Commercially Christmas
Commercially Christmas — And An Anticipated Event: The Pacific Crab‐Bash!
December usually inspired Santa on billboards, cards, and ads — and Marget Larsen produced many holiday graphic boxes and wrapping paper. The ADASF Annual Exhibition gave her the Award of Merit in 1965. (Marget also worked at 901 Battery Street during the1980s, where she designed fabrics. I was in that location in those years and I would meet Marget briefly and also see our long time friend, John Pratt who was then an assistant to Marget.)
These outdoor boards are also from 1965.
CREDITS:
Holiday Gift Boxes. Artist, Marget Larsen. Art Directors, Marget Larsen /Robert Freeman. Copywriter, Howard Gossage. Printer, The Finn Industries. Client, Intrinsics. (Photo: CA Magazine, Marget Larsen article, March/April 1988.)
B of A —Photographer, Lee Blodget. Art Director, John McDanials. Copywriter, John McDanials. Printer, Compton & Sons. Agency, Johnson & Lewis. Client, Bank of America.
OK‐Used Cars—Artist, Lowell Herrero. Art Director, Gene Duffy. Agency, Campbell‐Ewald. Client, Chevrolet Used Cars.
Yellow Pages—Artist, Henry Syverson. Art Director, Robert Watkins. Copywriter, Hal Atkins. Printer, Art Craft Poster Co. Agency, BBDO. Client, Pacific Telephone.
At Vicom Associates / FCB Healthcare, I was asked to tie‐in “Santa” images with a line of pharmaceutical client products. The first four examples, below, were for Syntex Laboratories Inc.: 1987, two 4½” X 6 ½” “Happy Holidays!” cards. The two larger cards (the 2nd, so large, I show only the lower quarter of it) were for the Syntex marketing department.
The 1994 newspaper full‐page for Genentech, Inc. was produced in one day! Creative director, Lester Barnett, came into my room and asked me to wrap a fir tree around the already positioned type. Then off it went, out the door, and the next morning it was in the SF Chronicle on December 25, 1994.
I was also free‐lancing for Pat Corman Public Relations, representing The Marketplace; Santa was requested for their retail ads.
San Francisco suppliers: typography, paper, and printing companies in those days were so very generous with gifts to those who designed with these suppliers in mind. Pacific Lithograph Inc. was one of the favorite printing houses in San Francisco.
Doug Ballinger, Ed Roualdes and Dick Vrooman — were friends, and after working with them throughout the year — all was celebrated in December with the crab‐feed that topped the “be there” list. The printed invites to this annual event were anticipated and word spread fast of the date when the very best marinated crab was served with garlic French bread and with bottles of wine to pick up for your table.
I don’t remember Pacific Litho’s location; I seem to remember it on Vermont Street. There were places to park, then. After passing through the front door, the din of many voices and the whiffs of the huge amount of crab — pulled you into the huge pressroom. The crowd seemed to be the whole of the advertising community and the whole Pacific Litho crew. I remember talking with the pressmen, who were always so busy when we’d be there at a press check.
Here, above, is the iron‐on invitation created one year by Lowell Herrero. In April 1976, I had moved my free‐lancing to the pharmaceutical agency, Barnum Communications. In December, word in town was that year’s Crab‐Bash invites had been sent — but nothing arrived for me. Rex Simmons, at my previous location, created this mock‐up that got me in the door.
Ann Thompson
Witness of Creativity — February ’64 to April ’65.
I was only employed with Butte Herrero &Hyde for this short time before they dissolved their partnership, but I was able to see the creation of a great number of their jobs. At, that same time, I was able to create my very first bits of commercial art — a rose for a “shelf‐talker” (very small, but my first printed piece of commercial art.)
And also, I executed my first “mechanicals”, in other words: “paste‐ups”— the Shell note pads, matchbooks and matchboxes. These were the client’s promotional giveaways. I was learning, all the time: what supplies are needed — how to keep the petty cash box “in the black” — where to research (like the SF Mechanic’s Institute Library, located at 57 Post Street. It was founded in 1854 to serve the vocational needs of out‐of‐work gold miners)— how to package and mail finished art (to say, Chicago.) — and how to protect large transparencies of BH&H’s artwork. This last task required cleaning the transparency and its protective acetate sleeve from lint, then framing it with clean black heavy stock at a uniform size to fit with the hundreds of their other samples kept in three file drawers. No digital files of samples in those days.
I met type‐reps, paper‐reps and printer‐reps. I also had a last‐minute lesson from BH&H’s bookkeeper on invoicing, record keeping, etc. All of this I could never have learned at a school. It all prepared me for my life as a free‐lance artist — which came sooner than I had expected.
Ann Thompson
BH&H Creativity as shown in the 1964 and1965 ADASF Annual Shows’ Publications
This “GOODYEAR” ad is in color because I saved a copy torn from Life magazine. More about its creation can be found at Our Favorite Places‐Community of Creatives. See “How It Happened”.
The following B&W scans are from the annuals.
This completes my nearly complete collection of the extensive accomplishments of Butte, Herrero and Hyde from their last year as a partnership:
Self‐inventive “Gofer” Duties — After Heavy Rain.
