Episode 45: Barry Zaid
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Barry Zaid and some of this paintings
I’ve loved Barry Zaid’s illustrations long before I knew his name. Perhaps you have too… Maybe, like me, as a child, you picked up a box of Celestial Seasonings’ Mandarin Orange Spice tea and were intoxicated by the beauty of the Chinese woman on the front, with orange blossoms in her hair. That was by Barry, painted in the late 1970s when he was creative director for the brand. You may have also seen his illustrations in magazines or the advertising work he created while part of Push Pin Studios in the early 1970s.
The Beatles’ First, 1964
Many times, through the years, I’ve been flicking through a vintage magazine, whether Seventeen, New York Magazine, Esquire, etc., and stopped, spellbound by an illustration—usually discovering that it was almost always the work of Barry Zaid. Inspired by Art Deco, Art Nouveau, early 20th-century children’s books, other antique sources, and his architecture studies, Zaid reworked and melded these styles into a look that is totally his own.
Poster by Barry Zaid for Daniel Hechter, 1970.
While living in London in the 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. Barry then brought his inimitable illustrations to New York and Push Pin Studios, where he worked under graphic design legends Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast. Barry’s life as an artist took him from his hometown of Toronto to London; New York; a commune in Scotland; Paris; Bienne, Switzerland; Amsterdam; to study yoga in Pondicherry, India; Richmond, Virginia; Boulder, Colorado; back to Manhattan; Miami; and finally, to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where he has lived for the last decade.
In addition to his magazine and newspaper work, over the decades, Zaid has designed hundreds of logos, packaging for a range of products, album covers, billboards, and also worked on many books. In 1990, he published Wish You Were Here, a nostalgic tour through his collection of hand-tinted hotel picture postcards.
Barry continues to paint and design from his studio in San Miguel de Allende. A very fun and creative person, we had a very long and wonderful conversation that spanned the globe, discussing the great successes and the great pains of his life, growing up gay in the 1950s, the scourge of AIDS, his influences, and how he cultivated his style.
Former and current Push Pin artists on hand at an opening of an exhibition on Push Pin at the Louvre, Paris, were (left to right) Paul Davis (with his son), Milton Glaser, Seymour Chwast, George Leavitt, Vincent Ceci, Jerry Joyner, Barry Zaid, Norman Green, and Sam Antupit. Print, May 1970.
Billboards that Barry Zaid did for 7UP in 1970 and 1971:
Barry Zaid’s Manhattan apartment. Photos by Otto Baitz, House Beautiful, October 2, 1971:
A few spreads from Barry Zaid’s Wish You Were Here: A Tour of America’s Great Hotels During the Golden Age of the Picture Post Card (1990):
