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The Artists

Douglas Annand (1903-1976)

Douglas Annand, one of Australia's most productive and versatile artists, was internationally recognised for the quality of his work. He was a freelance commercial artist who studied at the Brisbane Technical College for only a short period. In 1928 he joined the Samson Clark Advertising Agency. He transferred to their Sydney office in 1930, the year in which he won a poster competition celebrating the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Annand worked in a variety of media. He designed magazine covers, posters and stationery, and accepted many civic art commissions. He was principal designer for the Australian Pavilion at the New York World Fair in 1939, and again for the 1940 Trade Exhibition in Wellington, New Zealand. He was awarded the Sulman Prize three times and the Mosman prize for watercolours. In 1968 his 'Black Swan' poster won a silver medal at the Seventh International Tourist Exhibition in Milan.

Although he worked in both commercial and fine art, acknowledgment of Annand's achievements in one field often ignores his work in the other. Nonetheless, the wide public exposure of his designs and his interest in a specifically Australian idiom at a time when many of his peers were concerned with creating 'international' images, has made Annand's innovative approach to design extremely influential.

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