InsideOut: Turning back time at IllustrationX

Words by Garrick Webster

Today, IllustrationX is a world-leading illustration agency, but that hasn’t always been the case. The company has grown from a small studio representing artists when it was founded in London in 1929 to become a worldwide entity. To understand more about our roots, we decided to have a chat with John Havergal, who ran the agency under the name Garden Studio between 1969 and 1996.

Garden Studio Logo by Mark Oliver

As a young man, John was an adventurer. He left national service with the Royal Artillery as a lieutenant, trekked and hitch-hiked across Africa, and worked for the Unilever toiletries brand Hudson & Knight in Rhodesia before helping his father found a frozen foods wholesaler. With a keen commercial eye and an interest in art going back to his childhood, John entered the creative industries looking for a new challenge. Borrowing £2,500 from some friends, he bought the Kathleen Boland Studio in 1969.

“It was run by Kathleen, Judy and Moira Boland, three Irish sisters who were of retirement age and looking for a buyer,” says John. “There were a dozen illustrators, but that was a fraction of what they employed in their heyday.”

“The studio in Broad Court, Covent Garden, was a Dickensian second-floor flat with three rooms. The reception was Moira’s realm, furnished with ancient waist-high oak stools, a khaki filing cabinet and counter-height desks. The edge of one desk was hand-carved with mottos such as ‘Keep your own counsel’ – good advice! Looking out onto The Royal Opera House, the art and portfolios room was furnished with plan chests. Kathleen’s interview room had a handsome tooled brown leather-topped oak desk, which I occupied when not out getting work. Judy, who trained me and introduced me to the studio’s clientele, wore a hat with a distinctive pheasant’s feather.”

Learning the business from the Boland sisters, John was taking over an agency with character. Its strength came from its ability to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the growing use of illustration in advertising during the 1950s and 60s, which meant illustrators could command better fees and exercise greater influence. Artists came to Kathleen and asked her to represent them.

Although there were only about 12 illustrators when John joined the business, there was an impressive portfolio for him to build upon. They included the successful children’s book illustrators Esmé Eve, Anne Dalton and Doreen McGuinness. Joan Thompson and Mike Fisher were versatile illustrators working in the advertising market. The botanical illustrator Rosie Sanders, who is still with IllustrationX, became much sought after in packaging and her sublime fruit imagery became almost ubiquitous. The children’s book illustrator Alan Baker was relatively new at the time and went on to win awards. He too remains with IllustrationX.

Doreen McGuiness

Rosie Sanders

 

Success as Garden Studio

As the new proprietor, John changed the name of the agency to Garden Studio. “It was a no-brainer for both promotion of the agency and in the creative industries,” he says. “With Saatchi & Saatchi, Conran Associates, Dorling Kindersley and countless advertising firms and design groups, Covent Garden was a thriving creative hub. Boland Studio had a small remaining resonance, but Garden Studio conjured up the classy, outdoor, go-to, arty image I felt would have maximum appeal to clients and artists.”

Alongside the rebrand, John was successful in making the agency – and illustration, generally – visible to potential clients. He managed to get Garden Studio by-lined along with the artists in Reader's Digest, and in titles by Time Life Books and Dorling Kindersley. The agency’s artists created Royal Mail stamps, and other clients included government departments such as The Crown Agents and the Department of National Savings. While other illustration agencies regarded packaging as beneath them, Sainsbury’s, John Lewis and Tesco wanted to develop the perception of their products via illustration and became regular clients.

Advertising in Creative Review and in Nick Gould’s creative directories, and the agency’s fashionable Covent Garden location, helped win new clients in advertising, packaging, publishing and editorial. Meanwhile, John improved the company’s processes by automating its billing, collecting and forwarding of fees, keeping the artists happy by ensuring they received payments on time. In 1991, he moved Garden Studio to Ganton Street, in nearby Soho.

 

Creative stars

Even without the internet, John was able to turn illustrators into stars – at least within the creative industries and the wider world of art. “Patrick Oxenham and Kenneth Lilly, with their brilliant natural history illustrations, were among the Garden Studio stars, giving me excellent sales talk material,” says John.

Patrick Oxenham

“The Joseys with Kira Josey’s meticulous watercolours helped us land well-paid advertising series for Knorr. A lovely children’s book illustrator, Doreen McGuinness, enabled me to land Peter Usborne’s children’s book series. At that time Peter was one of Robert Maxwell’s publishing managers but later formed his own publishing company. Liz Pepperell, a nature and garden illustrator still represented by IllustrationX, became sought after by the likes of Reader's Digest and the Sunday press magazines.”

Rod & Kira Josey

By celebrating artists who fell outside the parameters of traditional watercolour, John helped to expand the industry’s perception of illustration itself. Including humour, conceptual, early computer graphics and other styles in the portfolio, Garden Studio kept pace with the needs of its clients from the 1970s and into the 80s and 90s, when advertising grew to become a significant sector in the economy.

 

Making an impact

Looking back, John remembers an industry full of opportunity, energy and imagination. It was glamorous and exciting. Skilled artists provided a cost-effective, fun, charming and harmless way of engaging vast demographic swathes with the products and services of the clients they served. Illustrators played a small but crucial role by producing of-the-moment pieces in advertising and design, and all the sectors they serve, as well as publishing, editorial, packaging and more.

“The most impressive and interesting job I remember is walking into Sainsbury’s HQ on spec and pitching Rowan Barnes Murphy’s portfolio to their head of marketing,” says John. “It resulted in a £30,000 commission to design point-of-sale dressage for the wine aisle, to be rolled out to their supermarkets. The Royal Mail stamps illustrated by Patrick Oxenham and Ken Lilly was another big one. It was worth thousands and led to an invitation to the Franklin Mint in Pennsylvania where I walked from backstage into the full glare of a vast audience to meet the boss and speak about postage stamps.”

By the 1990s, John was extending Garden Studio’s horizons abroad, seeking business across Europe and forging alliances with the Marie Bastille agency in France in 1992 and Die Illustratoren in Germany in 1993. Internationalisation has been a key aspect of the agency’s growth and John’s commercial awareness, inventiveness and appreciation of what illustration can bring have remained in the company’s DNA. By the time he sold Garden Studio to Harry Lyon-Smith in 1996, John had given the business qualities it would use to grasp new opportunities in the digital age, and begin writing the next chapter in its history.

“Looking back, what I remember most is what fun it was dealing with artists and art buyers who were so professional, dependable and pleasant to work with,” concludes John. “I didn’t know it when I bought the agency, but I soon found that illustration was the place to be.”

Photo of John Havergal circa 1994

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