Mike Hinge - 85th Birthday Anniversary - 159 - 160

Remembering Mike and his psychedelic world. Art genius and all round extraordinaire, born 9/08/1931 Mike Hinge would have been 85 years old today. I feel I have got to know Mike through his friends, that have contributed to my blog, which I am grateful. Mike had great friends.

 Hinge, "POW" Date unknown. Approximately 31.5 x 31.5cm. Signed.

Hinge, "Dynamic" Date unknown. Approximately 31.5 x 31.5cm. Signed.

Mike Hinge 150 - 154

Here we have a collection of four preliminary pencil drawings and an almost complete preliminary dayglo painting. The subject appears to be a robot with a man's face or perhaps a man in a space suit or a man in a robotic shell. One of the drawings is dated 10/11 October 1978 so I am assuming that they will all be from this year as the pictures came to me together in one folder.

Written on one of the pictures are what might suggest a title or a clue for what the drawings were intended. "Dance of Light, Dance of Photon, Dance of Phaeton, Metamorphosis, Photon". I had a search on the internet for any possible SF story with a possible connection however I didn't find anything. An interesting search of "Phaeton robot" came up with "Exosquad" a tv series conceived by Jeff Segal in 1989, most probably not connected but interestingly humans and neosapiens are shelled inside a robot like "exo-skeleton" or "E-Frame" as described in the opening titles of the program. Could it have been possible that Jeff Segal, knew Mike in 1978 and this was some drawings done for the proposed show?

The last picture in this collection is the largest of the pictures a drawing on tracing paper. The paper is folded in half and can be opened out to double in size. The other side of the paper is blank but gave the idea that it was intended to have the reverse image to make a complete mirror image. Interestingly the half image also works on its own as a complete image if placed on its side. I don't know if a completed picture was ever made from any of these images but out of interest I made a reverse image of the largest drawing in photoshop to have a better idea what the completed picture might have looked like.

 Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton I . Dayglo paint on paper. Approximate size 60x49cm. Circa 1978. unsigned.

 Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton II . Pencil on paper. Approximate size 49x60cm. Circa 1978. unsigned.

  Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton III . Pencil on paper. Approximate size 60x49cm. Circa 1978. unsigned.

     Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton IV . Pencil on paper. Approximate size 60x49cm. Circa 1978. unsigned.

 Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton V . Pencil on tracing paper. Approximate size 38x106cm. Circa 1978. unsigned.

Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton V (Close-up 1)

Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton V (Close-up 2)

Mike Hinge - Dance of Phaeton V . Photoshoped image of original with added reverse . 

Mike Hinge - 149

A psychedelic burst of colour curls and shapes, this is the second picture (of two) which I purchased from a collector about a year ago. The other is the psychedelic angel I posted in 148, on the occasion of Mike's birthday.

Mike Hinge - Marker pen on white card. Approximate size 35 x 42.5cm. Date 1967, signed.

Mike Hinge - 82nd Birthday Anniversary - Psychedelic Angel - 148

Remembering that today is Mike Hinge's birthday, he would have been 82 years old. 

Apologies for not updating for such a long while, please be patient and I will be back again soon with more of Mike's work as soon as possible. In the meantime I couldn't let Mike's birthday go unmarked so decided to post this rather lovely, amazing image of a Psychedelic Angel blowing a horn of some kind. I purchased this picture from a collector on ebay, around about a year ago, with one other picture which I shall post shortly. This picture and the other unposted picture are a similar size and type of paper and use marker pen but the other picture is dated 1967 and I am assuming that this picture would also be circa 1967. 

 Mike Hinge - Psychedelic Angel . Marker pen on white paper. Approximate size 35x42cm. Circa 1967. Signed.

Mike Hinge - 147

Today is Mike's birthday, he would have been 81 years old. I wish that he was still here with us to see and hear more about his work and life. 

Here is an unpublished cover for Amazing Stories Magazine.

Mike Hinge - Amazing (unpublished cover) . Marker pen on white paper. Approximate size 48 x 61cm. Date Unknown. Unsigned.

Mike Hinge 122

Mike Hinge - What's Cooking with Springmaid (1 of  6). Marker pen on white paper. Approximate size 42x34cm. Date unknown. Unsigned.


