Rifling through the Ashley Archive for something Eastery I came across this illustration from an ad. for ICI Terylene Fillings for duvets. OK it's not very religious, but it is thought-provoking and there are chicks coming out of eggs. Religion does come into it a bit, because if you were a graphic designer with a complete set of Magic Markers in the seventies, then you worshipped at the shrine of the master illustrator Tony Meeuwissen (pronounced May-verson). We used him at Wolff Olins for McVitie's biscuits packaging, and he painted Michael Wolff's back garden gate with a fox asleep under a moonlit sky. Many will remember his superb Penguin book jackets - particularly for Billy Liar, (Gerry Barney in our studio had much to do with the artwork), but it was with illustration that Tony made our jaws drop open with disbelief at the meticulous nature of his impossibly painstaking work. You will probably have also licked the backside of a Meeuwissen Royal Mail stamp, and I show the duck picture here to bring seasonal greetings to fellow bloggers and commentators. Click on the image and just revel in all the duck and water details. On top of it all he's cheekily put his own book The Witch's Hat on the windowsill, and the tapir trademark he did for his agent in a frame up on the dragonfly-wallpapered wall. Happy Easter.
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
5 days ago
8 comments:
The 'Woodbine' cover is one of my all time favourite designs - It's facing outward from my bookshelf as I type this. I saw the film long before I read the book. It's a good read, but I prefer the movie.
You mentioned 'at Wolff Olins' - do you mean the time when you walked passed the back gate?
Millymollymandy. You naughty girl. The truth is that I really did think I worked in this old butterscotch factory in Euston in the mid-seventies, but somebody else keeps telling me I only saw the name in a telephone directory. Maybe I was in fact just the window cleaner, looking in on the Magic Markering like Jude the Obscure listening to lectures through Christminster college windows. Anyway, I keep looking at your picture and am entertaining the improbable thought that perhaps I know you, possibly in a Biblical sense.
Teninchwheeler: You're the first person I've encountered who also holds this Penguin cover in due reverence. For those who haven't seen it, it's the Wills Woodbine ten cigarette packet with the text altered to read 'Billy Liar' and the author's name- Keith Waterhouse. Even the back is the reverse of the packet. Think I'll go and light-up a wartime economy one now in some kind of inappropriate homage.
Peter, what an extraordinary illustration. I particularly like the duckling firing the air-powered frog into the air, and the bullrush spindles on the landing. Smashing. What a clever, clever man Tony Meewissen is. Or was? Hope he still is, as opposed to was. I still am, as opposed to not. And I enjoy every minute. In proportion of course.
Worryingly close examination reveals that, I think, its raining cats and dogs outside too. Well found Peter and Happy Easter. By the way..... It's the Hallaton Bottle Kickinhg on Easter Monday. A must!
After the week I've had, the Hallaton Bottle Kicking is very appealing. And I can reassure Fred that Mr. Meeuwissen is, as far as I know, still at it, working his paint underneath bubbles of water. I have a 1970s letter from him, precisely written in tiny words and posted,(recycled), in an equally small brown envelope, with the words 'Welsh Blood Transfusion Service' neatly crossed-out.
When things start getting overly logical, the attraction disappears.
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