From Southern California, the Filipino-Chinese-Native American Dick Ellescas found his way to art and illustration through the kindness of a series of mentors, before studying at the School of Visual Arts, Chouinard Art, and Art Center College of Design, where he later taught. His artistry led him to become a muralist in the Army and a designer of movie intros, before developing a successful freelance illustration career that lasted decades. In the 1970s, Ellescas’ skillful mixture of Art Déco, Art Nouveau, and psychedelic art became a mainstay of magazines and album covers—his romantic art the ideal accompaniment to classical music and opera. Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown once wrote, “Los Angeles’ Dick Ellescas specializes in glamorous women, brilliant color – and we gasp (pleasurably) when his work arrives at the office.” Those glamorous women included Barbie, as he was the artist behind her illustrated boxes for over a decade. Dick continued painting until his death in 2025; this interview was recorded at his home in 2023.

Canadian self-taught artist Barry Zaid had had a long, fruitful career that has taken him all over the world. While living in London in the mid-to-late-1960s, his stylized 20s-inspired art and graphics were a vital part of the nascent Art Deco revival; they can be seen on the cover of ‘The Beatles’ First’ and the book that gave the movement its name, Bevis Hillier’s ‘Art Deco.’ Over the decades, Barry worked for every major magazine and newspaper, from the Globe & Mail to Seventeen, Sesame Street to New York, Esquire to Ladies’ Home Journal. Zaid has designed hundreds of logos, packaging for a range of products, album covers, billboards, and also worked on many books.

Manny Schongut has had a long and diverse career as an illustrator. From upstate New York, Schongut studied and taught at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute before becoming a freelance illustrator. During the 1960s, Schongut became known for his distinctive book covers, often for science fiction and crime novels, that brought together watercolour and pen-and-ink in intriguing graphics. In the early 1970s, he was represented by Push Pin Studios, the legendary graphic design and illustration firm founded by Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast. Taking a more traditional figurative tack, Manny’s work appeared in New York magazine, the New York Times, Vogue, Town & Country, Redbook, and many other publications. Starting in the 1970s, Schongut began working on children’s books—so far, he has illustrated over twenty, and been the author of five of those. Based in San Francisco since the early 1990s, 86-year-old Manny continues to create.