Les Mason:
The Art Director

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Les Mason graduated as a graphic designer in California. He brought a contemporary West Coast design style that has expanded in Australia, into design fields ranging from packaging, advertising and editorial design to architectural graphics.
arrived in Melbourne at a pivotal moment in Australian graphic design history. When first arriving in Australia, Mason accepted a job as art director for the advertising company U.S.P. Benson in Melbourne. After his year-long contract ended, Les opened his own independent graphic design studio, one of the first in Melbourne. He saw an opportunity, where corporate companies were starting to see the value in graphic design. The design work seen in the consisted of justified type and traditional grid based layouts. Mason’s works in the show the drastic changes in design, through his clean, The transition from advertising art director to art director of Australia’s first food and wine publication highlights his creative freedom, and shows his and Mason’s influence from the Californian graphic design scene had made its way onto the pages of a small food and wine publication, and threw the idea of standard serif typography found in the 50’s out the window, and embraced the idea of colour and abstraction which manifested in work for Epicurean. What is an Art Director?

To be an art director, one must have their finger planted on the pulse of the design Zeitgeist, a flair for innovation, a taste for leadership, and a commitment to seeing a project through to the end. Art direction requires a vast skill-set. An understanding of spatial design, publication, photography, illustration, direction, graphics is needed. Traditionally, the title of art director best described the occupation of envisioning and overseeing all creative components towards a common goal. The title Art Director was first used in 1914 by Wilfred Buckland, an American artist who has been dubbed ‘Hollywood’s first Art Director’. Buckland’s work mainly revolved around set and production design. This was a male dominated field and the domain of construction coordinators, location managers and product managers. Buckland and Dr. Mehemed Fehmy Agha were among the first to break into the graphic and art directing field; Agha was the first declared magazine art director. These early art directors formed clubs to maintain a professional standard and to improve their financial and creative status, including establishing the Art Directors League in 1929, later renamed the Art Directors Guild, with the hopes of improving wages and working conditions for Art Directors.

From 1966, Les Mason art directed He acted as art director, designer, artist and photographer. Mason is credited with breaking the dominance of conservative English ideas about commercial art by promoting the concept and practice of graphic design in Australia. The work created for Epicurean showcased Mason’s ability to visualise unusual and unexpected assemblages of objects. and  are just a couple of examples where we get to see Mason ‘in action’ when executing his vision.
and from Les Mason’s practice demonstrate the care he took when designing and constructing his works. Mason's love of obscure and inconsistent typefaces are noticeable when looking at covers. Looking at this process, start to finish is a wonderful way to appreciate Les Mason's skills not only as a graphic designer, but also as a visionary, hands-on Art Director.

To understand Mason’s art direction, we can explore parallels in the processes of some of Mason’s peers, such as George Lois. Lois was the art director of for a decade, from 1962-72, the same ‘era’ in which Epicurean ran. Although the covers he created didn’t revolve around gastronomy and wine, they did have  shared with Mason. Sketches, opposing concepts and were familiar strategies to both designers, as well as consistent photography.

The use of transparencies and illustration can be found in works by designer Milton Glaser, like his ink pasteup designs for in 1966. Some of Glaser’s designs mirror Mason’s use of psychedelic motifs, like the ‘all-seeing eye’ on the back of the hand, as seen in his  poster, 1982

Lance Wyman’s art direction in projects such as  campaign poster of 2008 uses shape and colour in a manner reminiscent of Mason's patterns. Another example of this aesthetic can be found in the designs created for the where Wyman used layered 'ring' effect typefaces, that are also found in Mason's work.

Mason fully explored the visual potential in any problem, with an irreverence for preconceived and with respect and understanding for relationships between content, colour and form.