What is an Annie-Board?

Previ­ously I wrote how it was in the past, when a phar­ma­ceu­tical company’s product repre­sen­ta­tives intro­duced their full line of prescrip­tion medica­tions — only to doctors or medical teams. (No print ads or TV spots to the public.)

In the years 1987 – 1997, I was free-lancing for a medical adver­tising agency in San Fran­cisco: Vicom and Asso­ciates that became FCB Health­Care. They would create the promo­tional campaigns for each of their phar­ma­ceu­tical clients. The campaigns would include many plans that were presented by the agency’s exec­u­tives, creative team and product manager. Some of the presen­ta­tions were very exten­sive. The promo­tional ideas and sequencing were so complex that the agency asked me to draw their plans on the largest (19”x 24”) layout pad. I needed to arrange the lettering that fit with the art. The layouts were then mounted on foam-core board. If plans were changed, I could posi­tion my new art and new copy on the already mounted board, slice around the subject with my X‑Acto® knife, pull up the old and attach the new correction.
There were times when the large number of these presen­ta­tion boards stretched far down the hallway from my room. Often the work was well into the night before the boards were to – – fly across country or arrive here in the SF Bay – – the following morning. The agency’s team for that client would present the boards, which helped visu­ally, as they verbally offered the agency’s plans. Also the boards were an easy refer­ence after the initial conference.

Here are exam­ples: One shows a trade-show exhibit idea. (Trade shows were prof­itable expo­sures for the phar­ma­ceu­tical prod­ucts.) A Xerox copy is all that I have of the colorful board for the Aleve ® file folder.

These boards, above, were colored or greyed – -with Berol® Pris­ma­color Art Pencils and Art Stiks. For the lettering and line art I used a black, fine line Design® Art Marker.
Below, for this following collec­tion there was no time to add color. These layouts were also created with the same marking pen plus the medium and wedge tips. Black Pris­ma­color Art Stiks were used for some shading.

I worked many years with the creative director and many art direc­tors in the agency as we were producing campaign boards.
One art director moved to another agency and at one point said that she needed “Annie Boards”. She later told me that the persons in that other agency asked her: “Do you mean animatics? anima­tion?”. She said that she needed “Annie-Boards” as are created by Annie!
I don’t know who they found in that agency to do the same kind of presen­ta­tion boards — which would then be called: “_ _ ?_ _‑Boards”?
Also, I don’t know how campaigns are created and presented in today’s adver­tising agencies.

Ann Thompson

March 25, 2021 No Comments More

Illustrating, But Not For Public Viewing

I was working for phar­ma­ceu­tical adver­tising agen­cies, and in those years, very little reached the public. Most of the promo­tional work and exhibits for trade shows were addressed only to the medical commu­nity. The goal was to intro­duce the merits of a product by personal inter­views with doctors and their medical teams. The Product Repre­sen­ta­tive made the contacts directly with the doctors. Our agency’s promo­tional team provided all of the details of the product for the doctor to know — so he/she could suggest the product, and person­ally inform a patient of its use.

This was before the phar­ma­ceu­tical compa­nies began selling directly to the public through print and live action ads in the media. The public has become aware of various phar­ma­ceu­tical prod­ucts shown in printed ads or presented in a few minutes in TV spots. Some viewers then feel, that they know what they need. With the cost of public adver­tising in every type of media, the price of the prod­ucts climbed. In some other advanced coun­tries — if a medica­tion needs a physician’s written prescrip­tion — then adver­tising that product is not allowed.
Looking back, there seemed to be a lot of time and money spent to aid the product rep for each meeting, but compared to the medical industry today these campaigns were small and simple.
So here are some campaigns from those early days when the doctor was the phar­ma­ceu­tical company’s main customer.

Working for the agency’s clients, several prod­ucts were created: folders, medical journal ads, promo­tional presen­ta­tions and campaign concepts. Each needed the image of a doctor, a white doctor. To simplify, a doctor was a man and a nurse was a woman. Only a group of medical workers or group of patients could show a mixture of genders, races and ages.

