Reg Mombassa is famous for his work at Mambo. But there’s more to Mambo than Mombassa. Quietly ticking away behind the scenes, generating truckloads of T-shirt designs for Mambo, and Mooks too, is
Paul McNeil.
You can recognise T-shirt labels by the illustrations. You know a mambo from
a Mooks at 10 paces, just from the type or the subject. But behind those illustrations are passionate illustrators.
Kiwi Paul McNeil is one of the guys behind the mass of Mambo and Mooks tees that have passed through the store shelves for the last 20+ years.
In 1987 the young Paul set forth from the Land of the Long White Cloud, arriving in Sydney with a clear goal in mind: Mambo. “Seeing Mambo ads in surf and skate mags back in New Zealand was a visual eye-popper for me – if anyone remembers those ads, you’ll know what I’m talking about. They were so hard hitting and anarchic (in a comical sense). They had brilliant anti-establishment ideas all wrapped up in brilliant drawings.
Not since Robert Crumb and Zap Comix had there been an outspoken artistic company. And the shorts were outrageous. Big, loud, ridiculous!” Uninspiring hours spent doing colour separations in Mambo’s art room didn’t deter him, and within 18 months Paul got his illustrations in front of the right person and began working on his first designs for the brand. It might sound like monkey business to some, but becoming a full-time illustrator was Paul’s dream. Over the next few years with Mambo and then, from 1990, as a freelance designer, he honed his distinctive style, inspired by music and surfing.
Thousands of designs later, Paul is one of Australia’s prolific T-shirt designers. He has exhibitions coming up in Melbourne and Sydney in 2008 and designs bucketloads of surfboards and cover art. His album cover with Richard Allan for the Hoodoo Gurus’ Electric Soup won an ARIA award for best cover art. Love Police recently published
M is for Metal, an illustrated A to Z of rock for kids, an illustrated alphabet for kids who rock, which Paul created with Barry Divola. Paul has new T-shirts coming up for Mambo, Love Police, Bones and Harmony and his own brand, Munter.
Grab a copy of the new T-world issue #04, and go to page 50 to read the rest of this article on Paul McNeil
The new T-world issue #04 is out now at mag nation.