series called Green Acres (starring Ava Gabor, etc.). It was about city folk who buy a farm. Their neighbor was Pat Buttrum. So we figured he was perfect to sell Bux to the farming community.

We went to dinner the night before the “shoot” and across the restaurant Mr. Buttrum spies an old friend, singer “?” Robert Goulet—who was appearing at that great Omaha venue, The Aksarben Theater (that’s Nebraska spelled backwards, get it?). So the two of them wander off to partake of way too many drinks.

Cut to the next day, when we stop to ask some farmer on a dirt road for directions to one particular corn field in an area of cornfields as far as you can see in any direction. As the farmer is pointing, Pat Buttrum opened the back door of the car and puked on that poor farmer’s shoes. We could only imagine how proud the farmer must have felt when he went home tracking vomit into the house and proudly announcing that Pat Buttrum from Green Acres puked on his shoes not more than10 minutes ago.

I won’t go into the video cameraman’s concern with color adjustment saying, “there must be something wrong with this equipment.…I can’t get that green cast out of Mr. Buttrum’s face”. It was that green of someone who’d been up drinking all night. And I won’t elaborate further by discussing how many chickens Mr. Buttrum sat on when making himself comfortable sitting on those bags of Bux Cornrootworm Insecticide).

Todd Miller

…will be showing from December 2nd to December 31st in Gallery 11 at the ICB, 480 Gate Five Road, Sausalito, CA

‘Artist’s Shoes’ exhibit honors Sausalito’s Frances Galli

By Vicki Larson
Marin Independent Journal (link to IJ article) 12/1/2011

Frances Galli in her studio at Sausalito’s ICB Art Center.  Galli, who passed away in September at age 92, is being honored by her fellow ICB artists with an exhibit,‘Walk in an Artist s Shoes.’

The artists who worked with and were inspired by the late Frances Galli would say no one could fill her shoes.

But for one month, everyone’s invited to “walk” in them.

“Walk in an Artist’s Shoes,” an exhibit to honor the artist who had a studio at Sausalito’s ICB Art Center for nearly 25 years, features dozens of fanciful shoes-cum-artworks. The former Kentfield resident passed away in September at age 92.

“Her life was about art. She was an artist through and through,” says Suzie Buchholz, an abstract painter who shared a studio with Galli for about three years and was her studio neighbor for many more. “She was always pushing the envelope and doing something new
Frances Galli’ ‘Shoes #3,’ oil on canvas and painted in 2006, will be on display in ‘Walk in an Artist’s Shoes.‘
and learning. She had a sense of style and a vibrancy.”

Adds fellow ICB artist Kristen Garneau, “Her work ethic was really sort of amazing. Right up until a week before she passed away, she would be in her studio every day at 10 o’clock on the dot.”

There are some 48 shoes in the exhibit and sale, all crafted by Marin artists, that can be seen at ICB’s annual Winter Open House on Dec. 3 and 4, and throughout December. Decorated with fiber art, collage, stained glass, paint, Swarovski crystals, hardware, feathers, photographs and rhinestones, no two pairs of shoes are alike.

“You never know what you’re going to get when you give instructions to artists,” Buchholz says, laughing.

All are for sale (prices range from $50 to $600), with some artists donating the proceeds to their favorite charity.

“All these shoes look like the people,” says Garneau, the exhibit’s curator. “I don’t think anything in our space has looked like this.”

Garneau got the idea for the exhibit when she visited Galli in the hospital shortly before she died.

“I was holding her hand and I was struck with how many things this hand had done,” the Mill Valley resident says. “I was so grateful that my life’s path had brought me to her and I thought of … her shoe paintings, and of all of our shoes that led us to this place.”

Shoes are an appropriate tribute. Galli loved fashion and created a series of paintings of shoes, many inspired by a collection of embroidered silk Chinese shoes she had in her studio, including 2006’s “Shoes #3,” which is included in the exhibit.

“Shoes were about Frances trying a different direction, moving away from the wide-angle landscapes and the naive primitive figures and going more to detail,” Buchholz says. “For her, it was about creating something that was pleasing, that brought a smile to your face,”

Buchholz has done the same for her shoe artwork. She’s been incorporating kites in her mixed-media installations for years, so it’s no surprise her contribution features five miniature kites hovering above a pair of bright red shoes.

“Kites represent opportunity, hope and, I guess, possibility, more than anything,” the San Rafael resident says. “There’s something really happy about a kite.”

Garneau’s artwork is a pair of painted cowboy boots. “I’m a landscape painter so for me to go to 3-D was really out of the box. But it was fun.”

So, what’s it like to walk around in an artist’s shoes? “Artists are attuned to different things as they move through life. My husband and I hike a lot, and usually he’s focused on speed and distance and I’m kind of looking at the way a shaft of light comes between two branches on a tree,” Buchholz says.

For Garneau, it’s more a matter of expression. Art “requires an audience. So whether it’s dance or music or writing, all require something at the other end to be able to see it. Each of us has our own individual voice and our own passion,” she says. “In Frances Galli’s case, her paintings were really of very simple things taken to a level of a certain kind of beauty because that’s how she walked in the world.“

Vicki Larson can be reached at vlarson@marinij.com; follow her on Twitter at @OMGchronicles, fan her at on Facebook at Vicki-Larson-OMG-Chronicles.

if you go

What: ICB Winter Open Studios
When: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 3 and 4; reception 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 2
Where: Industrial Center Building, 480 Gate Five Road, Sausalito
Admission: Free
Information: 331‑2222; www.icbartists.com
More: “Walk in an Artist’s Shoes” will be on exhibit at the ICB Gallery 11 through Dec. 31

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180761317692#ht_500wt_1287

Just in case you thought your old work was worthless or you just can’t get enough of Marget.

Ivan Karp of O K Harris offered me a show after seeing my mixed-media works in the book Identity Papers.  These are small pieces, 10” tall x 6” wide, made up of sketches, hand-cut paper calligraphy,  Unlike most of my paintings, many contain elements of recognizable imagery. I am very pleased to be showing in a gallery with such a rich and important history.

