Art
Farnham Galleries - John Bowers
I was first taken with billboards as a child during family trips from Wisconsin to the Black Hills. I remember the signs for Wall Drug that would rise above the Great Plains, including "5-Cent Donuts Ahead." I collected my first billboard at age 12. In the early 70s, 7-Up was promoted on billboards as the "Uncola." I purchased, and still have, a print of the billboard designed by Peter Max depicting the "UnCity."
About 12 years ago I began working with billboard paper while teaching at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C.. This came as a result of a need for inexpensive paper for use in experimental book forms.
More recently I took a leave of absence from teaching to work in San Francisco at Landor, the world’s largest visual identity firm. While there I designed billboards as components in proposed visual identity systems. That experience gave me first-hand knowledge of the strategies employed in creating and positioning public messages, and in turn heightened my interest in their resulting implications.
John Bowers,
Visiting Artist
Visual Communication Program
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
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