More Summer Fun: We're Just Here for the Beer

When it came to beer advertising in the 1950s, it was a veritable Schlitzfest for famous illustrators! More than any other purveyor of suds, Schlitz ads were brimming with art by some of the biggest names in the business. Here are just a few examples...Jan BaletHarry FredmanHaddon Sundblom (or if not Sunny himself, some of the talented artists of the Sundblom Circle)Austin BriggsTom HallTran MawickeFrederic (Fritz) Seibel ... and finally, John Falter...

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More Summer Fun: Vector Art, 1961 B.A.I. (Before Adobe Illustrator)

Back in the stone age, around the time I was born (the 1960s), GMC ran this bold, bright, clean, simple-yet-elegant ad campaign for their line of trucks.I don't know if this is the way you sell trucks, but from a graphic arts perspective, I love it. In the realm of automotive advertising, I doubt you'd ever see a daring campaign like this today.For those of you born in the the years A.A.I. (After Adobe Illustrator) let me asure you, these were done...

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More Summer Fun: Five Fuchs and a Fawcett

Imagine it's 1959 and you're one of the most highly regarded illustrators in America, with a long and storied career. You've just landed a fabulous assignment: a series of paintings for a major national advertiser. Not only will this be a very high profile campaign, it'll also be extremely lucrative (I think I can conservatively estimate the payday was, in 1959 dollars, the equivalent of what would be at least $100,000 today). You've just completed...

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More Fun Stuff for Summer: Pete Hawley's Jantzen Ads

Summer mean its bathing suit time again and without a doubt, nobody ever illustrated the ideal beach wear body like Pete Hawley did for Jantzen in the '40s and '50s.Let's take a closer look, shall we?I presented a bunch of Pete Hawley's Jantzen ads when I wrote about his career a couple of years ago.... but here are a few more from the early '50s that I've managed to dig up since then.*Whew!* Is it just me or is it getting hot in here? One last...

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Some Fun Stuff for Summer, Part 1

Summer officially arrived late last week, so I've decided to lighten up for a while. Today's Inspiration will continue - but I'll be doing less intensive research and writing and posting more "just for fun" stuff. To kick things off, here are several pieces from a fun 1960 ad campaign for Sanka Instant Coffee.I 'test-drove' a couple of these images yesterday on Facebook and Flickr and was very pleased by the response they received. Many people...

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Digest This: William A. Smith Illos from RDCB

Let's finish up this week with a look at two stories by the great William A. Smith. The first, once again from a 1960 volume of Reader's Digest Condensed Books, is painted in Smith's typically impressive style.Whenever I look at Smith's work, Robert Fawcett comes to mind. While Smith's work is far less structurally rigid than Fawcett's, they share a certain visual sensibility that has at it's root the discipline of classical art training. (Incidentally,...

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