Designer Desire: John Hanna

Montage of John Hanna 'Country Fair' magazine cover illustrations

We mentioned John Hanna in a previous post a few years ago, but haven’t actually featured him as an artist in his own right before.

A native of Australia, John Hanna (1919-1992) was an illustrator and cartoonist; his professional career began with him drawing cartoons for newspapers in Sydney. We were introduced to his work through the cover artwork that he created for Country Fair Journal during the 1940s.

Apparently, he also worked under the names Jack Hanna, J. Hanna, Wiz, J. C. Hanna and John Charles Hanna. His cartoons featured annually in Australia: Week-end Book between 1943 and 1946, where he signed his work as ‘Wiz’.

Some of his Country Fair designs have recently been reproduced by designer-maker, Jenny Duff gracing coasters and table mats. Original copies of Country Fair are available to buy on Amazon and eBay.

In a comment on the Asbury & Asbury website, Hanna’s son, helpfully shared some insight into his father’s work history:

My father started as a cartoonist, mainly with the Argus in Melbourne, until he emigrated to England in 1947. He got a job in the art department of S. H. Benson, the first advertising agency to be registered as a limited liability company, famous for it’s Guinness advertising and for employing Dorothy Sayers in the “literary” department. About 1950 he went freelance and mainly designed posters and other ad material for a variety of brands such as Walls ice cream, Sugar Puffs and Peak Frean biscuits. His Walls ice cream “deckchair” poster is visible on Walls ice cream UK 1950 Prints All Posters.co.UK. He was a member of the Society of Industrial Artists, now renamed the Society of Chartered Designers, and some of his work is featured in their 1951 publication Designers in Britain 3. Worried about the increasing use of photography on advertising he accepted the offer of a job as art director of an ad agency in Sydney in 1961. After a few years he went freelance again which enabled to extend his work to book illustrations etc. One of these books was about folk dancing written by his daughter Nicky Lo Bianco. He lived in Avalon Beach, near Sydney, until he died in 1992.

Additional image credits:
Fulltable | Muybridge’s Horse

Designer Desire: Nicholas Huggins

Montage of Nicholas Huggins designs

I’m embarassed to admit that this is only the second time that we’re featuring a Trinidadian artist in our Designer Desire series. The first was textile designer, Althea McNish – and that was way back in 2018!

Huggins is from a completely different generation to McNish, and their work and methods are poles apart. Huggins produces much of his work digitally on a computer using Adobe Illustrator.

I was introduced to Nicholas Huggins’ work not that long ago via a Global Voices article. I was struck by his bold use of colour and creativity in his hugely successful project that was part of 36daysoftype.

In it, he interpreted the vernacular architecture of the Caribbean in his own style, using all the letters of the alphabet and the numbers 0-9. He created a limited-edition print of the project which sold out within weeks.

The subjects of his illustrations are often subjects that are Trinidad & Tobago icons; rum, carnival, calypso, the beach, food & drink, folkloare and day to day views such as gas stations, parlours and roadside vendors.

The 36daysoftype illustrations are included at the top of our montage and below in a film where Nicholas talks about the project and the follow-up one.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Nicholas Huggins | Creative (@nicholashugginscreative)

All image credits: © Nicholas Huggins

Designer Desire: Eric Drooker

Montage of Eric Drooker artworks
New York city born Eric Drooker (b. 1958) is a magazine illustrator, graphic novelist, animator and painter.

In 1994, he won the American Book Award for his first graphic novel, Flood! A Novel in Pictures (cover artwork, bottom left in the montage above). His second, Blood Song is soon to be released as a feature film.

He has designed dozens of covers for the New Yorker magazine. He collaborated with Allen Ginsberg on both Illuminated Poems and Howl: A Graphic Novel.

Find his graphic novels, books of postcards and other books he’s illustrated on Amazon.

In the film below, Eric Drooker is interviewed about his friendship with Allen Ginsberg and designing the animation for Howl starring James Franco.

Portrait of Eric Drooker by Peter Riede, 2013Peter Riede©

All other credits: Eric Drooker©

Designer Desire: Emily Gravett

Montage of Emily Gravett book illustrations

Originally from Brighton and now resident in rural Wales, Emily Gravett is a children’s book author and illustrator.

In 2005, Emily won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for her first book, Wolves:

I wrote Wolves while I was at university, and it feels strange looking at it now, knowing that I wrote it without the faintest idea it would change my life.

She won the award for a second time in 2008 with Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears. This was also the year in which she was the official illustrator for the UK’s World Book Day.

A Song of Gladness written by Michael Morpurgo (which Emily illustrated) will be published later this month (April 2021). Prior to this collaboration, she has illustrated only one other author’s work, Cave Baby, by Julia Donaldson. Both Morpurgo and Donaldson have held the post of Children’s Laureate.

Many of Emily’s books are available to purchase on Hive and from Waterstones.

Here’s Emily with Dilys, her mischievous Bedlington Terrier/Whippet cross, one of my favourite dogs on Instagram!

All images Emily Gravett©

 

 
 
 
 
 
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