Teaching in color.

• Author: Beaver, Allan
• Position: Extraordinary EDUCATION - Allan Beaver, HPU Artist in Residence - Interview

Chances are you've seen an advertisement or a piece of artwork created by Allan Beaver, HPU Artist in Residence, whether you've realized it or not. Before mentoring graphic design students at HPU, he developed the kind of career in advertising and design that is reminiscent to the popular AMC television series "Mad Men," though he'll tell you that the show only gets part of the golden age of advertising right. He worked in lower Manhattan for major advertising firms and created campaigns that introduced many household name items including Subaru, Matchbox Toy Cars and even color underwear for Jockey. He collaborated with renowned artists such as Andy Warhol, eventually became a partner at a major advertising firm and earned the title of "Top 100 Creative People in the United States." Today, he shares those experiences and his unique design skills with art and graphic design majors.

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Explain the evolution of your career and how you became known as one of the Top 100 Creative People in the United States?

My early work as a junior art director was in small but creative advertising agencies. It was there that I met and worked with Andy Warhol who did shoe illustrations for our client I.Miller. My next career move was to join CBS Network as a senior designer working under the legendary designer Lou Dorfsman. He was very influential in my design career, which led back to advertising and a position as senior art director at an agency that produced some of the best creative works of the time, including award-winning work on Talon Zippers and Yardley Fragrances in both print and TV. As my creative awards were recognized, I formed my own agency, Levine, Huntley, Schmidt and Beaver in NYC. The Huntley was Chet Huntley, the celebrated NBC newscaster. Over the course of 20 years, the agency won many creative awards, was named Agency of the Year by Adweek Magazine and was recognized as one of the best creative agencies of its time. In 1987, the agency was bought by a large advertising network, Grey Advertising, and we remained in their network as an autonomous agency until 1994.

In 1995 I founded Creative Consultancy, Beaver Reitzfield. In 1997 I was inducted into The New York Art Directors Club Hall Of Fame. I was honored to be among some of the most distinguished names in the creative universe.

How has your background in operating an agency impacted how you work with students?

The agency business is a "people business." Running an...