Letter from Don Greame Kelley to Fred W. Links, Assistant Director of the California State Dept. of Finance, 1953 June 27

27 dume 1955

Fred W. Links, Assistent Director

Galifernia Department of Finance

State Capito] Building

Seeramente 14, California

Dear Mr, Links:

For i Deka tnd Gee Descktn- Diemees 5 ches te thank you for per-

mitting reproduction of pew officiel rendering of the Celifornia

State Bear, Thanks also for your gracious suggestion of ordering (c) set

ef electros of the color plates for us if we so desired. Since we do

not use solor i. eo shall not need these -- only the

halftone plete which I shall order directly from the engrever.

You will be pleased to know thet an item is to appear next weck (Tuesday

i believe) in the San Francisco Chronicle editorial pages with the story

of the new Bear Flag design and the esteblishment of the California

Grizzly as the official state enimal. In giving the deteils as told by

Dr. Storer in his forthcoming Paeifie Discovery article, i particularly

stressed the fact that the idea of this project is te be credited to you.

Pur ther publics ty will @ome leter next month when I shall be interviewed _

on a Chronicle TV progrem. Again I shall take advantage of the opportunity

of secing that due credit is given you "s the promulgator of the project,

Representing the Stete's oldest scientific institution, Dr. Robert (c), |

Willer, Director of the California Academy of Sciences, is proud to heve

hed the Academy -- through its Grizzly specimens, its Depar tme: G

Memmels, and through me as ertist -- take a part in this imposten

historical undertaking in which ert, science, and tradition are hapetiy

combined, Mey the California Grizzly live forever as Celifornie's emblem:

With reference to the second matter in your letter:

After some twenty years of ea experinnes end lebor as artist,

ert director, cartographer, type oh rinter, editor, and publisher,

th deube 00 and shetk te nee ay priae for work performed and secepted

questioned for the oe time -- and especially by the executive officer

of one of the pri: governmental depertments of my native state!

My work in inte verkens fields has covered a wide variety of comaissions

end entailed a greet deal of responsibility ( in our first year of World

Wer Ii, for instance, I had complete charge of the installation of the

master plotting charts, some of them two stories high, in the commend

headquarters of the pnatere Sea Frontier, U.S, Navy, when I wes director

of the Cartographic Department of Rand Mellally and Company, New York. After

completion of this project, i was commissioned a volunteer Neval Reserve

officer and _ the rest of the war as cartographic engineer in Air

Nevigation). To cite en example of the reverse of the present case in

-- Before the war I undertook the illustration of a naturel scicnce

hendbook for one of our lergest publishers (name on sequent). When I went

into service, that firm noe to hold the book until after the wer

Kelley te Links: page two

rather then entrust it to mother artist, After my discharge 1 beceme a

free-lence rather then accept Rand MeNally''s offer of the chief `cerneebte

art directorship in the Chicago home office -~ I wanted more than anything :

to return to California, Because of changed tions

lisher asking for an increase to twice the amount of may original estimate.

The publishers apologized for not having been the first to make this sug-

gestion, Se eS ee See ee priced I

have never been secused of overchargin; ther the "

proof lies in the fact Gas i een nase hes Se ee then extremely modest

~~ and often in very straitened -- circumstances. When I worked for Dr.

Stoeer, as a tomporary employee of the University, I accepted readily the

very low (in commercial terms) hourly rete of pey for the kind of profes-

sional work I performed, i have done cartographic work for the University

_ Press end the Committee on Research "7 charges have always been paid

without question. :

In determining a fair price for my art work for the California Bear. I first

of = knew thet the nature of the project -~ in effect the rendering of a

permanent "trede meric i use the term applicable if it wre for a lerge

: f a sovereign atete w= took it completely out of the realm of

heek or `journeymen ert work, such as is performed for book end trede pub-

lishers whose scale is in general notoriously low. This project fell rather

tegory of adverising art so far as proper remuneration ae commana.

Not relying solely on my own judgment (backed as it was by long exper:

Z asked several commercial artist end art direetor friends, The first one I

asked,-- end this - before the color rendering entered the er

@ nationally recogr designer whe has ; specialized in corporation trade -

markeseand apper-hreaket design, said a% ones, "Five thousand dollars.2 of

eourse I knew he was thinking in General Meters or. Standard Svente terms,

end turned to vardous others. The consensus was "up to five hundr: o

~~ ond this, I repeat, for the first flag pattern alone.

For your informetion, lr, Links -- the pre ling seale 8 e isc

for commereial art work is ten doliers an heer. Since my my expenses, dnelud-

ing eee and the trip to Sacramento end Davis for consultetion, |

were "thrown per my invoice, my total price does not setuelly cover

ay timo et that rete, and doos not reflect, the rticu . peculiar

cence of the project in terms of its impor tance re the State of

sali ia. in other words, the State will have obtained its permanent

`official flag beer design and official rendering of the State An:

811 time, at somewhat less then the present rates for commercial ert?

As to the matter of "originelity" which you stressed: ithen @ Reymond |

is celled in to redesign Studebaker, or a Pinin Farina to redasign Nesh,

the result is still en automobile = not radivally different from lest

year's model i the menufectirers end particuleriy the sales promotion

steff trust, demonstrably improved. They willingly pay enormous fees for

this service, When a brain surgeon is paid a thousand dollars for an hour

of his time at the operating table, is he being paid for a seen

| performing a basic operation better than an interne? Certai

the question of originality does not enter into our case -- on the contrary

it was emphasized to mo that the beer must stand essentielly the seme in

TEaee Conan ee ee eee |

artistic performance, but zoological knowledge , wes required. |

"pee

Kelley to Links: page three

i heve tried most wines to show you why stand convinced -

charges for the beer are not wmressoneble. For further che sking

4iving your letter, I celled enother art director friend, who

this kind of ert work constantly (and who was in the east when I called

the others). He said, "Why, you should have charged at least $750.v0."

In the desire to secure complete mutuel understending, a on

put the following points into the record: |

Uy services wore engeged in obvious good feith without any ad oil

3 cotinate required or Fequested. When I wes in your office in Seeranento

you said, "Send us your bill and we'll take cere of it here."

The work wae sompleted within the time required, accepted, end served

rpos as Said and penne'. ont Staaes ak Se Law Os She Ca,

2 The coler rendering is now in use for the making of color plates tore

for official State use,

iy invoice was dated to coincide with ne Gets al diniade os the lest

of the work in Seoremamte and wes presumed payeble, according te custom,

in thirty days, According to custom, if " bill is questioneble it should

ve brought to the billing party's atceution within ten days or two weeks.

Thirty deys had passed without any question coming to my attention or

ao. being si until your letter of 24 June which i received on

0x00A7 WAGs

I now cunsieer my bill of five hundred and fifteen dollers "notuetve of

| state Sales tax as required) ap Se pat tem sa payeble.

Very truly yours,

| Fairfex, `Californie