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Burr Giffen

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Burr Giffen
Born
Burr Edwards Giffen

(1886-03-03)March 3, 1886
DiedApril 2, 1965(1965-04-02) (aged 79)
Known forArtist, Illustrator
Stylecontemporary art
SpouseBertha Tischler Giffen

Burr E. Giffen (March 3, 1886 - April 2, 1965) was an American artist and illustrator[1] working in New York City. His most famous creation was while he was working for an Advertising Company in 1906. He created the Fisk Tire Company Boy holding a tire and night candle as a proposal sketch in charcoal. This sketch became the company's well-known registered trademarked image by 1911.[2]

Biography

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Burr Giffen was born in Rockford, Illinois. When he reached the age of 4, he moved to Des Moines, Iowa where his father Marvin Q Giffen, was successful in the wholesale furniture business. Burr was noted without an occupation in the 1905 Iowa Census and soon left for New York City.[3]

In 1910, he was a fledgling working for an ad agency known as Wagner and Field. Giffen says he got the inspiration for the drawing at 3 A.M., sat down on his bed and rapidly sketched the little boy with a tire over his right shoulder and a candle held in his left hand. Simultaneously. he coined the slogan: "Time to Re-tire." [4]

The sketch was an instant hit with the Fisk Rubber Co., which a few years earlier had introduced its first pneumatic automobile tire. Its first appearance in a national magazine ad was in 1911.[5]

Norman Rockwell was one of the artists whom illustrated the Fisk Tire Boy which only led to the image's popularity.[6]

Over the decades, the tousle-haired, sleepy-time boy appeared on every Fisk car and truck tire, in ads, on all stationery, booklets, posters, TV slides, calendars, tire store displays and even on clock faces.[7]

See also

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Paul Martin (illustrator)

References

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