When I first got out of art school I worked in-house at a Toronto ad agency as a storyboard artist. An older
illustrator, Bud Fente, was our in-house photo retoucher. This was pre-computer, so Bud did most of his work with an
airbrush.
Like most illustrators in the days before Google Image Search, Bud had amassed a huge collection of magazine clippings
- a swipe file - which he kept in a four drawer filing cabinet in his tiny office/studio.
My friend Dan ( another illustrator working in-house ) and I would often ask to look through Bud's files. The work
therein had been clipped from The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, Ladies Home Journal and other magazines during
Bud's early professional days in the forties and fifties.
Bud passed away about two years later and his sister, upon collecting his personal affects, generously allowed us to
keep the incredible reference file. Over the following ten or so years, the agency moved twice - and the file went with
us to be stashed in an unused corner and occassionally perused. When I finally left the studio for new digs, Dan kindly
allowed me to take Bud's files with me.
More time passed and the file moved again, this time from my last Toronto studio to my home studio. I often pulled
folders of clippings out for inspiration on one illustration job or another, but for the longest time I enjoyed the treasure
trove of classic illustration in isolation.
One day about four years ago, as I flipped through one file after another, I decided to scan in a particular illustration
I much admired and email it to a handful of illustrator friends. I titled the email "Today's Inspiration".
It was well recieved, and my friends encouraged me to send out another the following day.
At first I scanned only clipped pages from Bud's files but as my own interest and knowledge grew, I started acquiring
old magazines to expand the files.
So began a daily emailing that now is received by nearly two hundred people on four continents. Some I have invited
to join, some have been refered to the list by other members. Most are illustrators but there are art directors, designers,
animators, students and academics on the list as well.
Now at last I'm starting to archive portfolios of all the scans I've done since starting Today's Inspiration so that
people who love illustration from this period as much as I do will have a quick and easy reference source.
If you would like to join the Today's Inspiration list, just click the link below and put "sign me up" in the subject
line.