Ivan Karp served as co-director of Leo Castelli Gallery from 1959–1969, during which time he was instrumental in launching the careers of pop artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg,  Tom Wesselmann and John Chamberlain. In 1969, Ivan broke away to launch his own gallery, O K Harris. OK Harris was among the first to exhibit the work of Duane Hanson, Deborah Butterfield, Manny Farber, Richard Pettibone, Robert Bechtle, Malcolm Morley, Arman, and others.
My wife, Vivienne Flesher, and I look forward to attending the opening, 3–5 pm, Saturday, 29 October.
The show remains up until 03 December.
O K Harris | 383 West Broadway | Gallery D | New York, NY

Geography Lessons | Zeitgeist | Nashville
Opening Thursday 03 November 2011 5-8pm

Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville will mount a show of my work, Geography Lessons, during the month of November.
Zeitgeist has been very kind, giving me one of my first shows, Grace, in 2005, and including me in a number of its group shows. This exhibit consists of ten paintings and three hand-made books. My wife and I look forward to attending the opening, 5–8 pm, Thursday, 03 November.
The show remains up until 17 December.
Zeitgeist Gallery | 1819 21st Avenue South | Nashville, TN

Sight and Identity | Stanford-in-Washington | Washington, DC
25 October 2011 to 22 January 2012

My illustrated version of Paris France by Gertrude Stein appeared in the Seeing Gertrude Stein Five Stories exhibit at San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum and will now move to Washington, DC, to appear in Insight and Identity, Contemporary Artists and Gertrude Stein, at Stanford-in-Washington.  Beside the book itself, my portrait of Ms. Stein will appear, silkscreened, on the wall of the gallery where the book will be on display.
The limited edition letterpress book was published and is available from The Yolla Bolly Press, Covelo, California.

Stanford-in-Washington | 2661 Connecticut Avenue, NW | Washington, DC

One day in the 1960s Jack Allen and I were having one of our periodic, vinous, Friday lunches at Venetos, near his studio. After copious amounts of red wine, I mentioned the agency’s (Johnson & Lewis) urgent need to come up with a savings ad for Bank of America. our largest client.
Savings ads were notoriously and inherently boring, but I had the glimmering of an idea.

Ad: “Jack, what if we had the reading of a will, with all the rich uncle’s household gathered in the lawyer’s office? Maybe we could use Belli’s office.”

Jack: “We could cast it right now. Let’s get a phone.”

Between us, we came up with the cast:
The lawyer: Wally Brazeal, an ad rep, perched on the edge of Belli’s desk, looking lawyerly.
The widow: a very proper older model from Ann Demeter’s agency, with lorgnette and fox fur.
The heir: A young nephew, played by Tom Rice, an art student, in preppy horn rims.
The butler: Mr. Lancaster, formerly of the French Opera Company, tall, white haired elderly gent in full butler’s regalia.
The chauffeur: Homer Welch in proper livery, carrying the widow’s Pekinese dog.
The mistress: Pat Mahan, model from Al Duartís agency, ravishingly sexy in bouffant blond wig, black dress, pearls, cigaret holder, and a fabulous fur from Roberts Brothers.
Everyone except the lawyer and the heir looked pissed off, including the Pekinese.

The heir was beaming, he was getting the money!
When we called to get permission to use his office, Belli was enthusiastic.
We scheduled the shoot for Saturday morning, the next day. Milt Halberstadt signed on as lighting consultant. Belli came with his infant son, Caesar.
The shoot went well. We got the film rushed to processing. We took Pat, still in character, to the Temple Bar where a boyfriend tended bar. He didn’t recognize her at first.

Sunday I wrote the copy.
Monday morning I sent out for a rush C-print and specified the type. Monday afternoon, I pasted up of the finished comp.

Bright and early Tuesday morning, I took the ad into Dan Lewis’ office.
Dan: “Where the hell did this come from?”
Ad: “Jack Allen and I ran it off over the weekend.”
Dan: “How much are you in for on this?”
Ad: “I figure about $3,000 in expenses.”
Dan: “I better take this up to the Bank myself.”

He did and presented it to Charlie Stuart, BofA vice president for advertising.
Charlie loved it. (Thank God!)
It ran a long time, won an award in the L.A. Art Director’s show, and I think everyone got paid.
Ad Taylor

Paintings

In the 1950’s I was the Creative Director for Botsford, Constantine and Gardner, San Francisco office. My favorite account was Japan Air Lines. We had a very sound creative strategy to market the airline to Americans, based on research from Doctor Dichtor (an early social researcher). Simply put: don’t talk about equipment, even though it was from Boeing and McDonald Douglas); don’t talk about the cockpit crew (even though they were mostly Americans); don’t talk about Japanese efficiency. Do talk about Japanese arts, crafts and culture. And by all means, remind the Americans that Japanese women were the most charming, well mannered and helpful in the world.

Japan Air Lines, through the influence of Mike Sloan (the Botsford Japan Air Lines Account Supervisor), sent me on an Arts and Culture tour of their (then) destinations including Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Japan. I concentrated on Kyoto, Nara and Nikko–three cities that did not suffer too much bombing that also are important religious and cultural centers in Japan. What I learned on this trip had everything to do with my design of the Japan Air Lines logo.

In 1957. Japan Air Lines asked Botsford, Constantine and Gardner to create a new logo and livery. It was unusual that a large corporation would go to their advertising agency for this kind of design work. This type of assignment was usually the purview of design firms like Raymond Lowey or Walter Landor. Many airplane manufacturers offered logo deign as part of their contracts (Japan Air Lines used MacDonald Douglas as well). I was doubly pleased that it landed in my lap because I had a design in mind.

When I travelled in Japan I was impressed that the branding business had been going on there for hundreds of years, especially for the Samurai families, whose crests adorned practically everything the family owned. The one I chose for Japan Air Lines was a crane attributed to the Mori family. Working with my designer, Reg Jones, we modernized it and created a handsome presentation book with hard cover and French paper. The content of the book was the art of the logo and its application to aircraft, ground equipment, stationery, documents, point-of-purchase, etc.–twenty-four pages in all.

