James Harvey

Who was James Harvey?

James Harvey was an American commercial and fine artist who was best known as the designer of the Brillo Pad box made famous by pop artist Andy Warhol in 1964 at his "Stable Gallery Show". During a his successful career as a commercial artist, Harvey did work for major clients such as Pepsodent, Brillo, Philip Morris and others. Also known as an abstract expressionist painter, he died in 1965.

James Havey came from a blue-collar, immigrant family. Harvey was born in 1929 in Toronto, Canada. His family moved to Detroit before he was a year old. Harvey studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. He later returned to Detroit, where he designed window displays for retail giant J. L. Hudson. Finally he moved to New York to break into the art world.

Harvey secured a position in the studio of Egmont Arens, an industrial and packaging designer who helped usher in the “streamlined” style before World War II. In 1963 he redesigned the cigarette packaging, including the familiar geometric designs for Marlboro giant Philip Morris. Harvey and his colleagues worked for two years on sketches, and did 200 final designs. The winner, selected by the executives of Phillip Morris was the most mediocre of the bunch, according to Harvey, who felt “It’s a committee-arrived-at thing,”