Thursday, November 24, 2022

Artist of the Day, November 24, 2022: Louis Fishauf, a Canadian collage, graphic artist (#1708)

 Louis Fishauf (1949)
I was born in a displaced persons camp in Ulm, Germany, and celebrated my first birthday on the boat en route to Canada. My family settled in Toronto where I grew up. After high school I attended the Ontario College of Art where I studied Communication Design, graduating in 1972.

My first job after art college was at Typesettra, a type house owned and operated by the late, great typographer Les Usherwood. I served an eight-month apprenticeship there, operating a photo typositor machine and learning the basics of lettering, typography and mechanical assembly.

In 1973, I went to work at Chatelaine, Canada's largest women's magazine, where I helped redesign the magazine for its changeover from letterpress to offset lithography printing. This marked the beginning of a 12-year stint in the magazine business, during which time I was responsible for the design and art direction of a succession of Canadian consumer magazines including The City, T.O., Executive and Saturday Night.

During my time as Art Director, Saturday Night was named "Magazine of the Year" by the National Magazine Awards Foundation, in part for the "consistent excellence of its design, photography and illustration".

In 1982, hoping to expand my professional horizons beyond the world of magazine publishing, I co-founded Reactor Art & Design Limited with artists' rep Bill Grigsby, setting up shop in the former premises of my father's Camden Street garment factory.

From 1982 to 1995 I was Reactor's Creative Director, working with clients like Roots Canada, Bata, Club Monaco, Molson Breweries and Canada Post among others, as well as launching Reactor Artwear, a line of artist-designed apparel that was distributed worldwide.

In 1986, I was introduced to the Apple Macintosh and became an early convert to digital design and imaging technology. In 1997, I was invited by Apple Computer to join the AppleMasters, an international group of 'recognized visionaries chosen from various fields' which includes such luminaries as Michael Crichton, Terry Gilliam, Richard Dreyfuss and Muhammad Ali.

In 1997 and 1998 I worked with Sympatico, Canada's largest Internet service provider, as Senior Design Consultant, directing the design and implementation of a site-wide interface and branding makeover. In 2000 I did the same for Tucows, a global leader in wholesale Internet services and software libraries.

In 2001 I designed the visual identity and user-interface for adbeast, a provider of online services to the advertising & tv production industries. Through my continuing association with adbeast as Consulting Creative Director, I have designed websites for a number of ad agencies and production companies including Avion Films, William F White and C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures.

From 2003 until its acquisition by Autodesk in 2006, I was consulting Creative Director for Alias Systems, one of the world's leading 3D software developers. As Creative Director I oversaw all of Alias' branding, marketing and visual communications.

From June 2007 to July 2008 I was Acting Art Director of Toronto Life magazine. During my year-long tenure, Toronto Life won two Canadian Newsstand Awards for Best Issue and Cover of the Year, and was named “Magazine of the Year” at the 2008 National Magazine Awards.

My work has been recognized by numerous awards in Canada and abroad, including the ADCC's Les Usherwood Award, named after my old mentor, and presented for lifetime achievement in the field of communication arts.

Design publications that have featured my work include Applied Arts, Print, Communication Arts, Adobe Magazine, HOW, I.D., IdN, MdN, Computer Artist, Design Graphics and Novum Gebrauchgrafik.

I have served on the CAPIC Digital Technology Committee, the Electronic Link Advisory Board, the Design Advisory Board of George Brown College, the Advisory Panel of h@bitat at the Canadian Film Centre, and the Boards of the Art Directors Club of Toronto and the Worldwide Publishing Consortium.

Currently I teach part-time at OCAD, design and art-direct Global Brief, a quarterly magazine on foreign affairs, and work on a variety of design projects from my home studio in Kettleby and my downtown office in Toronto’s Art & Design district.


© 2022. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Louis Fishauf or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

 Louis Fishauf
Anatomia
Averroses
Barbarella
Bathrobe
 
Shoot 'em up
Standing Rock
Hot Dawg!
Wheel of Destiny
Serpent
Heaven and Hell
Dinomite
Guaranteed Perfect

Multimedia
Get Lucky
Dagger
Twins
Mona Van Gogh
Forget me not
Comet
Terra
Masterpiece
Ecosystem
Cheers
Bonsoir
Lioness
Stripes
Stardust

Invision
Dresses
Big Top

1 comment:

  1. Louis Fishauf's work has been inspiring and fresh for decades. There have been many look-a-likes but Mr.Fishauf is an Original!
    PS. If it is at all possible, when posting artist's works to include the year of the piece's creation. Strictly for point of reference. ;)

    ReplyDelete