1957 Chevrolet and Harry Borgman

Harry Borgman was my first boss at Campbell-Ewald. He was the head art director in the sales promotion group in 1957 and he and his assistant Paul Sameulson did all the Chevrolet sales promotion material. That included the catalogs for Chevrolet and Corvette that you see here in a visual history Harry put together as a self promotion piece. He also did the promotion for Dinah along with all the direct mail and zillions of other things Chevrolet required in 1957. There was so much stuff that a fellow named Tom Clark and I joined him at the beginning of 1958. Harry is a remarkable guy that has had a remarkable carrier in the art business. He is still active and is working for both fun and profit. When he left the sales promotion group he became the head art director for all Chevrolet magazine ads. After that, and all you Corvair enthusiasts will enjoy this, Harry left the agency to devote his efforts to illustration but was secretly re-hired to develop the announcement ad program for the introduction of the Corvair. He was hidden away in special office away from the agency and there did the first Corvair ads. It was all so secret that when he ordered type he ordered it from two or three type setters each getting only a portion of a headline. Then he assembled it so the headline made sense. If you have some of the first Corvair ads you have some of Harry's work. But Harry was just getting started in the art world. He did newspaper illustrations for Chevrolet and others as well as magazine and catalog illustrations. Then it was off to Paris, France where he did illustrations for all the major ad agencies and devoted the time not needed for commercial work to painting. He was there for six years and exhibited his work in the major galleries of Paris. Back in New York he was doing illustrations for the big ad agencies and exhibiting his paintings and sculpture in some of the best galleries. During this time and a little later he managed to publish more than a dozen books. Most are out of print now but he has two new ones in print. One is Digital Dreams-Exploring the computer as an art medium. If you have an interest in art and own a computer, you will want this book. If you have an interest in art, or even if you don't, you'll enjoy Harry's other book now for sale---Art Therapy-the funny world art. You can order both of these books at Harry's site harryborgman.com