Louis Shawl 1891-1968
Paul Nyeland 1901-2005
Clyde Follet Seavey 1904-1991
Theme/Style – Modernism, posters, illustration
Media – Oils, watercolors, graphic art, photography
Artistic Focus – Beginning in the 1930s with their official poster for San Francisco’s 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, the firm of Shawl, Nyeland & Seavey grew to be the West’s largest commercial art studio by 1955, and throughout the 1950s was one of the top four advertising art services in San Francisco. Louis Shawl in particular was very active in the city’s advertising organizations, and encouraged the inclusion of advertising artists into the art community as a whole.
Career Highlights –
- Louis Shawl was born in Seattle, Washington in 1905, and soon afterwards his family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in California. After graduating from the Berkeley School of Arts and Crafts (later the California College of Arts and Crafts), Shawl began work as a commercial artist.
- Paul Nyeland, a self-taught artist, was born in Niles, California in 1909; and Clyde Follet Seavey was born in Sacramento, California in 1904 and also studied at the Berkeley School of Arts and Crafts after study at the University of California, Berkeley.
- In 1935 Shawl opened a commercial art agency in San Francisco with Nyeland and Seavey; and in 1937 the poster they designed was chosen as the first official poster of the upcoming 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition on San Francisco’s Treasure Island.
- In 1946 the firm created the artwork for the Reno, Nevada Chamber of Commerce’s 200 billboards advertising attractions around the city, and also produced drawings for a series of books called “Pioneer Nevada.”
- Shawl, Nyeland and Seavey all painted in their leisure time. Shawl and Nyeland both participated in the exhibitions of advertising art held at the San Francisco Museum of Art in the late 1940s, and Nyeland exhibited with the Peninsula Art Association in San Mateo, California in 1953.
- Louis Shawl was the first artist to serve on the board of directors of the San Francisco Advertising Club, and was founding president of the San Francisco Artists & Art Directors Club. He was also president of the Alumni Society of the California College of Arts and Crafts and was named Alumnus of the Year at the school’s 1976 reunion.
- In 1963, Louis Shawl, Paul Nyeland and Clyde Seavey ended their partnership. Louis Shawl joined Landor Associates as head of their new graphic design unit, while Nyeland and Seavey continued together as “Paul Nyeland & Associates.”
- Louis Shawl passed away in San Francisco in 1998, and Clyde Seavey passed away there in 1991. Paul Nyeland passed away in Burlingame, California in 2005. Clyde Seavey was the subject of a solo show at Edgewise Arts in San Francisco, after a group of his artworks from the 1930s through the 1960s was discovered in 2005.
Selection of Works by this Artist
Bibliographic references are available upon request.