Art Paul

Arthur Paul (January 18, 1925 – April 28, 2018) was an American graphic designer and the founding art director of Playboy magazine.

At 91 years old, he put his drawings and writings into book form, creating projects focused on race, aging, animals, and graphic whimsy.

[4]Paul was working as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator in a small office on Van Buren Street next to the Chicago "L" tracks when in 1953 he was contacted by Hugh Hefner.

What convinced me to accept was that I was promised freedom to buy the kind of art most illustrators couldn't sell in 1953, the personal visions that lay closest to their hearts.

[5]The name of the magazine was changed to Playboy shortly before the first issue went to print, after Hefner was threatened with a trademark dispute over the "Stag Party" name.

The magazine's famous rabbit-head logo with cocked ear and tuxedo bow tie was developed by Paul for Playboy's second issue.

These included Franz Altschuler, Leon Bellin who illustrated Playboy's continuing 'Ribald Classic' feature, Roy Schnakenberg, Ed Paschke, Seymour Rosofsky, printmaker Mish Kohn and photographer Arthur Siegel.

[2] During Paul's years at Playboy, the magazine won hundreds of awards for excellence in graphic design and illustration.

On his inspiration behind Race Face, Art Paul said, "Many of my drawings of heads aim to reveal how we are haunted by the projections other mask us with and use to deride us, how our self-images are altered by violence, paranoia, shame, and dread.

The Institute of Design, IIT, honored him with its professional achievement award in 1983, and in 1986 he was elected to the Hall of Fame of the Art Directors Club.

[6] He received the Herb Lubalin Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Publication Designers, and in 2008 was made a Fellow of the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Artists.

[10] The Society of Typographic Arts gave him a special award for outstanding achievement in trademark design for the Playboy rabbit head symbol.

The Art Directors Club of Boston gave him an award for "inspiring, encouraging, and creating an outstanding showcase for contemporary artists".

An updated version of the exhibition, The Art of Playboy: From the First 25 Years, opened at Chicago's Cultural Center in 1978, and toured North and South American museums and universities.

The exhibitions included artists such as Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, Salvador Dalí, LeRoy Neiman, James Rosenquist, and Tom Wesselmann.