A meeting was scheduled to show our stuff. I wish I could remember the month and day–all I recall is that it was very hot and humid in Tokyo. The meeting place was on the fifth floor in a rather dingy office building. The conference room was in a corner of a large room packed with people, many women. When the door was opened, we saw a 12’ x 16’ room dominated by a long table at which sat about a dozen men who looked at us as if we had interrupted them. I remember there was a group hiss. The most striking feature, though, was the mass of logo sketches, drawings, paintings and even some plaster bas reliefs covering the walls and table, ending instantly our belief that ours was the only logo being considered.

Seats were found for us as the discussion continued, giving us a chance to study the designs. None of them were in any way outstanding. They mostly seemed to be versions of the Lufthansa speed bird. Finally the Japanese conversation ceased and our contact asked us to show what we had done. It took about ten minutes. It all had to be interpreted and I didn’t know anybody in the audience or what their interest in the project was. Their expressions were, of course—inscrutable. Mike Sloan finished with thanks. We sat down—I was soaked!

The discussion continued for the rest of the that day into the late afternoon of a second day when the Japan Air Lines President came into the room with a small entourage. There was much bowing. He seated himself and our book was laid before him and the interpreter turned the pages for him and rendered the explanation. It took about eight minutes though by then I was unable to measure time. When the President finished he said something, stood up—more bowing—and walked out. The meeting was over. Everyone gathered their papers to leave.

Mike asked the interpreter what the president had said. It was something like, “America is our most important market. Americans know best what Americans like, so tell the men from our American advertising agency we accept their design”.

The crane (Tsurumaru in Japanese) flew for over forty years—almost a record. It was replaced in 1989 by a Walter Landor design, modified radically in 2002, again by Landor.

The big news was announced by Japan Air Lines’ president on January 19,2011, “ The JAL Group today will adopt a new corporate policy and announces its decision to change its logo from April 1, 2011” going on to say, “The motif that will be used is of a soaring red crowned crane with its wings extended in full flight, an auspicious icon representing the high spirits of the Japanese people and their sensitive attention to detail.”

Funny thing. The date they said the crane/logo returns would start on April 1st, 2011, my 84th birthday.

Jerry Phillip Huff
August 25, 2011

Illustration from The Way of the Samurai. Note the Crane design.

The original Mori Samari family creast the inspiration

The Japan Air Lines Logo design presented by Mike Sloan & Jerry Huff in Tokyo in 1957.

The final version used for 40 years –dropped for 13 and reintroduced in 2011

A double page magazine ad appeared in Look, Life, Time, Newsweek and featured a real hostess in full Kimona.

Robert Evans

In the 1970s’, I was a Creative Director for Scroggin, Reed Advertising in S.F., and we acquired a new account called Westcoaster Golf Carts. Later, Otis Elevator Co. bought Westcoaster, and suddenly the ad budget skyrocketed. We created an ongoing national ad campaign, including brochures and specification folders requiring a multitude of photographs. We decided that with a substantial annual budget, we could now approach a dynamic golf star to endorse the golf cart, and photograph him with the product.  Lee Trevino was one of most charismatic and popular golf stars the sport had ever seen, and he was our first choice. After an hour of negotiations, myself and the account executive cut a $400,000. deal with Lee Trevino Enterprises, which was his endorsement ventures, separate from his golf profession. Lee was actually the last to know about it, since his manager did all the endorsement negotiations, and had authority to okay the deal. Lee signed it, and we had our man in the bag, so to speak. Technically, we had our man in an Otis Elevator golf cart, with a different beautiful model each time we scheduled a photo session. The photo sessions had to dovetail with Lee’s pro-am tournament schedule, where he didn’t have the pressure of playing against the top pros. I had to follow a star golfer around the various courses, with a photographer, a beautiful model and an Otis Elevator golf cart during the pro-am tournaments. Well, someone had to do the tough assignments! When he had a spare 30 minutes or so, I would find a scenic location for the cart, pose the model and Lee inside or outside the cart in various situations.. while fans looked on with interest. Lee was amiable, cheerful, told jokes and would flirt with the model, who eagerly flirted back. He lived up to his reputation as a ladies man and a fun loving, easy going guy.

Lee had been in the Marine Corps, and had the Marine Corps symbol of an eagle and globe tattooed on his arm. In most of the photos, part of the tattoo showed. The owner of the agency became concerned, and wanted to have the tattoo airbrushed out, before the client saw the photos. My dad was a “leatherneck” Marine as a young man, and I knew the pride and independent attitude that is typical of a Marine. I knew that tattoo was probably a source of pride to Lee, and he wouldn’t understand airbrushing it out. It was a part of who he was. I took the photos to be approved without removing the tattoo, hoping the client would not find it a problem. As it turned out, not only was it NOT a problem, but the client had also been in the Marine Corps, and thought it added character to the endorsement. So, “Trevino’s tattoo” remained, and appeared throughout the campaign. Later I found out that Lee had a tattoo of his first wife’s name removed from his forearm, but apparently that was before. Getting approvals from the client was “a walk in the park” after that, and Lee gave up a total of about 20 (twenty) hours of his time to earn almost a half a million dollars, which his manager requested be spread out over a four year period ($100, 000. per year) for tax purposes. Lee’s 20 hours of time fell within the first six months of the contract, and then his obligation was essentially over. Not bad for a guy who started working in the cotton fields of Texas, at age five.

Norman Nicholson

Murray Hunt

Murray Hunt

Recently, my 23 year old cousin in Finland was asking me to help her with her English for her scientific paper on (of all things) “Gene-by-environment interactions and phenotypic effects of temperature on the immune defense and life-history traits in Tenebrio molitor”...the mealworm!
I was about five years older than my cousin, when I, too, was handling mealworms. I was prompted to dig up these samples to show to you.

