Hi Ann,
here is a short cut of my ways in life…ups and downs!
In 1962 Hallmark Cards was in Europe looking for young artists that they could hire for a year with salary and the trip paid. I was in the end of my 4 years education in University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. Then my principal and teacher told me that Hallmark Cards in Kansas City was interested in me, so I could go to Copenhagen and see them. It happened to be the same day as my graduation. I went there and met Mr. Hall (the founder) and his Art Director. They looked at my portfolio and told me I was welcome. They also found two others from Italy.
So after two months I was in Kansas City. That was a bewildering time in many ways, in culture and segregation at that time, for a young man without any experience. Well, I learned a lot and would have liked to stay but I couldn´t. My visa was just for one year and I had to be in Sweden for two years to go back again.
I worked in an agency in Stockholm and decided to go back to US after two years. During that time I met a girl who was going to San Francisco with a friend to open a dressmakers shop. Now I really had a reason to go back, so I went to San Francisco, lived with her in San Mateo and looked for a job. Walter Landor hired me at their ferryboat but I didn´t stay long. I didn´t liked it so I quit. I told my fiancée that I would like to go to New York. I had a friend there that I could stay with until she came later, so I went there.
After two days in NYC, I got a nice job at Lippincott & Margulies Design. It paid twice as much than in SF and I worked with big clients as American Airlines, Hudson Paper, MGM, etc…
My fiancée came to me in NYC and we got engaged. I got a letter from Logan & Carey in San Francisco who wrote that I was welcome to them now that I proved that I made it in NYC. How did they know I was there? Lippincott & Margulies raised my salary and wanted me to be design director but my fiancée was pregnant and wanted to go back to Stockholm, Sweden. So we did.
In Stockholm we built a family with two kids and a house. I was a successful designer and illustrator with a lot of jobs and good reputation. But I still hadn´t given up my longing for the US so we rented out our house for a year and immigrated to San Francisco. We bought a house in Millbrae, kids went to school. I got a rep, Peggy Hamik, and the work came in so everything was fine. After a year we had to go back to Stockholm to take care of our house and see what we should do. My wife went back to Stockholm 3 months before me. I had to sell the house in Millbrae and close my business.
When I arrived in Stockholm, I got a shock. My wife met another man and was going to marry him, it was a terrible time.
After a year I went back to San Francisco and started all over again. It wasn´t easy but I tried hard and slowly it was working. My kids came to me during summers. I worked hard to get a good reputation. I also got a rep in NYC, Frank Lavaty. Had a couple of shows with good artist and designers. Published in CA magazine, Graphis, Gebrauchgraphik and awards in SF and NYC.
But I felt lonely and missed my kids so I decided to move back to Stockholm in 1980.
I became more and more interested in making fine art and did so. It has been a lot of exhibitions all over Sweden, in Europe with several graphic biennials. It has also been postage stamps, illustrated books, TV stage design and so forth, also represented in museums. A book about my life, design and art was published 2004, unfortunately only in Swedish.
That was my way…
Lars
Click on the thumbnail for a larger view and scroll the image to view it all if your window is too small.
“The Illustrated Page”. I did these for self-promotion and printed them on a newspaper to show how well my black & white drawings would work on that paper for ads, as an example. It turns out that agencies and studios framed them and put them up on a wall instead of giving me a job. Nice, anyhow. 1975 – 1978
The Rest Of The Story…
Click on the thumbnail for a larger view and scroll the image to view it all if your window is too small.
“Lepidoptera” and “Trilogy”,
I was invited, together with Nicolas Sidjakov, to make two graphic prints each, limited edition for John Stacy. They were to be advertised in the Diners Club magazine, all over the USA.
Unfortunately, we did not get the money or the original artwork.
JS disappeared with it all. 1975