Les Mason, graphic designer, exhibition at NGV

Epicurean #36 cover designed by Les Mason.
Epicurean #36 cover 1972.

UNTIL 21 FEBRUARY 2016, YOU CAN ENJOY AN EXHIBITION OF GRAPHIC DESIGN BY LES MASON (1924-2009), FOR A TIME A MELBOURNE BASED DESIGNER. This free exhibition is open daily at the Fed Square branch of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Epicurean cover designed by Les Mason.
Epicurean #71 cover 1978.

Some of you will recognise Mason’s covers (1966-1979); others his work for Solo, the State Savings Bank of Victoria (the Father Christmas money box on wheels), for household products packaging, on stamps, and for the train company  in Perth where he lived for a time.

Solo can designed by Les Mason.
Solo can.

 

State Saving Bank of Victoria money box designed by Les Mason.
State Saving Bank of Victoria money box.

 

1966 designed by Les Mason.
[Royal Life Saving Society] for Australia Post 1966.
[Snowy Mountains Scheme] designed by Les Mason for Australia Post 1970.
[Snowy Mountains Scheme] for Australia Post 1970.
Perth train ticket designed by Les Mason.
Train ticket for Transperth.

The NGV website notes:

To mark the opening the new NGV Design Studio at NGV Australia, this retrospective exhibition on the design process and projects of seminal graphic designer Les Mason celebrates the formative contribution of Mason as both a practitioner and provocateur who indelibly influenced the emergence of Melbourne’s graphic design culture.

Epicurean covers from the 1960s designed by Les Mason.
Epicurean covers from the 1960s.

To read and see more of the exhibition from home use this link to Les Mason at the NGV

Epicurean #19 cover 1969 designed by Les Mason.
Epicurean #19 cover 1969.

Read more in this interview with Dominic Hofstedt in Desktop: the culture of design. And in the Les Mason obituary 2009 written by Mason’s second wife for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Les Mason.
Les Mason.