Here’s the history:
After only the one year that I was employed by Butte, Herrero and Hyde (I would have stayed at that job forever, had they not split their partnership), I instantly became self-employed.
As a freelance designer/illustrator for thirty-five years, I accepted every challenge that came my way.
The most wiggly (and giggly) assignment was to package and to design stationery, promo, and point-of-purchase pieces for live mealworms (!), for fish bait.
The job came to Graphics* (the asterisk is part of the name…it, now, goes nowhere), a design studio in the Wharfside Building, that specialized in designing annual reports and other corporate promotional pieces. The “fish bait” job was tossed my way.

The assignment also included naming the product…so I asked for the help of Rex Simmons, who sat at his drawing board in front of me. He helped “brainstorm” for the “genetically-enhanced, pumped-up” critters: Monster Mealworms, Mega Mealworms, Massive Mealworms, Mighty Mealworms, Big-Worms, Big-Bait, Rambo-Bait, Bonanza Bait, Monster-Bait, Master-.…! We (and later, the client) agreed on “Mighty Mealys”.

Our contact for the job told us that one night, when he arrived home, he set the small prototype plastic tub with the mealworms packed with their cornmeal diet…on a small bed that was in his garage. Days went by. He said that the mealworms had chewed their way through the plastic and were crawling between the several blankets on the bed…and were in various stages of becoming beetles! We heard this story, but assumed that the lid of the tub had popped open…how could those tiny teeth chew through heavy plastic?
The following summer, I was up in Jackson…in “gold country” and I stepped into the town’s bait shop. The promotional material was displayed and the Mighty Mealys were being sold in the designed plastic tubs…after they and the cornmeal were scooped from a large glass jar.

I look back at my printed samples of my past work for so many businesses: investment, tech, restaurants (and even the San Francisco Ballet)…and so many products: foods, wines, computers, drugs (pharmaceutical) …and worms!

Ann Thompson

click on an image to view larger and see the whole thing

Does anyone remember the great “towering inferno” at Grey Advertising on the 27th floor of 50 California Street in San Francisco in the early 1980’s? I was working there at the time as an office administrator but had majored in drawing and painting in college so I was thrilled to be part of the “ad biz” surrounded by creative types. I was first alerted to the fire by my boss who called me at 6 AM on a weekday to tell me there had been a fire on our floor, (Grey’s offices comprised the entire 27th floor at 50 California), so I was to dress casually in jeans and bring a bucket, rubber gloves and a whisk broom if I had one. OK.….My boss had no idea what the damage was.…she had not been into the office yet to see. So I boarded BART in the East Bay carrying my bucket, gloves and whisk broom and got off at the Embarcadero Station in San Francisco and ascended the escalator to the street level and walked past La Boulangerie on the corner of California St., (where I didn’t stop for my usual latte and croissant) to our building. As I got closer I saw 4 — 5 fire engines parked around the street, fire hoses going in and out of the building including up the elevator shaft and firemen everywhere. As I entered the building and tried to board an elevator for the 27th floor, I was stopped and questioned by the Fire Captain to whom I explained “I work here. I was told to come into work to help clean up”. I was allowed to proceed, and as I stepped out of the elevator on the 27th floor, the smoky wet smell of burned plastic from melted computers and other toxic materials I couldn’t identify, nearly overcame me. The double doors that were normally open to our lobby area where “GREY” could be seen on the facing wall were shut. I opened the doors and began, at the direction of my direct report, Claudia Ebert, Office Manager and Henry “Hank” McWhinney, General Manager, (who later became President of the San Francisco office in 1987) what was what I recall to be a nearly 6 to 12 month renovation project. It was determined that the fire started in the media department (the “pink ghetto “as it was called) in the office of the VP. She kept a space heater near her desk and apparently it had either been left on or something went wrong with the circuitry. It was fortunate a night janitor discovered the fire soon after it started or all may have been lost. As it was, the Media Dept. was totally destroyed and had to be relocated to temporary offices sub-let from the B of A — a major client at the time. The rest of the office space suffered mostly smoke and water damage– fortunately none of the art work was harmed in the fire. Renovating the office over the next several months was both exciting and exhausting. The “new look” at Grey was sleek and classy employing grey and burgundy tones throughout the office. And new, burnished silver “GREY” signage was installed in the lobby. Though the bucket, rubber gloves and whisk broom I was asked to bring in the morning of the fire were woefully inadequate to even begin to clean up the devastating effects, there is a humorous footnote about the whisk brooms. It was Robert “Bob” Humphrey, then Grey Advertising Western Offices Chairman and CEO, who suggested in his ever up beat demeanor and lickety-split manner of speaking that we all procure whisk brooms and just “whisk a little bit here and there every day” and it would all be back to normal in a jiffy. Seriously? He was also a firm believer in the “solid tie, solid guy” motto. No striped ties for Grey’s A.E.‘s.…..at least not when Bob Humphrey was in town. The fire also inspired the creative types in our office to come up with a new motto: “GREY Advertising…the hottest agency in town”. Black t-shirts were silk screened with the word “GREY” on the front consumed by orange and red flames. They were a “hot item”. Everyone wanted one, even some of our competitors.

Note: some of the other names I recall of people who worked at Grey then are:

Jerry Baker — creative director

Lars — creative director?

Mimi — creative dept. secretary

Gail Rouleau Sherman

www.photohawaii.com

David Broad

Click on the Thumbnail for a complete view

Mark Schroeder

What describes a great advertising art director is his ability to come up with good selling ideas, designing and laying out award winning ads and have the know-how to work within a tight budget. Jack was all of the above.
When it came to budgets, he was especially creative.
Jack discovered two poor struggling art students (Dave Sanchez & Mik Kitagawa) from the Ad classes he taught at night.….and interviewed them for a position in his department at the prestigious Young & Rubicam advertising agency. Unbeknownst to these young fledglings, Jack’s budget called for just ONE art director. Mr. Allen, at his creative best, took that one salary and split it!.…..Two for the price of one. Hence the term “two-fer” will always be associated with Dave and Mik! Thanks to one Jack Allen.