Above the reception area of Butte, Herrero and Hyde’s second floor studio, there was a small storage space on the roof, with windows for light and shelves for storage. This is where a lot of finished art from past jobs was kept. One very rainy afternoon, when the partners had headed out for lunch (was it Venessi’s or New Joe’s or Enrico’s — up the street on Broadway, or lunch with Hal Halberstadt at ChoCho’s, or the Owl ‘n’ Turtle, or the Iron Pot or Gino’s) — I locked the front door, put a chair on the reception desk and climbed up to push up the trap door in the ceiling. I pulled myself up and into the storage space. As I had guessed, with the heavy rain, there were many areas getting wet.
I moved a lot of illustrations that were still dry. The water seemed to flow down established channels, so when I left, everything was in a dry location. By the time BH&H had returned, I was back at my drawing board and they never knew that I protected (maybe what they no longer even wanted).
SHELL
When I was there, the partners had a yearly production — the Shell Chemical Calendar.
Shell Chemical’s office was in San Francisco. When it was time for the calendar to move through the studio, there was much activity. Conferences were many on the style and details of the new calendar. One of the little additions — barely noticeable — was the graphic decoration that was added on each of the special days of the month. These were authentic images taken from flour sacks of the past — so plentiful in early American bulk supplies of flour. Each image was sized and muted, so they were seen on the date — but still subtle. Phases of the moon were styled and placed. The reference for the dates of the moon’s changes came from the prediction records that I picked up at the US Federal Building at 30 Sansome Street.
My special assignment at the last phase, close to the deadline for all to be completed, was answering the phone calls from Shell’s David Davies. I was to tell him that he could not see the ongoing development of the paintings — and that Lowell was at his cabin in the Sierras and would deliver the finished art when it was completed.
Ann Thompson
Click on an image for a larger view and the collection.
Free‐lancing, many styles, many locations.
This free‐lance artist had the benefit of having varied clients, using many styles: illustrations, graphic design, humorous illustration and fine‐art painting — and working at varied locations, as you will see, below.
Dick Moore
After attending the Chicago Academy of Arts in 1948 – 50, I then enlisted in the Navy for four years. After my discharge in 1954, I worked in a variety of art studios in Illinois, Oklahoma, and then Albuquerque, New Mexico where I began doing portraits of friends and painting in the surrounding Sandia Mountains.
Then in 1959 I moved to the Bay Area where I partnered with Fred Meinke who had a small studio on Sacramento Street and we began to build a reputation of an art service, which we called the Meinke‐Moore art studio. We found a new location on Front Street and then moved again to Powell Street, near Washington Square. With this self‐promo mailer, we sent out a full size paper “hopscotch”!
After 5 years I decided to continue working free‐lance on my own in San Francisco. Fred and I remained the best of friends. During this period I was lucky enough to work with G. Dean Smith, a well‐established designer who always managed to improve my work. We spent many years working on various projects, not the least of which were many years of billboards and bus cards for ABC’s Channel 7.
I moved to Muir Beach, Marin County, in 1967 where I continued to work on Dean’s projects. In 1969 I moved to Colorado, spent a year there and then came back to California and the Russian River area in 1970. In 1974 I moved to Hawaii and spent 7 years in Kona on the Big Island doing watercolor painting (as Richard Moore) and some small commercial projects.
I returned to the bay area in 1982 and continued to free‐lance until becoming employed at Colossal Pictures doing animation background painting and moving to computer painting during a 6‐year stay there.
I then had an opportunity at George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic, painting in the computer for a 7‐year period, lasting until 2004 when I retired and I still continue to paint and dabble in a few art projects.
And the beat goes on! So good, so far.
Credits.
1. ABC Outdoor Boards — AD: G. Dean Smith, Illustrator: Dick Moore, 1960s
2. ABC Outdoor Boards — AD: G. Dean Smith, Illustrator: Dick Moore, 1960s
3. ABC Outdoor Boards — AD: G. Dean Smith, Illustrator: Dick Moore, 1960s
4. “Bonanza” (Bank Calendar for East Denver, Colorado)— Artist: Dick Moore, 1970
5. “human be‐in” Poster (In an OMCA Collection) — Photographer: Lorin Gillette, Design/Collage: Dick Moore, 1967
6. San Francisco Magazine,“The Mark”, Cover — Artist: Dick Moore, March 1966
7. Sons of Champlin, Logo — Designer: Dick Moore, 1973
8. Keystone Lodge, Colorado, Banners— Design: G.Dean Smith / Dick Moore,1973
9. Paul Masson, P.O.P. tear‐off — Agency: Brown Vintners, AD: David Reid, Artist: Dick Moore, 1969
10. Argonaut Insurance Co., Annual Report — Agency: The Wyman Company, AD: Don Carlson, Cover Artist: Dick Moore, 1963
11. Argonaut Insurance Co., Annual Report, Spot Illustrations, (same as above)
12. “SYBYLL” Book w/29 Illustrations, Cover and inside dust jacket — Author: Bea Seidler, Cartoonist: Dick Moore, Printer: Pisani Press, SF, ©1966
13. “Gemini” San Francisco Funky Features, Poster — Illustrator: Dick Moore, 1967
14. “End ‘o Steel”— Author: Glen Dines, Illustrator: Dick Moore, © The MacMillan Company, 1963
15. Chapel at Kalapana, HI. Greeting card. (Collection of the Dole Company) — Artist: Dick Moore, 1964
16. Retelling of a Jack London story — (Author and Publisher, unknown) Illustrator: Dick Moore, ©1964
17. Purity Stores, Newspaper ad — Agency: Hoefer, Dieterich & Brown, AD: Richard Wilson, Cartoonist: Dick Moore, 1962