Presen­ta­tions to doctors, medical teams and clinics — were made with slide shows. They were timed to the script on an audio­cas­sette. (Video presen­ta­tions did not exist, yet.) A large amount of slides were needed. Here is the collec­tion (from March of 1977) of 72 slides that took 75 hours for me to accom­plish. The camera-ready art was needed for the launch of Syntex’s Brevicon birth control pill.

Also I show just some of the 40 slides for CIBA (early 1990s) — with the doctor in his white coat. This series (and the following two) were accom­plished with a fine point felt pen and various brands of markers. This left me with no possi­bility to correct any error or bad color choice. If I made a mistake, the frame would have to be drawn and colored again. This was a bit stressful but I found the method a quick way to produce the art for slides that were to be seen very quickly.

This next slide presen­ta­tion was an addi­tion to a campaign theme, “FOOD FOR THOUGHT”. The folders of printed product infor­ma­tion (that I show below) intro­duced the slide presen­ta­tion. A b/w story­board planned the images with the script.

The presen­ta­tion was directed to the medical specialist, the derma­tol­o­gist. He would have known the differ­ences in the two skin medica­tions: Syntex’s LIDEX and Syntex’s SYNEMOL.

The art for these 71 slides took me 82 hours to render. The two doctors, older white men, were created to suggest that they had equal stature of their estab­lished prac­tices to make their compar­ison look balanced — yet each physi­cian GP or Derm (general prac­ti­tioner or derma­tol­o­gist) were explained to be very different.
My draw­ings show that the Derm doctor owns an expen­sive car and also he is a member of a men’s club— suggesting his finan­cial success is more than the GP’s. If I would have been told to show the Derm as a female, some other hint of wealth would have been more diffi­cult to visu­ally suggest.
For this next presen­ta­tion for Cutter Labs, we show trees and bees. Other slides with more written messages brought the total number of slides needed, to 20. The year was 1977. Today, even the “anes­the­si­ol­o­gist bee” and the “purchasing agent bee” could’ve been a female.

Pfizer’s 1999 Super hero presen­ta­tion. Zithromax (Azithromycin) is an antibi­otic. It’s widely used to treat chest infec­tions such as pneu­monia, infec­tions of the nose and throat such as sinus infec­tion (sinusitis), skin infec­tions, Lyme disease, and some sexu­ally trans­mitted infections.

I presented the first char­ac­ters in rough sketch to the agency team. I suggested a female rep in addi­tion to Johnny Rep. The Doc is the “super hero.
The only times that there was need to show female doctor (or is she a tech­ni­cian or nurse prac­ti­tioner?) was when the medical subject, this time for public viewing, would be for a female issue.

The last example is a brochure (August 1976 Cutter Medical) that was not for the public — but for a personal, doctor-patient meeting. I could have shown a woman as the doctor but since there were more male doctors in the US, that deter­mined this choice.

The purpose of these quizzes below was for the product repre­sen­ta­tives to view a doctor’s surround­ings to know more about his or her inter­ests. With that, the product rep would be able to create a closer rela­tion­ship. The first card shows the male doctor. The second example — (finally!) a woman is shown as “The Doctor”! Then the third scene shows a lot of females (but in so called “women’s jobs”) and there, in the distance, is the doctor in his office. Today, we might see a man as the recep­tionist, or at a computer. The older woman seems correct, yet the doc could’ve been a woman and the patient, a man.

Lastly, I found this sample (below) of an assign­ment that I had at Vicom Asso­ciates. I couldn’t remember why I was asked to illus­trate a ‘Camp­bell Kid”! (Was it a boy or girl?) So I emailed the creative director from that time — (he now lives in NYC) — to get the answer.

Hi Les,
Now, I am sure that you are not trav­eling the world. So can I ask you (?) was this art for internal use or was it a job? It is on a top-folded card with no message inside.
Ann

His answer:

Hi Ann,
You’ve got quite an archive there! That illus­tra­tion was part of a pitch we did for Campbell’s Soup. That’s a Camp­bell Kid as an MD. We were talking to the company about commu­ni­cating with the health­care sector. It was a pitch in concert with FCB consumer. The busi­ness didn’t happen.
Best, Les

Playing “doctor” — BOY OR GIRL?
And so, regarding the issue about illus­trating a male or
female doctor?

