Australian decimal currency banknotes have a fascinating design history. A 1968 Penrose Annual article by renowned graphic designer Alistair Morrison provides a detailed account of the working methods of the team of graphic designers who collaborated on Australia’s first decimal currency banknotes. In early 1963 the Commonwealth Government announced that a new decimal currency system […]
Graphic design
Here there be Tygers
I have a real interest in design history and I often find inspiration from early styles of graphic art. I recently acquired another copy of The Penrose Annual from a second-hand book store and as usual it contains a treasure trove of images and designs. I love this old advertisement for Kodak in the style […]
The Penrose Annual, Volume 50, 1956
As an art and graphic design student I often pored over the Penrose Annual collection in the art school library. They were a treasure trove of printing techniques, typeface designs, advertising artwork and illustrations, and I would be enthralled as I turned the pages. I couldn’t believe my luck recently when I found a copy […]
Book cover and author website
Tasmanian author Russell Kelly approached me to design and illustrate a book cover for his new novel Only The Empty Sky. I loved the story that Russell had written and quickly became very inspired by the challenge of producing a classical natural history style illustration to suite the tone of the text. Developing the concept […]
Riding the Devil’s Highway
I have known Don Knowler for many years — we worked together at the Mercury before Don retired a little while ago. I illustrated many of his weekly columns on Tasmanian native birds and wildlife, and it was a great pleasure to work with someone who has such a deep interest in nature and wildlife […]
In Mawson’s Footsteps
In Mawson’s Footsteps was a three-part magazine series published by the Mercury in partnership with the Tasmanian Government and Norske Skog, Boyer. The series commemorated the 100th anniversary of Douglas Mawson’s expedition to Antarctica in 1912, and I was very excited when given the task of designing the three magazines. This presented the opportunity of […]