Mik Kitagawa

Jack Allen

Life has been incredibly kind to me. Early in my life I was lucky to be on the right high school baseball team that won the championship for the state of California. Lucky to quarterback the Pasadena Junior College football team in the Rose Bowl. Lucky to be chosen by the creative director at Young & Rubicam Advertising, New York, to be his assistant. To also have lived in The City by the bay during the 60’s.
None of this was because I deserved anything on merit. It was simply because I had blind assed luck. To be at the right place at the right time.
Example: When I came out from New York to Art Direct for Foote, Cone and Belding, San Francisco, I wound up editing the newsletter for the Artist and Art Director’s Club of San Francisco.
I decided to get designers to design each issue. And who would I start with?
Marget Larsen, of course.
Marget was the hottest designer in town and the hottest woman on the planet. I was hopelessly in love with her but about 347th in line.
Marget designed our first issue and I gulped at the price tag attached, (With Marget design always trumped cost.) We set out to produce it anyway. We wound up silk screening it on the floor of the agency at night and begging printing from a friendly printer then hand folding 500 copies to the membership.
I wished I had saved the issue but you can imagine it was not to be topped. Such was working with Marget. She always shot for the stars and if you wanted to be lucky, you hitched a ride. God, I loved her. She was like many of the designers SF boasted of. Nick Sidjakov, Tom Kamafuji, Bruce Butte, Lowell Hererro, Jerry Berman to name just a very few. Follow them around and hope they dropped a few crumbs.

Luckily, they were generous as well as great.

Jack Allen

The ungrateful curs.

Dave would have wound up selling ladies shoes if I hadn’t saved him and Mick was doomed for “B” movies every time a new one was shot in town. If there are any medals to be given they should be on my chest for paying more than they deserved. Hah! Two for one indeed.

Jack Allen

We all have heard the Greek mythological story of “Achilles Heel”. This is the story of “Tom’s Thumb,” however this story is not mythology, it is very true.

Once upon a time in the year of of our Lord 1965, there was a fledging young illustrator from the Valley of Napa„ far away from the Magical Kingdom of San Francisco. His name was Tom. After studying at Art Center School, Tom had worked for a full-service studio in the Hamlet of Oakland for two years, where he learned about the practical side of the business of illustration and graphic design. After two years of diverse experience, Tom wanted to try his hand in the Magical Kingdom of San Francisco. So, he left the studio in the Hamlet of Oakland and began looking for larger dragons to slay across the Bay, in the Magical Kingdom of San Francisco. One day, Tom received word from Sir Norman Nicholson of the Magical Kingdom, requesting that Tom accompany him to slay some large fierce dragons roaming the Magical Land. Sir Norman, an experienced and well respected Knight of the Round Table (Society of Illustrators), was one of Tom’s instructors at the Academy of Art in the year of our Lord 1959. Sir Norman had been helpful with advice and moral support in the past, and Tom was very grateful for his noble acts of kindness.

Sir Norman had received several storyboards to slay  for the Milk Advisory Board. He offered to split the work with Tom, but typically the AD was in a rush and wanted them finished and on his desk the following morning.

With assignment in hand, Tom anxiously traveled to his distant lair in the Valley of Napa, with ideas racing through his mind. On his arrival, he burst through the door and told his wife, the fair Lady Joan, that he would be at battle all the night and into the next morning, to slay this large dragon. While lady Joan prepared supper, he worked feverishly to do all the pencil roughs before supper, but his mind was moving faster than his hand, and he was drawing faster than he had ever drawn before. While traveling to his lair, Tom determined that even with only one break for supper, he would barely have enough time to finish the job of slaying the dragon, and deliver it back to the agency in the Kingdom of San Francisco. Surely, a daunting task for young Tom.

As Tom drew faster and faster, his hand became a blur and his mind was racing frantically, making one decision after another. Then, the unthinkable happened! Tom’s right thumb began to cramp and soon it became useless. A wounded warrior, he could not hold his pencil any longer to draw. No matter how he tried to overcome it, it was to no avail. Tom thought this is the end! He would miss his deadline, let down and disappoint his friend Sir Norman, and miss an opportunity to earn his knighthood in the Magical Kingdom of San Francisco. Tom was mortified. Could a stiff thumb end his career? How could he tell Sir Norman that his thumb stopped working, stiffened up and died? It would never be believed by anyone! After taking a short break, he tried once again, but Tom’s thumb cramped again and the more he tried the worse it got. Tom had to inform Sir Norman, for it was the only thing he could do. In receiving the bad news, Sir Norman chuckled and assured Tom that it was only a temporary reaction to his understandable anxiety  and nervous tension, and it would probably go away after he had his supper. Sir Norman calmed the dejected and near panicky Tom, and told him not to worry, that it wasn’t life or death, and to call him if it continued. Tom felt cautiously better, while eating his supper. After supper, Lady Joan massaged his taut neck, back and arms, which helped him relax before he had to return to his fate. It was now or never, Tom or the dragon?

The next morning Tom walked to his coach, and taking a long breath of early morning air, he was off for the Magical Kingdom of San Francisco. He felt elated and greatly relieved that he had completed the job, killed the fierce dragon, and felt confident that the AD would be pleased with the results. Tom traveled directly to the chambers of the agency that initiated the assignment, as Sir Norman had instructed him to do.  Tom proudly displayed the numerous colored storyboard frames to the AD, who was smiling and nodding his head up and down. He then, turned to Tom, shook his hand and exclaimed, “Good job, Tom, I’ll have a purchase order typed up for you before you leave”. That was music to Tom’s ears, and the beginning of many, many more storyboard and illustration assignments in the Magical Kingdom of San Francisco, including special effects conceptual boards for the movie industry throughout the 1990s’.

Sir Norman and Tom remained good friends throughout their career, and to this day, they look back and have a good laugh about their many escapades together in those early days of the Magical Kingdom of San Francisco.

The End

Our aircraft was a Cessna 172, a 4-seater all of which were occupied on this trip. Besides myself and Skelton, there was my client, Fran Allen (later of Allen-Dorward Agency fame) and a U.S. Steel sales rep who was our entrée to the site.  The landing strip was a rutted dirt construction road that lead to the canyon’s brink.  And a brink it was, with a direct fall off to the canyon floor several thousand feet below.  Incidentally this permitted a 4 hole outhouse to be cantilevered out beyond the canyon edge thus avoiding disposal exigencies!  (Constipation was never a problem here; all one needed do to loosen the bowels was look down an adjacent hole.)