Now, here is a solu­tion — like this Camp­bell Kid,
the gender is in question.

Ann Thompson

February 20, 2021 No Comments More

Geezers Yearbook Page 2020

GEEZER YEARBOOK PAGE 2020
A full page of our collec­tion for 2020 is also at the top of the left column. Each year there will be these indi­vidual photos and remembrances.
Ann Thompson

1. Bob Porter (Hoefer in the 70’s.)
The photo comes from a Shasta shoot down south in the early 70’s. The director was Sid Avery. At the time, I was Jim Nelson’s Asso­ciate CD at Hoefer. I’ve been retired and painting for the last 15 years. And this year, I finally made it to artist status at the Cali­fornia Art Club. (It’s an honor that mainly that lets you pay more in dues…)
Robert Porter

2. George Hampton
Hi, Y’All!
This photo was taken last year as I was hanging my art at the Salt Traders Coastal Cooking restau­rant. After moving to Austin, Texas in 2006 where I have a studio in my home, I began painting. Around this time I was very fortu­nate to have met Jack Gilmore and Tom Kamm, expe­ri­enced restau­rant chef/managers, who asked me to hang my art in their first restau­rant, Jack Allen’s Kitchen. They have since opened 3 more Jack Allen’s and one Salt Traders Coastal Cooking restaurants…I have followed along and have not only sold my art to them but have sold paint­ings to their clien­tele. How lucky can you get!
George Hampton
(Formerly with Land­phere Studios, Bots­ford, Constan­tine & McCarty, Bots­ford Ketchum & The San Fran­cisco Chronicle)

3. Tom Peacock
No artist, but enjoyed your company while working for BM&T. Frol­icking in Cuba after retirement.
(GGNote: Tom repre­sented Blake, Moffitt & Towne (paper and printing services in San Fran­cisco as early as 1855).
Paper, type, artist, studio and printing Reps knew everyone. I envied that. And often, when calling on a studio, Tom brought a jar of honey from his own hives of bees!
Ann)

4. Jed Falby
Greetings!
What a great gift you give us with your time machine taking us all back to our youth and those good ol’ days.
Art Director/Producer at Y&R in those great TV years 1960 – 66 with Hanley Norins Creative Director and his creative collec­tive (Steve Gordon, Mik Kita­gawa, Gerry Severson, Paul Frahm et al).
Although Y&R shipped me out of San Fran­cisco to NYC in 1966 I stayed with them in all those ‘Mad Men’ TV years ’till 1970 when I opened my TV Produc­tion Company in Paris.
Finally moved back to England in 1990 to paint (South West Academy) draw (cartoons!) and write (“Le Train de Michel” Graphic Novel).
My cartoon here was done for this year’s NY ‘Vote’ campaign with the other SF Geezers now in NYC: John Emmer­ling, Mike Slosberg,
Cheers! Jed

5. John Mattos
2 items,
#1- I’m still friends with Vic Marcelli- (art director at Vicom, and other agen­cies in SF- ) and Vic is a TOTAL geezer- so please put Vic on the list — if he asks what this is about- just tell him “John thinks you are a TOTAL GEEZER” ‑ha
#2– I have 22 pages in the Upcoming December Graphis maga­zine — natu­rally I’m quite happy about this –

