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