After gathering my case history facts and photographs it was well into the afternoon with the mercury hovering around 100-degrees.  Well, if you know anything about flying, you know the hotter it is, the less lift there is.  Adding to the lack of lift was an overloaded, unsupercharged aircraft.  Besides 4 people, there were 4 people’s luggage.  O’, did I mention that  due to wind direction, we had to take off towards the canyon!  And, as noted, our runway was a rutted dirt road.

Our intrepid pilot acknowledged there was no way we could reach take-off speed given the described conditions.  But not to worry, he said.  We’d have a safety margin of some 2000 feet; that being the airspace in the canyon below.  He figured once over the edge we’d have time to gather enough airspeed to gain control.  It didn’t do a lot for our peace of mind that several construction workers lined the ‘runway’ with kodaks poised.

I was in the front seat opposite Skelton with several suitcases stacked on my lap to give the tricycle landing gear additional traction on the dirt road.  It was just as well, as I had no interest in being able observe our sudden descent.  And descend we did and continued to do and continued to do until leveling off a few hundred feet (I was told) above the Colorado River.  It took us some 15 minutes of climbing/turning, climbing/turning to regain the top of the canyon, our take-off point, and head for the nearest paved landing strip to change our pants.

Samm Coombs

This experience occurred around 1946–47-I was just back from the Army in Europe and enrolled at Pratt Institute. I had the chutzpah to call Albert Dorne to request a visit. He was very kind and invited me to his studio located in mid town Manhattan. It boggled my mind and though I can’t remember the details I shall never forget upon entering the studio, in the foyer were dozens of beautiful framed works of many of the famous artists of the time. The actual studio was huge and luxurious with a large skylight, more framed pictures, a pool table, a large tabouret and drawing board. He was extremely gracious and kind when I showed him my portfolio and generous in his criticism and advice. At one point a gorgeous blonde lady came in and he introduced her to me. I can’t remember if she was his wife, friend or model. All I could think was that this was the life! (I learned recently that she was a good friend who handled his financial affairs). Mr Dorne was a giant in the industry and a wonderful person to take the time for a youngster.

Best regards

Dave Broad

A once in a lifetime assignment that exceeded my expectations started with a concept presentation to Seatrain Shipping Company. Seatrain was not unlike many Industrial accounts that I worked on in my career. It wasn’t a bad account, but not particularly stimulating with creative opportunities. Well, not until they agreed to have me create and produce a Pin Up Calendar for the coming year. By the 1970s’ and pin up calendars were virtually a thing of the past. However, beautiful sexy ladies are never a thing of the past, and the client wanted his logo to be seen by his customers all year long.

Seatrain shipped cargo everywhere, but for the calendar we focused on just the United States. I chose 12 locations which would become the theme for each month of the year. For example, I used the Statue of Liberty as an East Coast location for one month, a Midwest Cornfield location for another month, and the next month it was Hawaii, and so on.

One of the more difficult tasks was selecting 12 beautiful models over several days of exhausting (?) interviews.. yuk, yuk. Well, the exhausting part was trying to narrow it down to only 12 gorgeous ladies. Part of the proposal to the client was to keep the total budget relatively low. That meant using photography (illustration would require more time and a bigger budget, although, that would have been my preference) and most important, we had to elemenate travel expenses. I had heard of rear view projection from 35 mm slides for a background scene, but never used it before. So, I did some research and selected 12 familiar scenic slides from various photo morgues. Jim Blakely was recommended to me, since he had experience working on Playboy Club photo assignments for most of their S.F. promotion. I had to twist Jim’s arm a little, but he finally agreed to take on the assignment as a charitable gesture, and a gallant display of his humanitarian side. Well, that might be a slight exaggeration.

Seatrain wanted the calendar girls to be sexy but not erotic or raunchy, so we (well, the client) decided we should subtly cover up the “bare essentials.” Each scene and model would be characteristic of a general region of the U.S., and each model would have one or more props with the Seatrain logo in plain view. For example, one month the model was wearing just a thin wet unbuttoned beach shirt and a bikini bottom, holding a large conch shell to her ear, and a coastal beach scene projected in the background. The conch shell had the Seatrain logo painted on it. We used a fan to add the effect of a sea breeze. As much as I would have liked to have photographed at the real locations, we had complete control in the studio, especially with the lighting. Bad weather was not a concern, nor any other unpredicted problems that sometimes appear on location shooting . And, using rear view projection, really looked like they were shot on location.

One of my models was Suzanne Somers, whom several years earlier had a bit part as the pretty blonde in the T-Bird in the movie “American Graffiti,” and later became a star in the hit TV series “Three’s Company.” She was about 27 when she modeled for the calendar, and she had modeled for me a few times before.

While preparing for the morning shoot in the studio, I knocked on Suzanne’s dressing room door and she responded, “Come in. I want to show you something.” As I stepped in, I was busy looking at my notes for the upcoming shoot, and began explaining how I wanted her positioned. When I looked up, she was sitting at the mirror applying her makeup, and to my astonishment, she was wearing nothing from the waist up. I gulped and elucidated with utmost sincerity, “Oops, Sorry Suzanne, I didn’t know you weren’t dressed,” and started to leave. She quickly replied, “Wait, it’s okay. I brought three halter tops to try on for you,” as she held up a shopping bag. I tried to act unphazed, but I doubt that I pulled it off. Struggling to gather my composer, I blurted out, “Great, I would like to see them,” immediately thinking, yikes!, what a poor choice of words! Showing no discomfort, she spontaneously tried on each halter top, and of course, they all looked terrific on her. I understandably pondered over which halter top I would use in the photo.. another tough decision. As much as Jim would have been willing to help me make this difficult choice, I knew his first priority was setting up his equipment for the day’s shooting, so I thought it best not to disturb him.

