Vale Mike Chandler ~ Australia’s greatest typographer ~ the larger-than-life Face of Australian print advertising in the 70s, 80s, 90s
The Australian ad industry will be saddened to hear of the passing of Australia’s greatest typographer Mike Chandler, who has passed away late last week, aged 74. Chandler, who was inducted into the CB Hall of Fame in 2004, helped improve the work of every single great writer and art director in Australian advertising throughout the 70s, 80s and early 90s. Lionel Hunt, Australia’s greatest ad man, pays tribute to his old friend.
Mike Chandler, typographer extraordinaire, has died suddenly at his home at Palm Beach in Sydney. He was 74.
After a successful career in London with creative agencies and Face, The Type Workshop he came out to Australia in the 70’s where he met the love of his life, Barbi, who pre deceased him 2 years ago.
He started Face in Australia, and being as much an art director as a typographer, he made many an art director’s ad look look much better than it had started out.
As well as having the uncanny knack of choosing just the right typeface, he could really “pop it down on the page” as he was wont to say.
He charged like a wounded bull, of course, and that’s how I think of him now, a great bull of a man wounded by the grief of losing his wife.
Great mate, great wine and food lover, great cook and host, great lunch partner, great fly fisherman, he was actually great at everything he put his hand to.
Great loss.
(To my knowledge this was the last ad he worked on, with me, a month ago. No client but just a mutual despair at the lack of climate action by our current government. He could pop it down on the page alright. )
Lionel Hunt,
Palm Beach,
January 10, 2019.
Adds CB publisher Michael Lynch: “Very, very sad news, Mike (and Rod Cleary) gave Campaign Brief basically free office space and typesetting (in the days of paste-up) at NorthFace in North Sydney when we first started in 1987, therefore helping us survive that critical first year when money was tight.
“Mike was indeed a giant of Australian advertising, looking exactly like Pavarotti in his prime. He was inducted into the Campaign Brief Hall of Fame in 2004 (click on the pic below). Mike was a great friend of CB and we’ll miss him terribly.”
3 Comments
Absolutely devastating news. I owe a few people a lot in this industry for how they helped me when I was starting out, but none more than Mike. I was a young lad fresh of the boat when I first met him. He took me under his wing an taught me so much, he taught me about craft, he taught me to care even if the job didn’t seam worth it, he taught me the art of the long lunch and how to eat incredibly hot chili’s. A lot of people have the same story because that’s who Mike was he was a generous and giving person who cared about the people around him. I’m so glad to have known him and proud to have called him a friend. Thank you for everything Mike my life would not be the same had I not known you, I’m going to miss you big guy x
I don’t venture ‘round this way too often these days but when I heard the news, I wanted to add to the tributes.
I had a dream start in the industry getting my first AD job with Phil Atkinson and then Ronnie Mather. Through those years Mike was always there, teaching us the craft of type, how to ‘put an ad down’, making our work better. He was incredibly passionate about his craft and put as much effort into a 12 double as he would a campaign of 3 spreads.
Like a wine collector, he’d often produce a special, previously unused font that he’d been saving for a special occasion. He’d lean in and whisper its name to me, looking like he was offering me a prized gift. That’s how I felt. By this time he had me on the drug. I used to go down to his office and plead with him to show me what he had in the back room.
This was a time before computers. Each piece of work was hand crafted down to the finest detail. Kerning involved slicing space between letters with a scalpel. Letter by letter. Writers were asked to rework, add or delete copy to help remove widows (sole words left on a line by themselves at the end of a paragraph). The skill, patience and attention to detail that Mike threw into creating a beautiful, long copy double page spread was no less impressive than the craft of a master cabinet maker, inlaying mother of pearl or gold leaf detail into the Queen’s bedside table.
Through Mike we became obsessed about the craft of type and putting an ad down. On one occasion I was putting a SMH broadsheet full page together for a major snack food company. It was a competition announcement ad listing all the winners. All 1000 of them. We had 5 columns of 200 names and in the middle of the page a handwritten headline – “Life’s pretty straight without a Twisties competition”. I tried multiple times to space the names perfectly around the headline but always had 3-4 names that wouldn’t fit on the page. A quick chat with Mike and the solution was crystal clear. “I reckon those 4 didn’t win”. And so it was – a perfectly crafted ad that listed 996 competition winners. Don’t worry, the 4 people still got their prize, they just didn’t appear in the ad.
Some may be interested to learn Mike was also one of the best typographers in the US. When Scott Whybin and I went to Mojo’s office in San Francisco I had a couple of print pieces put together by Mike back in Sydney. Same at Mojo New York. I’d fax a layout down to Mike and 2 weeks later the mail guy would arrive with a package containing artwork crafted to within an inch of its life. When Mike came to NY he would spend the good part of a day on the Jazz floor at Tower Records. We agreed to meet there to go for beers at the end of one day and I arrived to see Mike causing a bit a scene at the checkout. Only a man of Mike’s size could physically carry that many CDs. He used to love the sign in the bar at The Lone Star Café, “Too Much ‘Aint Enough”.
Years later I’m about a million miles from devoting hours to what some might call a dying art, I run a software company. But thankfully the memories are still here.
God bless you Mike Chandler.
On behalf of our mother, Barbi & our father, Mike we thank you all so much for your comments and memories. He was the same at home, larger than life, hilarious, obsessive about teaching us to do anything and everything the perfect, proper and right way and if you really knew Mike, sometimes a bloody nightmare (aren’t we all)! He was a purist. Fiercely passionate and passionately fierce. We miss them both so much it hurts but they live on in us and our children for that we are eternally grateful.
Tini, Andrew & Georgie xoxox