Design and Art Australia Online

ON HIS first overseas posting, to Milan as a young art director, Ron Kambourian was blown away by the elegantly dressed local men who every morning sipped coffee and grappa in the cafes as Ferraris zoomed by. Kambourian not only joined this scene but sketched it, for he was one of an unusual breed – an art director who could draw.

He also loved things that flew, predominantly those machines that flew in the two world wars, and in particular Spitfires. He also loved fast cars. He loved the way they were engineered and the way they handled but, above all, he loved the way they were designed.

He leaves behind beautiful watercolours of planes, boats, cars, people, landscapes, layouts, ads, caricatures and cartoons. He also had a deft hand for oils, gouache, pencil, pastels, crayons and charcoal. In fact, if it could be used to create an image, he would use it. In later life he discovered and loved a new tool – the computer.

Ronald Haig Kambourian was born in 1940 in New York to Armenian parents Haig and Lucy Kambourian. He went to Forest Hills High and was in the same year as Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, but was happy to leave the music to them. He insisted only that the design of the year book was his. This creative talent offered him an early entry into university but in his first week he had a knife pulled on him and retreated to what he believed to be the sanctuary of the creative world – advertising.

He spent almost 50 years in the business and won more awards than most people have wall space to hang. This was best demonstrated at DDB Needham when a new business pitch found the then managing director David Fernley in a twitch about showing off the agency as the most creative in Sydney.

Kambourian’s idea of being helpful was to come in at the weekend before the pitch and hang his awards. These included gold Clios (for creative advertising), gold Art Directors Club, gold International Print, FACTS (Federation of Australian Commercial Television Stations) and AWARD (Australian Writers and Art Directors Association) awards. They sat frame-to-frame, like wallpaper, from the ceiling to the floor, covering the main walls and even the hallway leading to his office. DDB Needham won the pitch.

Kambourian’s advertising career began in 1960 as an art director with Ogilvy Benson Mather, New York. By 1968 he was group creative director of Pritchard Wood & Partners, Wasey Quandrant, London and by 1971 creative director of Smit’s-Bates BV Holland.

n 1974 he married Karin Manders, a stewardess with KLM, the first of his family to marry outside the Armenian community. In 1975 they emigrated to Australia.

By 1976 he was the creative director of Monahan, Dayman, Adams, Sydney and by the end of the 1980s had worked for international agencies such as Clemenger BBDO and DDB Needham. By 1990 there was nowhere else to conquer and so he began his own visual communications consultancy – Wildblueyonder – that he continued until his death.

He was a master of type who would test unsuspecting copywriters by creating a layout with type that was truly gruesome and if the copywriter picked it up, a “just testing” email would follow with an attachment containing a brilliant piece of advertising work.

For 11 years he taught graphic design and advertising, first at Manly-Warringah College, then Sydney Graphics College and finally for eight years at the Billy Blue School of Graphic Design as senior advertising lecturer. His patience and perseverance always brought out the best in his students.

For 15 years Kambourian was also a scout leader and trainer, and served as the international liaison for the 16th World Scout Jamboree, held in Australia in 1988.

Kambourian was a fellow of the Australian Institute of Advertising, a member of the Art Directors Club, New York, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Society of Typographic Arts, the Art Directors Club Nederland and a foundation member and co-chairman of judges of the inaugural AWARD show.

(Bio and Obituary by De Brierley Newton http://www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/a-master-of-beautiful-design/2008/06/02/1212258735330.html)

Writers:

Date written:

2012

Last updated:

2012