I only recently made my first contact with Bill Nellor, who is 89 years young.
He had a wide variety of clients and could style to his work to fit each.
Here, below, are parts of several emails from Bill, describing his commercial work.
But first, a painting (another example of his versatility)…that I found on Google Images:
Ann, yes the painting was mine. I did it in my first year at Cornish College. It was done for my father who had been in the logging business and from his photographs I executed the painting. When both my mother and father passed away it somehow went into auction. Where it went from there I don’t know. I also had a one-man exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum during my final year at Cornish where 3 of my paintings were purchased by the museum.
I’ve been unable to tract down the whereabouts of the painting and its status at this time. I went to Artfact and entered my name with no results. I would be interested in passing it down to my son or daughter. Maybe you can help me find it? Thanks,
Bill Nellor
I was an art supervisor at Y&R in SF and later moved to Santa Rosa where I became a partner in the Levinger-Nellor advertising agency. Yes, I did develop the art and concept for “Clo”, the Clover Dairy cow advertising series. The client strongly resisted the “Clo” approach (Cows don’t have teeth like that!) until reluctantly conceding. I believe that I lost the account a few years later when the client learned that I had participated in an anti-Vietnam war demonstration in Santa Rosa. I was very much against our involvement there. I have a son named Robert who was named after my brother that died in WW2, we both served in the Navy. Robert was eligible for the draft but I kept my political beliefs private from my advertising business. Somehow the client learned of my participation in the anti-war movement and my partnership with Levinger was terminated. I then proceeded to open my own advertising agency and was very successful with several large local accounts that advertised nationally.
After I sold my agency business my wife and I moved to Maui where I designed items and made paintings for the tourist trade. After ten years we moved back to Santa Rosa to be near our two children and Grandchildren, and now a Great grand child. I am 89 years old now and my activities are very limited (Oh my achin’ back!). We live in Valle Vista senior subdivision and still manage to take our daily walk through our very nice common area park.
I’ve attached a poster of Susanne Somers I did (shame on me) for Maherajah Water skis in the 70’s as part of the “right-on” theme for the advertising I was doing for them. The poster has become a collector’s item on the Internet even to this date. So…my past is tainted with this unscrupulous means of pacifying my clients advertising demands. Please forgive me for this shady episode from my past. The logo design for “right-on” also appeared on T‑shirts, which are even being sold today on the Internet.
I’ve also attached what was the second “Clo” billboard “Support your local cow” a “take-off” on the popular TV series at that time “Support your local sheriff“. I don’t have a copy of the first, but it depicted the body of Clo as a factory with the headline “Factory Fresh.….Clover Milk”. The artwork of the head of Clo is exactly the same today as then.
I collaborated with Jim Molica a good friend in the adv bus, late 70’s, to produce a pocket-book edition for Signet Books called “Funny Fizzles”, copy attached. It was a comic interpretation of some actual funny patents on record at the patent office.
I don’t believe that I have any other items I’ve saved from the past since I cleaned out most of it when my wife and I moved to Maui for ten years.
Bill
To see what Bill is doing, now, look at his work under “Artist’s Galleries” in the column to the left.
Ann