Well, Suzanne was perfect as she posed on a bicycle with her carefully selected halter top, a pair of very short shorts and tennis shoes, as the breeze from the fan softly ruffled her long blonde hair. The background was a view of El Capitan in Yosemite. Jim did a fine job behind the camera, and all the models were ideal. Suzanne modeled for me later, on several more assignments before moving on to fame and fortune. She was an excellent model with an infectious smile, sparkling blue eyes and always a good sport. That was the only pin up calendar I did in my career, and one of the most enjoyably assignments, as you may have guessed!

In the 1960’s I was fortunate to land a nice illustration commission from Young & Rubicam. It entailed a series of full page illustrations for Kaiser Aluminum that appeared in Fortune magazine, Business Week and other publications. Each ad consisted of three pages. The first page was solid black with a die cut and small bit of copy underneath giving you a small glimpse of the illustration on the third page. The die cut was over a vivid pink sky I had painted in the illustration,which happened to be a picture of a helicopter flying over very rough terrain bringing a fully assembled aluminum transmission tower to its permanent site. With in the illustration I chose to paint a hot pink sky for visual impact. I thought I could get away with it. Upon delivery of my art to Y&R, I was confronted by one account exec reviewing my illustration. ”Wow” was his remark. “Why the pink sky?” “For visual impact” was my response.” Yeah but skies are blue” he said with a very serious tone to his voice “We will let let you know if they approve it”

Previously I had been told by Don Sternloff a creative director at Y&R that Henry Kaiser himself viewed and approved all corporate identity ads. Two days later I received a phone call from the agency ”Henry Kaiser loved the illustration pink sky and all” I was told. ”I knew he would like it” I responded” “What made you so sure?” I was asked. Having worked at Kaiser Graphic Arts right out of Art Center College, before opening my studio in San Francisco, I was aware of Kaisers affinity for the color pink. I told the caller from Y&R all of Henry Kaiser’s Permenente Cement trucks in California were painted a hot pink. On another occassion I viewed an article in Architectual Digest Magizine about Henry Kaisers home in Hawaii as well as a suite of rooms he kept at the Fairmount Hotel. The color PINK was dominate in the décor.

So when it came to painting the sky pink in my illustration, not only was pink used for visual impact, I thought how could I miss with Kaiser’s taste for PINK!

We were presenting a “Thanksgiving print advertisement” to the client, Pacific, Gas & Electric Company. I forget the headline, but the black & white illustration showed a drawing of a turkey talking to a pig. A cartoon dialogue balloon pointing to the pig said, “I’m glad it’s you and not me.” The turkey was seen to reply, “Wait until Easter.…you’ll get yours”.

The client read the print ad and, with great business-like authority, he spoke, “We can’t do this. Pigs don’t talk to turkeys, and turkeys don’t talk to pigs.… pigs talk to other pigs and turkeys talk to other turkeys. I tried to keep from laughing. Speechless I just nodded in agreement. (I knew the client was mistaken because sometime in the mid-1960’s, I’m sure I heard my narrow-minded dog laughing and making surely comments to my cat, who I had just tie-dyed a lovely red, green and purple).

One day in the 1970’s (during the Vietnam War and “Cold War” years), we were presenting an outdoor billboard (remember those) to the lovable Director of Marketing Herb Hammerman at Chevron. Our creative achievement was designed to promote Chevron’s friendly nature toward the Christmas Season. Because it was for Mr. Hammerman, we kept it as simple as possible (“how can he find anything wrong with this”, we surmised).

Mr. Hammerman looked at the Billboard design, which simply declared, PEACE ON EARTH Chevron. He said seriously, in his lyrical southern accent, “This will never do. ‘Peace” is a Communist word”.

As you might have guessed, we scheduled a photo shoot in August, for a four page full color tabloid insert, and additional photos to be used on future projects. I called my friend, and well known environmental photographer, Ernie Braun. His father was one of the original Early California Impressionist painters from San Diego, CA. Ernie, a WW 2 U.S. Army photographer, saw more than his share of the tragedy of war. He was as kind and gentle a human being as I have ever known. Sadly, Ernie died in 2009, not long after I had a phone conversation with him, after years of being out of touch.

Loaded down with photography equipment, Ernie and I flew to the LA airport, then hopped a flight to Palm Springs, where we had our motel rooms reserved. Since we knew it was going to be scorching hot, we made sure the motel had a nice swimming pool, but it was not a luxury motel. The owner of the agency I was with, started out at BBD & O, and he was quite aware of the big bucks photo shoots with the large corporate clients. But, he also thought it was problematic and unnecessary,  trying to justify bloated expenses and expanded budgets.. especially when other competitive agencies were constantly scratching at the door of opportunity. I characterized him as an ad man who was half CPA and half attorney. He was tough minded, smart, bottom line oriented, well prepared, never let his guard down and accounted for every nickel that came into the agency, or left the agency.

The first day of the shoot, we met with my clients, who were the two founding owners of SunWorld. Their offices were next to thousands of acres of thriving fields and orchards. The first shoot for the day was an outdoor casual portrait shot of the two owners in one of the citrus orchards. That sounded easy enough, right? Since it was already nearing 100 degrees (F) before 9:00 AM, we began setting up. But, there was too much distracting shadows, so we had to wait for the sun to move into a more ideal position, while it increasingly became hotter. Finally the sun filled the area we had selected, and as Ernie began to take some test shots with his Polaroid, swarms of gnats began to converge on all of us, millions of them, like a swarm of locust. We had other shots scheduled, so we had to stick to our schedule and somehow deal with the gnats.  Forget the test shots, it became a ‘relay photo shoot’! The two clients would run out from cover, stand on their designated marks, and before the gnats could swarm on them, Ernie would fire off a couple of quick shots. This went on the rest of the morning, taking a shot or two and then wait for another round. By the end of the morning, my clients were tired, hot and sweaty.. jokingly claiming they had done more physical work that morning than working the fields as young men. Both had worked the fields and experienced years of back breaking hard labor. They were not suite and tie corporate execs, they were farmer entrepreneurs! By the time we got enough portrait shots to cover our bases, it was about 110 degrees (F) in the shade. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, but it was hotter than hell! …a dry, intense, dessert heat.

