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The years 1977-1983

In 1977 my wife and I moved to Paris, France, an exciting change in our lives. The illustration business was changing and the automotive assignments were becoming scarce. I decided that I would pursue a fine art career. We had no idea as to just what was ahead of us, and we didn’t know anyone in Paris. I thought that for a while I could do some commercial art to support us until I developed my fine art paintings. I got connected with a small advertising agency, Publiland, and did a lot of graphic design and some illustration work for them. I also was introduced to an art representative, Evelyn Manache. She decided to rep me. She was also repping Milton Glaser of New York. Evelyn got me quite a bit of work, but after a few months I decided to go on my own. I took my samples up to Lintas, one of the largest ad agencies in France. To my surprise, the Creative Director was Bob McClaren, someone that I had helped get a job at Campbell Ewald when I was working there twenty years ago. He was originally from England, then came to Detroit to work, and eventually went back to Europe. This was a real break for me as Bob gave me a lot of work. He even sent me to work in their Vienna offices and to Madrid, Jakarta and Singapore to teach their staffs how to render ads and storyboards. I did work for all of the major ad agencies in Paris but my main source of business was Impact FCB and Lintas.

I was taking French lessons while I was there, but language never was a problem at the ad agencies as they all wanted to practice their English. Jeanne spoke French. Her parents were French Canadian, but the French thought her accent was hilarious. She didn’t mind, as she still was able to communicate.

I did a series of newspaper ads for Intermarche through the ad agency Publiland.


One of my Detroit clients, Wayne Alexander Company, brought over an American Motors Renault catalog for me to design. This is the illustration that I painted for the rear cover.


On top of illustrating, designing and doing paintings, I also began to write a series of “How to...” books for Watson Guptill publications in New York.



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All this week On Illustration Pages we'll be presenting to you the fascinating time line of Harry Borgman, written by the artist himself. Throughout this incredible journey you'll have the opportunity to see the art of Harry Borgman, from present day - going as far back as his early childhood years. We hope you enjoy this rare retrospective of Harry Borgman's art and illustrations, as seen through the eyes of the artist.

I’d like to thank Harry for putting this all together for Illustration Pages. Harry’s feature is a culmination of many hours of collaboration between he and I - the result is a written record of the career of an artist who was a giant in the field of advertising and one of the most prolific and influential artists of our time. I’m proud that it’s been documented right here on Illustration Pages.

Introduction by Lou Simeone


Harry Borgman is an artist whose professional career has embraced both the commercial and fine art worlds. He worked for many years as a graphic designer and illustrator before joining the advertising agency Campbell- Ewald in Detroit, where he was head art director on the Chevrolet account designing catalogs, sales promotion material, and later the magazine ads. He has won many awards for his graphic design work and illustrations. After several years working in- agency, Borgman decided he wanted the creative versatility to be found only in freelancing. He worked for major clients in Detroit, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.


As a teacher he was Chairman of the Advertising Department at the Society of Arts and Crafts (now the College for Creative Studies) in Detroit. His courses included advertising design, illustration and cartooning.

 In 1977 he decided to move to Europe and settled in Paris, France where he soon established himself as an artist for the top advertising agencies there. He also worked in the fine arts and exhibited regularly in all of the major French painting salons He also worked in Vienna, Austria, creating automotive campaigns. He was hired by Lintas to teach layout rendering to their art staffs in Jakarta, Singapore as well as in Madrid.


After several years in Europe he moved to New York City where he spent ten years working in advertising doing illustrations and various graphic design projects. He also did much work in the fine arts doing paintings and sculpture whic

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