There have been quite a few very nice Mike Hinge pictures for sale on ebay recently. I hope some of you have managed to get a picture or two. I noticed that there was a really interesting piece an advertising storyboard for a Buick saloon car, perhaps quite rare as I am not aware of any filmed TV adverts Mike worked on apart from that one. Unfortunately I didn't get the piece as I would have liked to. I don't know if that Buick advert was just a concept piece or actually got made.

Now back to the Springmaid illustration this is one of six of a series of rough sketches for a Springmaid promotion. The series of illustrations are for a counter display box advertising a competition to be a model for Spring Mill's Springmaid (a fabric bed linen/clothes company). This I think is the type of advertising that Roger Hines pointed out that Mike did a lot of, point of purchase/sales promotion or POP that would be as Roger put it, "counter cards and displays for merchandise, kiosks, in store merchandising promotions".   

Mike Hinge 119

Mike Hinge - The Carriage Trade. Approximate size 57x47cm. Date: Unknown. Unsigned.

I don't know what this might have been for? The name of a company or an album or perhaps it the name for the font? 

For the past few years I have been trying to track down the fonts that Mike designed. The Carriage Trade is perhaps not very typical (not very sci-fi) but then Mike's style is not always narrowed down to that genre. My last post had the front cover for the Lunacon 68 where it had what i'm sure is one of Mike's many typefaces, its his adaptation of a font called "Westminster" which was designed in the mid 6o's to be a machine readable typeface (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition or MICR) for the National Westminster Bank. There are many versions of this type face and I'm not sure if 1968 was the earliest time that Mike first used this but even so it is with out a doubt one of the first adaptations of Westminster. What I think makes Mike's typeface distinctive is the little tail on the end of the capital N & A and the large dot in the small i. Mike uses this font quite a lot in his work.

Another example of Mike's version of Westminster:

Android - A detail from the Mike Hinge Experience (1969-1973)

New York from about 1966 - 1969 Mike was an Art Director for Young & Rubicam and B.B.D.O (he could be in the tv series Mad Men), during this time I know that he won two awards at the 13th Annual Type Director's Club Show of 1967 (not be confused with Typography 13, by the Type Director's Club). What it was that he did for him to win two awards I don't know, I would really love to know. 

Mike produced several fonts for commercial reproduction and one of the type-houses that he worked with was a company called "Photo-Lettering Inc" or PLINC which were based in New York, established in 1936 closing in 1996. The 1000's of fonts held by PLINC have been locked away unseen and unused since, that is until now. Recently House Industries acquired the entire collection and have been taking care  of this amazing heritage and faithfully preserving the fonts, check out  PLINC's website.

At the moment there are not that many fonts on line but I am hopeful that we should see a few Hinge's sometime in the future. Here are a few fonts that I know were designed by Mike for PLINC: Hinge Computer, Electronic, Robot, Quasar, Integrated and Digital Readout. There are hopefully lots more and of those that I've listed I am not entirely sure what they look like.

Here are some more examples of Mike's typefaces below:

Monkey Wrench - From the collection of Mike Hinge's A4 photocopies date possibly late 60's

Earth Unaware (cover illustration) 1983, There's nothing to say that he designed the font as well but I think that he did and until I'm told otherwise... I remember reading somewhere that Ted White (editor of Amazing Stories, Fantastic...) said that Mike would not stop at just doing the illustration but would also want to have control on how the title was placed and would also want to design the typeface if he was allowed.

Archimedes - A detail from the Mike Hinge Experience (1969-1973)

Assignment in Tomorrow (cover illustration - printers proof) 1972.

Astarte - A detail from the Mike Hinge Experience (1969-1973)

Onyx (letterhead) -  From the collection of Mike Hinge's A4 photocopies date Unknown

No No Yes - A detail from the Mike Hinge Experience (1969-1973)

Shaggy Planet (cover illustration - printers proof) 1975.

Mexico Magnifico, Eastern Airlines, (One flyer and two tags) date unknown.

Mike Hinge (Logo) - date possibly 1980.

Tobacconist - - From the collection of Mike Hinge's A4 photocopies (traces of being touched up with tipex and pen) date unknown.

Hinge (Logo) - A detail from the Mike Hinge Experience (1969-1973)

Mike Hinge 105

Mike Hinge - May Co Wilshire, Oriental Bazaar. Pen and Ink on thin paper. Approximate size 60x70cm. Date: Unknown. Unsigned.


This is one of Mike's advertising pieces for a store in Los Angeles called May & Co on Wilshire Boulevard. The building itself is pretty grand and impressive, I'd love to see it for real one day. This piece would have been produced when Mike lived in Los-Angeles either as freelance or with an Advertising Agency.


