Post #491422 by quickiki on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 8:26 AM

I had the privilege of working at the "real" Ad Art many years ago, shortly before they went belly-up. The "current" Ad Art is really a sales front who licenses the name and subcontracts the manufacturing. I know one of the former floor managers, who stayed around until the bitter end (I believe it was around the end of 2000 or beginning of 2001) and he said that the parent company at the time had them destroy literally thousands and thousands of documents including drawings, photographs and artist renderings as part of their final liquidation. Some of the more impressive renderings landed in the hands of a few of the managers, some went back to the artists who created them, most were trashed, much to the dismay of the old timers.

Ad Art at its peak in the 60's through the late 80's, was truly an amazing company to work for in terms of scale and artistic talent in the sign industry. They had offices in Stockton (their main manufacturing facility and corporate headquarters), Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Dallas. Their sign presence was evident all over the United States and the world. Their work in Vegas and Reno covered some of the biggest names of the great, classic, old style casinos. Ad Art in its heyday, probably had the most talented sign display artists and craftsmen on its roster and was considered a true innovator in the industry.

The main art director was Charles (Chuck) Bernard, who was a visionary when it came to signage as a statement of style, culture and artistic merit, and was definitely at the helm around the time of the Islander's inception, although I don't know if he personally designed the sign. His architectural renderings were airbrushed masterpieces of gouache, watercolor and ink, often coveted by the clients and sales staff. His work decorated the halls and offices of manangement until the end. As far as I know, he's still around, but don't know where he lives presently. He has written a book about his sign work, although I believe it is extremely rare.

Another Ad Art artist, Betty Willis actually designed the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign when she worked at Western Sign, which is still one of the most recognizable signs on the planet. Betty was a very sweet and humble person, who in my mind, created some of the greatest Googie signage for Ad Art during her tenure and remained active with the company well into her 70's. Don't know if she lives in L.A. or Las Vegas, but she could also have been involved in the Islander's sign design as well.

[ Edited by: quickiki 2009-11-02 08:27 ]