When I was illustrating, briefly, in the late 1970’s, desktop publishing hadn’t even been invented. If you wanted to add type to your image you had to use Letraset. (For those who don’t know, Letraset was the brand name for a rub-down lettering product. Dry-transfer lettering revolutionized graphic design in the 1960s.)
By today’s standards, the tools of a graphic artist’s trade back then were basic beyond belief. Resources made possible by computer technology today are such that an illustrator from the 1970s may just as well be a cave artist from the Stone Age.
I decided to take a trip down Memory Lane by digging out some illustrations I produced at that time. One ‘bread and butter’ commission I got was from the Rank Leisure organization. The brief: To conceive and produce illustrations for tickets to themed nightclub events. They fed me the themes. I had to come up with the ideas and images.
It got me wondering what I would come up with today, and how I would approach it. And what tools I might employ in the process. Back then it was a Rotring pen—and (yes) Letraset! I also thought it would make for a tantalising challenge. What would you come up with to publicize the following 1970s themed events?
PYJAMA PARTY
SKI PARTY
CINDERELLAS NIGHT
WILD WEST NIGHT
60s NIGHT
NEW ROMANTICS NIGHT
Here were my offerings some 40 years ago. I'm not proud of the artwork. It was very clunky. I've even added the colour. The originals were monochrome! The jury is out on the ideas…
Over to you!
