Geoff Williams BA

Graphic Arts

GW has been employed as an Art Director in advertising agencies in Australia, United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland. National and international accounts include Kraft Foods, Dunlop Tyres, Ansett Airlines, Courtaulds, Coates-Patons, Tetley Tea, Braun, German Wine Board. While working as a Senior Art Director at J.Walter Thompson (Frankfurt) decided to move to Switzerland and concentrate on easel painting. After several solo and group exhibitions in Zürich and Frankfurt, returned to Australia and established a freelance studio providing advertising concepts, graphic design and illustration for agencies in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. GW now has a well equipped Macintosh studio that outputs high quality graphics for every facet of print media from simple logos to multi-page publications.

Illustration

Began serious illustration in Melbourne, mostly engaged by Monahan, Dayman & Adams, Ogilvy & Mather and Clemenger Advertising. After moving to Byron Shire to resume painting, signed up with Merilake (artist's agent in Sydney). Illustration media includes graphite, ink, coloured pencil, airbrush, watercolour, gouche, acrylic and oil paints.

Murals

Back in the late 1980's, environmental design company The Joffe Group saw a large rainforest painting at the Brisbane based Verlie Just Gallery and approached GW to paint a 7 metre high rainforest mural on canvas to be installed at the Radisson Hotel in Cairns. So began a parallel career as a muralist. Several projects have since been successfully completed in Australia, China and Singapore. As well as stand-alone murals, many of the works are part of dioramas where a certain skill is required to blend a background image with a 3D forground.

Easel Painting

Began painting in Switzerland and continued in Australia with solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Brisbane and Byron Bay. Completed Bachelor of Arts (painting major) at Southern Cross University in 1997. Winner of several awards and aquisitions including finalist in Wynne Prize at AGNSW.

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To embrace such diverse disciplines in visual arts is not usually advisable in today's climate of specialisation. However, GW has achieved a high standard in each and enjoys the variety of projects that result, which makes it very difficult to contemplate dropping any of these areas of the visual arts.