There is another version of this piece that I have seen but do not have. The other version is signed and has the same composition but has different colouring and doesn't have the text or border. If you have it fantastic! It is a really nice piece. Please feel free to get in touch.


It is well documented that in 1959 Mike Hinge emigrated to the US and lived and studied art in Los Angeles and whilst there In Los Angeles he worked at major advertising agencies and also freelanced. Now the thing is I would love to know the names of the Advertising Agencies and the clients that he produced work. Up until now I haven't been able to find this information. (I know that later when he moved to New York he worked for Young & Rubicam & BBDO). I do have one clue that whilst living in Los Angeles one of the agencies he worked for was co-owned by a contessa in Beverly Hills [sic],  perhaps meaning a Countess(?) .

Mike Hinge 104

Mike Hinge - May Co Wilshire. Pen on thin paper. Approximate size 60x70cm. Date: Unknown. Unsigned.

Mike Hinge 103

Mike Hinge - Easter Bunny Honey. Pen and Ink on white card. Approximate size 30x40cm. Date unknown. Unsigned.

Mike Hinge 101

Mike Hinge - Geometric Girl. Marker pen on white paper. Approximate size 30x40cm. Date unknown. Unsigned.

Mike Hinge 100

Mike Hinge - Popular Mechanics. Colour ink & Paint on Hammermill Bond paper. Approximate size 43x58.5cm. Date: Unknown. Signed.

detail 1

detail 2

detail 3

detail 4

detail 5

detail 6

detail 7

Mike Hinge 095

Mike Hinge - Valentine Heart. Marker pen on white paper. Approximate size 25x31cm. Date unknown. Unsigned.

Mike Hinge 094

Mike Hinge - Switch on Baby Valentine. Marker pen on white paper. Approximate size 30x40cm. Date unknown. Unsigned.

Mike Hinge 093

Mike Hinge - Hung On You (4). Colour pen on thin paper. Approximate size 35x43cm. Date: Unknown. Signed.

This is the final image, redrawn, traced from the reduced print and coloured. There are some small differences the most noticeable is the choice to break the border where the lady's hair ribbon flows from the picture.

The question is who was the picture for and was it used? 

"Hung On You" was in the late 60's a psychedelic fashion boutique on Kings Road in London England and where there was also a fashion boutique called "Granny takes a Trip" that was at number 488 Kings Road (mostly associated with the English artists "Michael English and "Nigel Waymouth". I also found a remote reference to Coca Cola and "Hung On You" on the web, from a magazine from 1967 called "Boys Life" it has a Coca-Cola advert that has an article on a band called The Fortunes in this article the band visits "Hung On You" where they try on some clothes and drink Coca-Cola.

  

Mike Hinge 092

Mike Hinge - Hung On You (3). Some type of print (photocopy?). Approximate size 35x43cm. Date: Unknown. Signed (facsimile).

This is a print of the previous drawing reduced in size to 16 1/2".

Mike Hinge 091

Mike Hinge - Hung On You (2). Black pen on tracing paper. Approximate size 60x70cm. Date: Unknown. Signed.


The image is traced from the previous drawing but has been done more neatly and he has made an adjustment in placing the image centrally on the page and reducing the width by introducing a border on the right hand side. The hair of the woman is neater and more elegant and now she has a breast.


Written on the right hand edge in blue "NEG & POS MATTE STAT 16 1/2" ON MARKS".
  

Mike Hinge 090

Mike Hinge - Hung On You (1). Colour Pen on tracing paper. Approximate size 60x70cm. Date: Unknown. Unsigned.


I am calling this number 1 as it is perhaps the first drawn in a series of four pictures that I have of this design. This image is drawn and coloured in rough and is slightly larger than the following version.

Mike Hinge 076

Mike Hinge - Psychedelic Ladies (unfinished). Gouache on illustrator board. Approximated size 55x65cm. Date Unknown. Unsigned.

Mike Hinge 064

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MIKE HINGE,

who would have been 79 today!!

A special post for Mike Hinge's Birthday to show some of his very best work. I have posted his first four Amazing Science Fiction covers and the original artwork from January 1973 (ASF). This idea was suggested to me by Neil who also owns the artwork and image below. 

This image was kindly sent to me by Neil 

January 1973

May 1972

November 1971

November 1970