Monday 23 July 2007

No comment, says Qantas on news of a new logo, last updated in 1984. I can feel my age with this news. The spokesman "refused to comment", says The Sydney Morning Herald.

Full exposure is due tomorrow.

The news comes on the same day I upload four images to my Web site. The timeline page covering 1991 to 2000 was a bit thin compared to others, so it's a good feeling to get them up there. The drawings for these magazine covers were done in 1995 and show, I think, the early emergence of a popular trend nowadays: the retro cartoon cover.

There's probably no doubt the style was also influenced by the pervasive manga magazines in shops in Tokyo. You could see them every corner you turned.

My boss at the time, Karen Severns, loved (and loves) them. With only a black marker, a few photos Photoshopped, and the assistance of the production company (to add red splashes in the grey), I made these images.

Most people won't get the narratives. The company I worked for makes automation products, and integrates them in clients' plants. Food, petrochemical, automotive, electrical and other plants. As well as commercial and government building automation. So it's a fairly rarefied field.

Our audience would have got the jokes, though. It comprised mainly non-Japanese engineers who worked for our joint venture partner, Honeywell. The company was bought out by Japanese shareholders in 1997 and I moved into marketing the products.

"I will always remember those five years and the International Communications Group with pride and fondness," says Karen.

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