Syd Brak was a
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
-based
illustrator
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...
. He is particularly recognized for his top selling poster ''Long Distance Kiss''.
Early career
In the mid-1970s, Syd was awarded the 'gold award' for design and illustration in Johannesburg South Africa by
Bill Bernbach. In the late 1970s, Syd moved to London. He started working as a freelance
airbrush
An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that atomizes and sprays various media, most often paint, but also ink, dye, and make-up. Spray painting developed from the airbrush and is considered to employ a type of airbrush.
History
Up unt ...
artist. He has done work for companies including
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...
,
MSN
MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps provided by Microsoft. The main webpage provides news, weather, sports, finance and other content curated from hundreds of different sources that Microsoft has partnere ...
, and
Levi's
Levi Strauss & Co. ( ) is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's ( ) brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, ...
.
The ''Kiss series''
The ''Kiss series'' that so inspired designer Martin Kidman was another big hit for Athena. Created by Syd Brak, an artist from an advertising background, it was planned specifically to appeal to teen and pre-teen girls who, Brak says, "aspire to maturity and sophistication". Pictures such as ''First Kiss'', ''Forget Me Not'' and ''Long Distance Kiss'' all contained some mini- narrative that chimed with the adolescent psyche, hinting picturesquely at the dramas of teenage melancholy, lost love and heartache. The icy, mysterious girls, their faces bleached out, their eyes smothered in electric blue eye shadow and their lips a streak of glossy red, inspired many imitations with cheap make-up. They also apparently inspired last year's homage to the 1980s in '' The Face'' which featured on its cover a photograph of airbrush-style perfection. The same photographer, Sølve Sundsbø, followed it up with his recent ad campaign for hip design house Bottega Veneta
Bottega Veneta S.r.l () is an Italian luxury fashion house based in Milan, Italy. Its product lines include ready-to-wear, handbags, shoes, accessories, jewellery and fragrances.
Bottega Veneta is headquartered in Milan, Italy, with its main at ...
- the collection, needless to say, inspired by 1980s style.
In 1982, his poster, ''Long Distance Kiss'' was the top selling poster in the world. It was sold in
Athena
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...
art retail shops.
Syd Brak was one of the most influential artists of the 1980s, perfecting an airbrush technique that allowed him to create some of the most iconic images of that decade.
Recent career
His retro style posters captured the new romantic / punk era of the late 70s early 80s. They have been sold by the hundreds of thousands. Syd did book covers for authors including
John Grisham
John Ray Grisham Jr. (; born February 8, 1955) is an American novelist, lawyer, and former politician, known for his best-selling legal thrillers. According to the Academy of Achievement, American Academy of Achievement, Grisham has written 37 ...
,
Wilbur Smith
Wilbur Addison Smith (9 January 1933 – 13 November 2021) was a Northern Rhodesian-born British-South African novelist specializing in historical fiction about international involvement in Southern Africa across four centuries.
He gained a f ...
and
Ken Follett
Kenneth Martin Follett (born 5 June 1949) is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 198 million copies of his works. His books have been sold in over 80 countries.
Follett's commercial breakthrough came with ...
.
References
General
''The Independent'' Jan 2007* An academic essay on Airbrush Art and Syd Brak: Kassaveti, U.-H. (2019). “Sharp Sybaritic” Retrofuturistic Deco Realism: Some Preliminary Notes on the 1980s Airbrush Art. Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, 10(2), 89–117. https://www.academia.edu/41973677/Kassaveti_U.-H._2019_._Sharp_Sybaritic_Retrofuturistic_Deco_Realism_Some_Preliminary_Notes_on_the_1980s_Airbrush_Art._Imaginations_Journal_of_Cross-Cultural_Image_Studies_10_2_89-117
External links
Syd Brak images at the Folio illustration agency
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brak, Syd
South African illustrators
Living people
Date of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)
Artists from London
20th-century South African artists
South African expatriates in the United Kingdom