Merry Christmas –
John

6. John Hyatt
Fresh out of Art Center School in 1967 I got my first job as an art director at Lennon and Newell Adver­tising in San Fran­cisco. Roy Gover was also an AD there at the time — he and I would trip over each other sneaking out the back door after lunch to go home and paint. Roy sold his work at the famous Vorpal Gallery and I sold a series of oils paint­ings at H.P.Corwith on Union Street. Our fine art was consid­er­ably more compelling than Lennon and Newell trade ads for Hewlett Packard elec­tronics – a few years before HP became the personal computer giant.
During a seven year stint at Wilton, Coombs and Colnett, I was fortu­nate to work with photog­ra­phers Stephen Frisch, Karl Bauer and Craig Simpson; illus­tra­tors Lowell Herrero and David Broad; designers Nicholas Sidjakov and Jerry Berman. I started a free­lance career (John​Hy​at​tIl​lus​tra​tion​.com) when I met Chris Blum at Honig, Cooper and Harrington. Chris gave me my first illus­tra­tion job – a TV story­board for Levis, animated by Duck Soup in LA.
Currently I’m selling huge paint­ings of rowboats at www​.Canyon​Drive​G​allery​.com.

7. Mort Beebe
Having photographed for clients abroad for 50 years, co-founded the Image Bank, authored five books and was loca­tion manager for five feature films and TV series…now editing my film archive of the City.
Best wish to both of you,
Mort Beebe

8. Tom Brenner
! I was a copy­writer for a total of ten years, aver­aging about 2 years per agency! The last, being BBDO, with Herb Briggs and Hal Riney. I’ve enjoyed the stories about those two. Here’s mine: It seemed that every time I took copy to Hal, he’d read it, look up and say, “Is that the best you can do?” I’d mumble, let me try again, or some­thing like that. I left BBD&O at the end of summer on the Friday before San Fran­cisco State started fall classes, where I went to get a teaching creden­tial. On my last day at the agency, people came by to say, “so long, good luck.” Hal walked by, stopped at my door, looked in, and said, “Bastard.” I took it as a compli­ment. And then Herb came by and gave me a gallon glass jar filled with oatmeal mixed in water, with a reduced copy of an ad (Don’t let Mush Die) I had done while at Dancer for Wheat Hearts. My wife and I had just bought our first house in Berkeley. The jar of mush sat on a living room book­shelf and every time I pasted it I petted it, thanking and thinking of Herb and the others in my ad life. The jar lasted for about three weeks — it exploded one night. Glass and old oatmeal was every­where! School started, ad writing ended. After writing ads, I taught 4th-6th grades in Pied­mont. And when I retired we moved up to Vashon, an island off of Seattle. I took a few Writing for Chil­dren classes and now have three published (by Candlewick) picture books (fourth one will be out soon!)— a series of AND THEN COMES —so far: HALLOWEEN, CHRISTMAS, SUMMER., and SCHOOL is next, not sure when. I have no control over that! I REALLY enjoy the Geezer Gallery you post. Even though I only know a few of those who show up, just looking at the others takes me back to the days and how I enjoyed working with the people I worked with. Each agency had a different “set’ and I remember just about every one, even those not mentioned in my posting. Even though I enjoyed teaching little kids, there was a special element about creating ads — working with an artist to solve a commer­cial charge (not sure of the right word) was exhil­a­rating! And prob­ably can’t be found in many places, well, maybe working with Steve Jobs or Bill Gates might have made the cut. But working with highly talented people made average days exciting — looking back.
Thanks for doing the Geezer Gallery.
All the best,
Tom Brenner

9. Pierre & Marian Jacot
Here is a pic of me and one of my folks throwing a party circa 1965 – 66? It’s from an Adver­tising party they threw in their first home in Mill Valley.

Mill Valley House on Lovell Avenue. Pierre just started working for an Agency. I was too young to know which. Maybe someone out there was at the party that might remember?
I wish I knew more about that party. But all the ad people and illus­tra­tors and artists, etc. that they knew at the time were there from my mom’s telling years later. ; )
I hope you get some good stuff coming in!
Michele Engel (Pierre and Marian Jacot’s daughter)

10. Tom LaPerle
Then…
1977, on the Burbank “Back Lots” shooting a Transamerica series with Marty Evens (LA).

Then some…
2003, no dead­lines, no stress, no worries, no hair… life is good.

Now…
2020, living in Oregon on the banks of the Columbia River with G‑monsters, family and a 37-ft express cruiser.

