Wednesday, February 25, 2009



The new Corvette for '63 was something else. For the first time you could own a roadster like this or what we now call a split-window coupe. There was an outdoor board for each line of Chevy offerings but I have only two. This one and the big Chevy below. The story of the word "Exciting" is related below. This illustration was in color and as I recall it was a black Corvette so not too different from our picture here. This may have been done by Dave Lindsay as well as the Chevy below.

This 1963 Chevrolet Announcement Poster has an illustration by one of the best car illustrators to come out of Detroit--Dave Lindsay. He was amazing in that he could paint a car like this in record time and still deliver an illustration few could match. He didn't do the people but that may have been because he had so much work he didn't have the time. The word "Exciting" was added to the advertising concept being used, at the last minute by the then board chairman of Campbell- Ewald, Ted Little. There were several more boards involved--one for each car line. I had some difficulty trying to find a good way to add the word. Finally I decided that it should look like someone had taken black paint and added it to our board. The art studio made several attempts at the lettering but came up with nothing I felt was right. Then I put several layout pads and some black poster paint and brushes in the hallway at the GM building where our offices were and asked everyone to paint a the word exciting. Even the secretaries tried it. I don't remember who did this one but it was somebody on our staff. When you are making ads things sometimes do not turn out the way you intended but you make do with whatever the situation turns out to be. (I wish I had a better reproduction of a very great car illustration.)

A really beautiful illustration of a 1961 Chevy that was never used so far as I can determine. I wish I had a better reproduction of it. I'll bet the car was done by one illustrator and the people by another. That's the way studios sometimes worked in those days. Car art was a very special skill and those best at it may or may nor have been good with figure illustration but there was always somebody that was very good at it. I don't remember why this board didn't run but now it can be seen. I'll bet you wish you had one of these great Chevrolets now. They are worth a ton.