# Bill Mayer (illustrator)

Bill Mayer (born October 25, 1951) is an American illustrator who works in a variety of media and combinations of media, gouache, oil, airbrush, scratchboard, pen and ink and digital, as well as a variety of artistic styles. In 2021, he received the Hamilton King Award.

## Early life and education

Mayer was born in Birmingham, Alabama and until the age of five, lived in a home built by his parents on the property of his grandfather. He was the oldest of six children born to Louis A. Mayer and Lorene Cruse Mayer. The family would relocate to Memphis, where he first attended public school at Willow Oaks Elementary. At the age of eight the family moved to Rochester, New York and Mayer attended Cobbles Elementary in Penfield. The family moved to Decatur, Georgia in 1963, and Mayer attended Southwest Dekalb High School, Towers High School and graduated from Columbia High School in 1969.
Mayer began attending the Ringling School of Art at age 19, and it was there that he met his future wife, Lee. The Ringling curriculum primarily focused on drawing and painting. In his third year there, Mayer attended a class specific to a career in commercial illustration.
Mayer graduated from Ringling in 1972 at age 20. After graduation, he was employed by two art studios in Atlanta that had illustrators on staff: Graphics Studio, 1972–1974, and Whole Hog Studios, 1974–1976. At Graphics Studio, he worked alongside Thomas Blackshear, as well as designer Brad Copeland, who Mayer would work with later and win a Society of Illustrators Gold Medal under his art direction in 1987. Warren Weber showed Mayer the basics of air brushing during this period and demonstrated how to create and show thumbnails and sketches to clients for approval. Mayer decided that, in order to have his work look original, he would stop looking at other people's work and create what naturally came from his own imagination.
Early in 1977, Mayer dedicated himself entirely to work as a freelance illustrator. He incorporated under BillMayer, Inc. in 1979. Initially working for clients in the Atlanta area, his first corporate clients were Coca-Cola and Chick-fil-A.

## Career

Mayer's artwork has been commissioned by publications, institutions, and Fortune 500 corporations, and his creations have appeared in films, books, magazines, stamps, posters, advertising, and packaging. His clients have included the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC and a series of posters for the Tour de France, corporations such as DreamWorks Animation, Cartoon Network, Mattel, and Hasbro, among others.

### Print

In 1998, the US Postal Service released the Bright Eyes stamps in which Mayer created his interpretations of a hamster, a fish, a dog and a parakeet, with designs by Carl Hermann. The USPS printed 180 million stamps in this collection.
Beginning in 1997, Mayer established a long-running relationship with the Hartford Stage, in which he was annually commissioned to do the poster for their production of A Christmas Carol. His 1999 poster and 2002 poster won gold medals from the Society of Illustrators. After 13 years, the final poster in the series appeared in 2010.
Between the years 1986 through 2016, Mayer created 17 cover illustrations for albums for the band The Rippingtons.
A reoccurring theme in Mayer's work is the use of animals, particularly frogs. The annual Dellas Graphics Calendar, art directed by Jim Burke, was a long-running frog-themed calendar and Mayer participated as a contributor in several of them. His 2008 contribution to the calendar was additionally used as the cover of Workbook in 2010; his 2011 contribution won the Patrick Nagel Award for Excellence from the Society of Illustrators West; and his 2005 contribution won a silver medal from the Society of Illustrators. Lightware Projectors used Mayer's depictions of frogs in an ongoing advertising campaign, as well as IHOP.
Mayer painted "Duck Judges", art for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife's 2022 Federal Duck Stamp contest. The piece depicts the stamp art judging process itself, except with ducks as judges. He was commissioned to do so by Last Week Tonight.

### Product art

Working with the design agency Needham, Harper & Steers, Mayer created original packaging illustrations for Big League Chew, in 1980.
In 2004, Cartoon Network distributed character-based tarot cards illustrated by Mayer as a promotional item. The cards, art directed by Jay Rogers, were never sold in stores.
Mattel commissioned Mayer for board game packaging illustration in 2017 with the release of Flippin Frogs, art directed by Tim Douglas; in 2018 and with Rhino Rampage, with art direction by Mark Rosenbluh; and in 2005, with the release of Piranha Panic, art directed by Ninnette Wood.
In 2020, Orphan Barrel Whiskey Distilling Co. released a 24-year-old whiskey under the brand name Muckety-Muck, with label art by Mayer.

### Film

Mayer provided character designs for the 2007 DreamWorks Animation film Bee Movie, as well as character designs for the 2011 20th Century Fox film Rio.
Mayer's poster illustration for the film General Orders No. 9, released in 2009, was art directed by Bob Persons.