Forever (it seems)…
LaPerle Asso­ciates, 1970 – 1990.

11. Lars Melander
Hi Ann,? Thanks for all Mail. Always fun to see. Nice to see Nick Sidjakov’s face — who I knew and admired. Here above is a picture from Macy’s 1978 where I partic­i­pated in a show for Green­grass Gallery.
Here is the card from Macy’s show. I must say I was in really good company!

Here above is a picture from my latest show this year in Stock­holm. Take care and safe!?
Best from Lars

12. Diana Thewlis
Here is my latest self-portrait (in this year­book page, above) titled, ’The Inner Woman’. Loved my years as a graphic designer, product illus­trator, tech. illus­trator, and then contract general illus­trator. Espe­cially loved teaching at the Academy of Art Univer­sity. Now basi­cally retired, but painting and getting back into teaching up here in Wash­ington State. I’m going to be filmed painting a portrait in water­color for the local water­color society to be used as a fund-raiser. 
Diana Thewlis

December 19, 2020 No Comments More

Nicolas Sidjakov

Nicolas Sidjakov Designer, Illustrator, San Francisco

Nicolas Sidjakov Designer, Illus­trator, San Francisco

Nicolas Sidjakov, (12 – 16-1924 – 6 – 20-1993).
Born in Riga, Latvia.
Nic Sidjakov studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, worked in adver­tising, and free-lanced for the French movie industry before moving to the USA in 1954.
In San Fran­cisco, his loca­tions were — 1967: 120 Green Street — 1971: 433 Turk Street — 1976: 1779 Union Street — and then with part­ners — Sidjakov, Berman & Gomez from 1981 – 1987: 1779 Union Street. Nic lived in Sausalito, CA.

When Tom Kamifugi & Asso­ciates (at 433 Turk Street) and Nic shared neigh­boring art studios — they created this poster, an invi­ta­tion to their party. It appeared in the Art Direc­tors and Artists Club of San Francisco’s eigh­teenth annual in 1967, under the clas­si­fi­ca­tion of “Maga­zine Ad”. (Hal Riney was ADASF’s show chairman, that year.)
The credit infor­ma­tion shown in the annual, shows M. Halber­stadt as the photog­ra­pher — but the photo was by Jack Allen.
Jack had been forming an ad agency with Harrah’s club as his first client. When internal poli­tics ended that plan, Jack became a profes­sional photographer.

This, I reported previ­ously. (See: Geezers’ Gallery Jack Allen — Ad Man + Photog­ra­pher + Painter)

Jack Allen wrote:
“Mean­while, the photog­ra­pher Milton (Hal) Halber­stadt invited me to lunch and suggested we might pool our talents. He had a beau­tiful studio in North Beach and I said yes, quicker than dirt.
At first we had fun — as Hal liked the sets he was so good at putting together — and I liked the people. So we fit well. And we enjoyed lunch at New Joes. And Hal was a Master Photog­ra­pher so I was learning every day.
As in many things, they don’t always work as planned. Hal and I parted as friends and I moved to Vander­water Street in my own studio, next to Vene­to’s Restau­rant. Years of work came out this Studio.”

So on 11−10−20, I emailed and phoned Jack and asked what it was like taking this photo of Sidjakov and Kamifugi. “Can you tell what the day was like, working with those two – – taking that shot? How long could Nic, hold still in that Cossack position?”
Jack said that all he said at that time was: “Hold still”!

There is a lot to be found on-line about the extremely talented, Nic Sidjakov. In my collec­tion of ADASF publi­ca­tions, I found 107 of Nic’s accepted entries in the years of 1963-to-1967 and 1974 and 1978. Some, show that he was listed as Art Director – (19) and others, cred­ited his artistic / design skills – (88). I had planned to scan and show these pieces but he was too prolific with his many styles — for me to be able to display them here.

His volume of work was explained. This from Chris Blum:
–“ad folks would drink their after­noon and want to nap and Nic would take over and save their jobs for them”. C.B.

I never had the chance to meet Nic Sidjakov, but i was told that he was as kind as he was talented and was always there to assist.

