Art and Dawn Farm

Mort Walker

Comic artist, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954.

Mort Walker was born on 3 September 1923 in El Dorado, Kan. At the age of 11 he had his first comic published and by 12 he sold his first cartoon. At 15 he worked as a comic-strip artist for a daily newspaper and by 18 he became chief editorial designer at Hall Bros.

After military service and graduation from University of Missouri in 1948, he went to New York to pursue his cartooning career. His 200 first cartoons were rejected, but he was slowly gaining recognition among the editors for his talent. His big break came with Beetle Bailey and another success followed with Hi and Lois. Other noteworthy cartoons he has created includes Boner's Ark and Sam & Silo (with Jerry Dumas).

After more than 50 years in the business, Mort Walker still supervises the daily work at his studio, which also employs 6 of his children.

In 1974 he founded the Museum of Cartoon Art and in 1989 he was inducted into the Museum of Cartoon Art Hall of Fame. He has received numerous awards for his work and dedication to the art.

Dirk Fowler

Dirk Fowler is an internationally recognized graphic designer. His work has been honored by The Society of Publication Directors, Type Director's Club, American Advertising Federation and the American Poster Institute. His letterpress posters have been featured in design periodicals, Communication Arts, STEP Inside Design, PRINT, NOVUM and numerous books including New Masters of Poster Design: Poster Design for the Next Century, The Art of Modern Rock and Swag 2: Rock Posters of the 90s and Beyond, for which he co-wrote the forword. He has also exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide and lectured nationally. He curated the 2004 exhibition, Graphic Content: Art of the New Music Poster, which toured in the US in 2005 and 2006.

In addition to designing a wonderful letterpress poster for Dawn Farm, Dirk also let a group of students at Texas tech University to design posters to help "carry the message." Dirk RULES!

Chris Silas Neal

Chris Silas Neal is an illustrator and designer, born in Texas and raised in Florida and Colorado. His work has been published by a variety of magazines and book publishers and, has been recognized by Communication Arts, American Illustration, AIGA, Society of Illustrators, Society of Publication Designers, Art Directors Club of Denver, Print Magazine and Society of News Designers. He exhibits drawings at various galleries across the country. He currently works and lives in Brooklyn and teaches Illustration at Pratt Institute.

Chris has been generous with his talents in creating this poster!

SEYMOUR CHWAST

With Milton Glaser and Edward Sorel, Seymour Chwast founded Push Pin Studios back in 1954. The studio rapidly gained an international reputation for innovative design and illustration. Push Pin's visual language (which referenced culture and literature) arose from its passion for historical design movements and helped revolutionize the way people look at design.

Seymour Chwast's award-winning work has influenced two generations of designers and illustrators.

He is a recipient of the AIGA Medal, is in the Art Directors Hall of Fame, and has an honorary Ph.D. from the Parsons School of Design. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other major museums around the world. Chwast has exhibited and lectured widely.

We were honored that Mr. Chwast would lend his considerable talents to a poster for Dawn Farm!

JASHAR AWAN

Jashar Awan is an illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York.

His clients include The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, American Medical News, Dark Horse Comics, the Columbia Journalism Review, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, The Stranger, The Progressive, Dose, Rockpile, 2, Absolute Magazine, Storage and Dawn Farm.

He has had work exhibited at the Society of Illustrators and the American Illustration website.

Jashar was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Northern Virginia. In 2004, he received a BFA in Communication Design from Pratt Institute.

HENRY KING "HANK" KETCHAM
(March 14, 1920 – June 1, 2001)

Hank Ketcham was an American cartoonist who created the Dennis the Menace comic strip, writing and drawing it from 1951 to 1994. He received the Reuben Award for the strip in 1953. The strip continues today in the hands of other artists.

Ketcham was born in Seattle, Washington in 1920. He graduated from Queen Anne High School in 1937. Ketcham started in the business as an animator for Walter Lantz and Walt Disney. During World War II, Ketcham worked as a photographic specialist with the US Navy Reserve. In 1951 he started Dennis The Menace (known as Dennis in the UK), based on his own 4-year-old son. Hank contributed many original drawings and cartoon proofs for Dawn Farm’s annual charity auctions, and we proudly use the poster that features our old friend Dennis. Mr. Ketcham died of cancer in 2001—we miss him.

MAXIMILIAN BODE

Maximilian Bode was born, raised, and has failed to ever leave New York City. He attended Pratt Institute, and graduated with a BA in Communication Design. His current projects and interests include: editorial illustration, graphic design, web design, sequential illustration, drawing people on the subway and character design.

His clients include: The New Yorker, Vanity Fair Italy, Paste, XLR8R, Nickelodeon Magazine, Continental Magazine, Vibe, Fisher Verlag Press, Dose Magazine, UK Financial Times, Toro Magazine, Show People Magazine, High Times, The New York Times and San Francisco Magazine.

STEFANIE AUGUSTINE

Stefanie Augustine was one of the first artists kind enough to donate a poster to Dawn Farm.

Her clients include: The North American Review, Seventeen, Food and Wine, America, Utne Reader, HIV Plus, Yankee, Living in Stamford, Better Nutrition, Barnard College Magazine, The New York Times, The Humanist, Westchester Magazine, Consumer Reports, Llewellyn Publishing, Bust, The American Lawyer, and Boston Common Magazine.

JOHN SAYLES

Owners John Sayles and Sheree Clark founded Sayles Graphic Design in 1985 - and has an international reputation for creativity and innovative design.

Sayles Graphic Design has been honored for creative, innovative, and effective design. In addition to winning hundreds of awards, firm principals John Sayles and Sheree Clark are often asked to judge competitions and speak to associations and conferences in cities around the world. Both John and Sheree have also instructed college-level courses in graphic design topics, sharing their expertise with students just starting in the industry. Museums in Tokyo, Paris, and New York City count some of the firm's work among their permanent collections, including the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Their work is regularly featured in Communication Arts, Graphis, HOW magazine and Print magazine. We are very grateful for their generous help with both a poster and postcard!