by Art Chantry:
art paul was the smartest graphic designer who ever lived. art paul designed the most famous logo in the history of the world. i imagine that this logo is even recognized by more people than hitler’s swastika. art paul was the art director of playboy magazine for 30 years!
ever single issue of playboy art paul designed had a pun riffing off the logo as the cover art theme. well, except the first issue – the ‘marilyn’ issue. art paul didn’t design the logo until the second issue. they needed a little “end of article’ gizmo, so art paul whipped up this image in under an hour.
he and hugh hefner decided to use it as the corproate logo for the magazine. at that point, there was no money, so he and hef did a handshake deal that said that art paul got to keep copyright control and ownership of the logo until which time in the future when they decided to do a buy-out. think about that for a minute. that is one SMART solution to the old problem of paying your logo designer. this way, if the thing becomes a hit, he can still make money from it. really smart.
so, thirlty years later, art paul decides to leave the magazine and retire and hef actually lived up to their deal. they worked a buy-out deal worth millions. keep in mind that playboy was notorious for screwing their artists by placing an “art for hire” phrase in the small type on the back of their paychecks – thus stealing the copyright and resultingly the entire careers of many many famous artists – simply because they cashed their checks. but, when it came to art paul, hef lived up to the deal. art paul got a hefty seven figures.
so, what did art paul do with his new wealth after he retired? well, he did what any red-blooded chicagoan would do – he bought part ownership of the white sox! did i say he was the smartest graphic designer who ever lived? scratch that.
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Jesse Marinoff Reyes:The excuse that ALL contemporary magazines default to. Being hidden “behind the counter” doesn’t explain everything from TIME to even now, MAD magazine, who were never hidden behind the counter. To put it over simplistically, “chickenshitism” does….Coulda been worse, he could’ve bought ownership in the Cubs! At least the Sox have competed for (and won) the Series!