I will need words

Looking through the University of Canterbury’s Art School staff list (oddly dominated by men in studio practice and women in art history) we came across Luke Wood and the tiny image of his McCahon typeface. The very next day we received a brochure from Air New Zealand with a copy cat McCahon flavour all its own. We recall an early instance of a land grab of McCahon’s famous style from Saatchi & Saatchi for the City Gallery’s opening billboard. Now via another agency (Colenso) a similar flavour comes through with McCahon-like balloons and lettering in the browns, greys, white and black McCahon made his own. Ironically, on the back cover of the brochure, a Gordon Walters-influenced Air New Zealand Koru is enclosed in a McCahonesque voice bubble. Surely an Art History masters thesis is now in the starting blocks.

Images: Top Saatchi & Saatchi ad for the opening of Wellington’s City Gallery, Middle left Colin McChon script (detail from A grain of Wheat, 1970. Collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa), right Luke Wood’s McCahon typeface. Bottom Air New Zealand Every Flight Counts brochure.