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Eric
Macguire claims that his biggest contribution to the Graphic Design was
as the founder of the Society of the Ambulant cheese, an exclusive Melbourne
club whose members dominated Australian Design in the fifties and sixties.
The way he tells it, he got the idea when he and Women's Day parted company
due to '...an altercation with the resident bean counter.' (The accountant
went on to win a Knighthood, and elevation to chairman of H&WT, no
mean feat.)
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Maguire,
meantime became a reluctant freelancer but missed the comraderie of the
studio. So he formedulated a plan to gather together at his place all the
designers and illustrators whose work he admired for talk, pasta, claret,
and cheese. It was probably unique as a club. There was no dues. It went
on moving from house to house for years, and every member was also a president.
Democracy at work. No secretary, No minutes, but lots of laughs |
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and many hours of design oriented conversation. Prior to his arrival in
Melbourne, Maguire had been art director of Murrays in Sydney, then Australias
biggest magazine publisher, and a newspaper layout man with Fairfax. Good
credentials; as a journo he rated A+ prior to1950. In the freelance years
that followed, he worked for most of the top studios and some outstanding
private clients. |
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When Mirka and George Mora opened their coffee shop in Exhibition Street,
it was Later, he took a job as an art director of Briggs & James, now
FCB. (Since James has been recognised master of the idiom, it was a hard
act to follow.)Maguire who did the packaging. Yet during those years, Maguire
organised the legendary Olympic Games Commercial art Exhibition, had worked
published in the Swiss magazine, Graphis, and was appointed to design a
record of her |
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Australian tour for HM the Queen (he was and is staunchly republican.) and
twice scored the top award for the best annual report. The ultimate international
recognition was the publishing of the massive book Who's who on Graphic
Art, in which only six aussies got a guernsey. He remained a fellow of the
ACIAA until the wheels fell off; and was also the first Australian to be
elected into the International Centre for typographic arts. A founder member
of the Melbourne art directors club, his most creative contribution when
he was elected president in 1961 was the launch of that long running series
of Annual seminars.
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By
that time Ron Walker; gun copywriter and Barbara Robertson , top fashion
artist of the day, had invited him to join a new kind of advertising agency,
owned by the creative department. The trio were immediately successful and
the agency eventually became NASW. People like Mimmo began their careers
there.
A trip to New York in the early sixties gained Maguire a personal interview
with Bill Bernbach of DDB, who enquired 'Whats all this alphabet soup on
your business card?' On his return, all the impressive initials got the
chop.
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While remembered as art director, designer, illustrator, calligrapher, and
photographer, his first love is typography. For twenty-five years now he
has been threatening to write a book about it.
Printers and platemakers respect him. He says that is the ultimate accolade.
He uses medals as paperweights. |
