The AGDA Paperpoint Hall of Fame

Objectives

The AGDA Paperpoint Hall of Fame seeks to rescue from the obscurity of time people who have made a powerful contribution to their profession.

It has an educative role in reminding us that the profession has a proud history of brilliant people, the names and work of whom are not readily accessible in the everyday business of education and practice.

It gives us the opportunity to pay homage to those who, though not necessarily blessed by fashion, fortune or fame, produced uniquely high standards of work during their working lives and influenced deeply their contemporaries and the following generation.

Max Robinson

AGDA Paperpoint Hall of Fame 2008

Two inductees will be announced at the AGDA National Awards gala presentation dinner event, Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide, South Australia on Saturday 25 October 2008.

History

Since its inception, Gary Wilson, who heads Paperpoint, has been a driving force behind the AGDA Paperpoint Hall of Fame. Here he reminisces about the early days.

Interview conducted in 2002 by the late John Hilden.

John Hilden: When did you first think that a Hall of Fame was a possibility?

Gary Wilson: I became aware of Halls of Fame in the 60s, in the USA. I was travelling around, and it seemed that there were Halls of Fame for everything. The idea of an Australian Hall of Fame dedicated to, I don’t know, paper or art or design, probably came to me when I saw the ‘star’ footpath outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in LA I just thought it would be great to make serious use of that sort of accolade. Much latter, when I was in Mildura for the First Asia-Pacific Design Conference, I began to see that we could create a Hall of Fame for designers. Actually, the idea popped into my head when I was driving back through Birchip, eating a fried dim sim.

JH: And what did you do after you finished your dim sim?

GW: I had a chat with Trevor Flett and Wayne Rankin. They liked the idea, so the proposed Hall of Fame started to look real. We wrote a proposal to AGDA, then The Paper House made some money available. And we were off.

JH: Did you organise some sort of consulting committee?

GW: That was the first step. We needed a workable decision-making mechanism to choose the inductees.

Trevor and Wayne helped at the outset, but now things are much more formal. Max Robinson, John Nowland and Mimmo Cozzolino meet, and then they talk things through with Rita Siow, AGDA’s General Manager.

JH: How many Hall of Famers are there?

GW: Not many. It’s very hard to get in, very exclusive. We settled into a pattern of having new nominees every two years, and we’ve only been going for ten years. So we have nine members - Les Mason, Richard Beck, Gordon Andrews, Max Forbes, Lance Sterling, Eric McGuire, George Kral, Arthur Leydin and Doug Annand, Geoffrey and Dahl Collings, Bruce Weatherhead, Alex Stitt. And there’ll be more this year.

JH: Have you any plans to establish a special space that would be devoted to the winners and their work? A real Hall of Fame?

GW: Of course. I fantasise about getting an old Mechanics’ Institute hall, or something like that. We could transform it with neon and flags, and it could become a Temple of Graphic Art. People would travel vast distances to worship at the feet of the Masters.... Did I mention that I fantasise?

JH: Has a pattern formed? Is there a link between the inductees? What informs the selection process?

GW: Max is the unofficial archivist. He’s been around, and he’s known the practitioners, all the greats. Sometimes he comes up with names that I’ve never heard, but the others know them. And, at the end of the long process of consideration, any one of the nominees could be a role model for today’s young designers. Pretty soon today’s young designers will be the Old Lions of the industry, and someone else might nominate them, or they might be doing the nominating. The thing is, there should be a continuum. Designers should be able to look at the Hall of Fame and aspire to be part of it.

JH: What does the Hall of Fame hope to give to young designers?

GW: Already there’s a pattern emerging. The evolution of Australian graphic design is being revealed through the celebration of its respected practitioners. Today’s designers, and the ones who will follow, could learn from this pattern. It’s liberating. Already, the Hall of Fame shows that the passionate belief in originality is a constant that it’s possible to go down one’s path and still be part of continuing history. My hope is that the young will see themselves and their work as part of a tangible movement. We don’t much care where the movement goes - the important thing is that it continues.

JH: On a personal level, what do you gain from the Hall of Fame?

GW: I’m not a designer; I’m a man who has spent his life in the paper industry. But it’s been my pleasure to work with designers, and to help them wherever possible. But I’ve always been envious of designers. They create the visual environment in which we live. They fashion and elevate our sense of aesthetic excellence. They leave their mark on the world and make it a better place. I’ve always wanted to do this, but I can’t design. I’m not a practitioner, just an appreciator. My role is peripheral. I sympathise, empathise and try to inject some good humour. And I get a lot of pleasure out of introducing graphic designers to each other. I like to bring people together. And I value the friendships that I’ve formed with my graphic design clients over many years. So, with all that said, I suppose that my principal pleasure comes from knowing that the giants of the industry will have a place in which they can be admired. And that the Hall of Fame provides a focus for that admiration.

JH: If there could be a dedicated building for the Hall of Fame, where would it be?

GW: Melbourne. Paperpoint is based in Melbourne, and the work of establishment was done in Melbourne.

JH: Not Birchip? I see an enormous dim sim...

GW: [laughs] It’s tempting, I suppose. But the people we honour are geniuses, not dimmies.

JH: Any thoughts about the future?

GW: The future is assured. The young designers create great work, and I’m as envious of them as I was of the ones who came before. Graphic design is the feather between our toes. It tickles us and tantalises us, and makes us aware of the new and the promising. I like to think that the AGDA Paperpoint Hall of Fame will continue to honour the wonderful men and women who apply that essential feather.

Postscript: Since this interview, Richard Haughton (deceased) and Lyndon Whaite in 2004, Frank Elditz (deceased) and Brian Sadgrove in 2006, have been inducted into the AGDA Paperpoint Hall of Fame