Back to the motel and into the pool to cool off.. even 80 or 90 degree water seemed cool. A cocktail before dinner, then dinner but no girls or parties, like everyone hears about. We were scheduled to have the “big shoot” early that morning. At 4:00 AM, Ernie and I met with the Forman, who brought the props we requested ahead of time. The props consisted of three large flat bed field trucks loaded with wooden produce boxes. The scene was to be a shot across huge fields of cucumbers, with mountains in the background and the sun rising from behind the mountains. The trucks were parked on a dirt road between fields, about 500 yards in the distance, showing full profiles to add variety, interest and authenticity. Nature would provide the rest. This shot would be the front and back spread, and the most important photo of the bunch. And, it had to be ‘drop-dead-gorgeous’.. and no second chances!

I helped Ernie set up and talk over our strategy.. to make sure the sun was on the right side of the photo so it would show on the front cover of the wrap around, which meant following my layout, without compromise. I had complete confidence in Ernie’s judgement and skills. We stood in an irrigation ditch, with the camera on a tripod, which was the only strategic spot that we could get what would work. We were ready and waiting like soldiers in a movie, ready for the inevitable attack at dawn. Just before the sun was due to rise, we suddenly noticed water rapidly flowing around and over our shoes. The irrigation system was on a timer, and we were standing in one of the major arteries that fed the other ditches between endless rows of crops, just in time to be well irrigated along with the cucumbers. There was know place else to go, and we had to get the shots within a few minutes. We also had to catch a flight back to LA, then San Francisco to meet a tight “drop dead” deadline.. no exceptions or excuses!! It was do or die, we might have to go down with the ship, so to speak!  Our strategy was to start shooting just as the sun began to peek over the mountains, and keep shooting until it was too high for an ideal effect, which would last only about five minutes, or less. As we stuck to our plan, the water quickly rose first above our ankles, then our knees and before we were finished, it was nearly up to our waste. I was loaded down, holding Ernie’s bags above water, full of expensive photography equipment. When the sun was in the right position, Ernie was all business, never complaining or allowing the distraction to effect his laser like focus on the job at hand. We had to make quick adjustments that couldn’t be anticipated ahead of time. I’m sure that other photographers would have been distracted, if not rattled, but Ernie’s war photography experience under extreme combat conditions, prepared him for unexpected situations like this, and he was as calm as the cucumbers on the vines in front of us.

It was like being in the middle of a fast moving river. Just standing there, even for a short time, mired our shoes and ankles into soft sandy soil, which was like quicksand. The temperature was in the 90s’ and climbing. After the sun became too high to fit the layout, we exerted a lot of effort trying to keep our balance, while we gradually slogged and scrambled out of the bottom of the irrigation ditch. With no time to even hose off our jeans and shoes, we rushed back to the Palm Springs airport, barely making our flight, with jeans and shoes wet and muddy. The passengers and flight attendants looked at us like we were a couple of very unsavory characters. By the time we got on our flight from LA to SF, our jeans were almost dry and we could brush some of the sandy mud off.

When Ernie brought the transparencies to me at the agency the next morning, I was more than happy with the results. Ernie had nailed every series of photos. The portrait shot was perfect and there was an adequate selection in which the gnats were barely noticeable in the photos. No one would ever know there was an all out gnat attack! We considered retouching the sweat running down the two client’s faces, but decided it was natural and added to the reality of that area being the hottest recorded temperatures in the nation, every summer. The sunrise shot was ‘drop-dead-gorgeous’! I chose the shot of the sun just as it separated from the mountain top. There was a warm golden cast from the morning sun over the entire photo, and it was as ideal as I could have hoped for. The headline which was designed and strategically placed in the sky to emphasize the rising sun, fit perfectly. The deadline was met on time and on budget, and the client was thrilled.

It was those little adventures and unique challenges that were nice breaks from the usual agency routine, and I always enjoyed working with my photographer friends, especially Ernie Braun.

I used Ernie for all the SunWorld photo assignments, as well as other assignments. He was a great photographer and a great guy to work with, and I miss him as a friend. I wish I had examples of that assignment, but they were lost in our last move.

I worked mostly as an art director for various ad agencies in Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco as well as some stints of freelancing along the way.

My first art job was with Douglas Aircraft in LA as a Tech. Illustrator while attending Art Center School in Hollywood. Even though it was a summer job, I still have many fond memories of my time at Douglas for some reason. Tom Gleason was my mentor at the time. I think we worked several summers at Douglas. After work we would always go body surfing at a near by beach. After art school, we started out in Seattle.

My first job was with Container Corporation of America as a designer in their Design Lab. Nina was freelancing doing editorial illustration and ad design for Arthur Morgan Interiors. Later, I worked as art director for two ad agencies in Seattle, Cole & Webber and Botsford, Constantine, and Gardner. BC&G later moved its headquarters to San Francisco and merged with its S.F. office, later to become Botsford, Ketchum. At that time I worked primarily on the Olympia Beer account. Nina’s freelance work included package illustration for Republic of Tea, Sunrise Home Interiors, story illustrations for Travelers Tales book series. After BC&G I joined with Kelly Nason Advertising, (Coors Beer) Christian Brothers Marketing Services, and Flair Communications (Dole Foods and Christian Brothers) We still do a bit of freelancing along with painting and some printmaking .….and still going to school, taking art classes at College of Marin.

Bill and Nina Stewart
braveart squarespace

militarystockphoto

hanshal.zenfolio.com

Geezers Gallery 47

New Gallery

samsmidt.com

Blum Box Art (Be sure to read the titles in the upper left corner.)
www.blumboxart.com

Still in the Game
chrisblum.com

alterpop.com

Note:
After viewing all of Alterpop’s design portfolio…clicking on the numbers at lower right, click on gray “Alterpop” at the bottom left corner… then, (DA & DR) to see photos of Doug and Dorothy.

Parkinson’s has forced me to retire, robbing me of my handwriting, speech and mobility…

love/peace,

Larry

This collection remains as a current view on a period of the past.

Larry_keenan

Deutsch Design Works

Tom Whitworth.com

chuck-eckart

davebroad.com

about Jerry