The sixth publi­ca­tion (1964) of the Cham­pion Paper’s – Imag­i­na­tion – “The Wild West” paper sample was in the ADASF’s sixteenth annual show in 1965 listed under Booklet or Folders”. Nic Sidjakov and Ewald Breuer provided the artwork and Tom Gorey directed the art. (And, Jack Allen shot the photo of the “Gunslinger”.)
I show the compli­cated plan­ning neces­sary in producing this booklet.
There are fold-out pages, partial pages, die-cut pages, embossed pages, even a sleeve, holding a single detached page. All of the artwork explained how chosen colors worked well on the various samples of stock. The booklet was designed to show the the graphic art commu­nity the many possi­bil­i­ties for their graphic projects when choosing Cham­pion Papers.
I have repeated the pages to show the planned sequence as one looks through the booklet – – opening folds that reveal more images – – all that was created offered an “expe­ri­ence”.

Also, here are samples of Nic Sidjakov’s design that I have kept though the years. These two news­paper spreads and a Focus Maga­zine ad from 1975 promote the new Embar­cadero Center in San Francisco.

Maybe, when I have more time, I can go back to scan and show even just a part of the 107 Nic Sidjakov’s ADASF accepted entries mentioned above.

Ann Thompson

November 17, 2020 No Comments More

Comments, Corrections and more about Y&R.

Follow-up To Previous Post:
Here are a few of the many comments to our previous “Herb & Hal” posting:

10−10−20:
Wasn’t Herb married to Barbra Bradley of the Academy of Art at some point?? Bruce Hettema

My reply to Bruce:
Barbara was born in Los Angeles, but spent most of her child­hood in San Fran­cisco. She grad­u­ated from Lowell High School in San Fran­cisco and then attended the Univer­sity of Cali­fornia, Berkeley, where she met her first husband Herbert Briggs (a fellow artist) while drawing for the rally committee. Herb and Barbara studied at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles before setting off for New York to begin their careers.
(legacy​.com)

10−12−20:
Lee Riney’s story about Herb in the elevator wasn’t at FCB, it was at Y&R. And I was one of the guys that was with the crew that taped Herb and put him in the elevator.
Dave Sanchez

10−12−20:
(A reply me to forward to Dave from Lee Riney)
Yes, it was defi­nitely Young & Rubicam. I worked there for five years when I left Foote Cone. I should have made that clear in my story. Please send my email on to Dave Sanchez.
Thanks, Ann.
Lee Riney

10−13−20:
Thanks Ann. Herb was pretty drunk, so he didn’t fight. I think he was in the elevator into the evening.
I have fun memo­ries of Herb, most are the insane memo­ries. He sure was a char­acter, I wish there were more.
Dave Sanchez

Bringing this up to date, I asked Dave Sanchez who guessed that “The Elevator Caper” was in 1961 or 1962. He said Herb left Y & R after 1962.

I called Jack Allen:
Jack explained that the client of Y&R was Petri Wines – – so I’m guessing that there were a lot of samples there to inspire the agency folks (after hours?). Jack said that his two hires were there: Dave Sanchez and Mik Kita­gawa. Alan Lefkort was also there, also. He was their “father figure”.
I called Alan who accepted that title.
I remember the brand, Petri.

I saw that it was estab­lished with barrel wines in 1886 by Raffaello Petri in San Fran­cisco — with vine­yards in the San Joaquin Valley. As “prohi­bi­tion” became the law, the stock for 250,000 gallons of barrel wines were sold to pay for Petri’s new prod­ucts — including Italian leather goods and cigars. At the end of “prohi­bi­tion” it was back to selling wines, this time bottled as well — contracting In 1935 with E & J Gallo. When Petri bought Italian Swiss Colony Wines in 1953 — Petri became the largest wine producer in the USA.

The company also estab­lished United Vintners.
This ad was shown in the10th Annual Art Direc­tors Exhi­bi­tion of 1958.

Ann Thompson

November 12, 2020 No Comments More