Design

IZI MARMUR

When faced with the need to summarise thirty years of my life in less than 500 words, I ended up mulling over some deep philosophical questions, such as ‘What is really important?’ and ‘Did I make the right choices?’ which might take a very long time to answer.

Meanwhile I wrote down the facts: Being part of AAG was an exciting and gratifying experience. It expanded my thinking about what Australian design and graphics should be and the ideas we shared when we were young, enthusiastic and idealistic have informed much of my later work.

After AAG disbanded I established Izigraphics, which has since gone through several incarnations, but still is the company which has been, and is, my source of income. For several years I freelanced for different ad agencies, then had a long stint as consulting Art Director at Clemengers. Later, in partnership with a friend, we established an advertising agency called Adforce Advertising. Eventually, in an attempt to find a better work-life balance, I opted to return to my own small graphics company. An extension to our home made it possible to work from a home office and led to my wife, Esther, joining the company and contributing her own talents to our enterprise. We have been working together since on a large variety of projects, ranging from retail advertising to visual identity, websites, book design and other things. All in all it has been satisfying, especially since we formed close relationships with our clients and had their support and loyalty over many years.

One of the most enjoyable and personally rewarding projects we have been involved in is the ‘Write Your Story’ program run by Makor Jewish Community Library, which facilitates the publication of autobiographies by members of the community. Designing the covers for these books calls on a combination of the skills I use every day in my commercial work and the freer creativity I like to indulge in when I do non-commercial art.

Throughout all these years, I retained my love for painting and sculpting and have engaged in these activities as much as time allowed. In 2005 I had an exhibition at Glen-Eira City Council Gallery and I’m hoping that in the years ahead I will be able to devote more time to art for the sake of art.
IM, 2009


From: THE KEVIN PAPPAS TEAR-OUT POSTCARD BOOK AND ALL AUSTRALIAN GRAFFITI. (UNATTRIBUTED PRESS RELEASE WRITTEN BY RENNIE ELLIS, 1977).

Born in Poland, IZY MARMUR arrived in Melbourne in 1962 aged 14, and suffered his first attack of culture shock, a condition that has shaped his attitudes and artwork ever since. Having been processed through Prahran College Art School along with his other Graffiti colleagues, he found himself doing retail layouts for McEwans, a job that while. reasonably secure in its tenure, didn’t offer lzy the chance to fully explore his talents.

He took off for the other side of the world where he was a graphic designer in England and a waiter graduating to chef in Germany. Unable to get a visa to Poland, he arrived in Jerusalem by default where he stayed for a year, working as head man in a design and illustration studio.

lzy found a wife, learnt to come to terms with the “business is business” ethic and then headed back to Australia. “Thought I’d check out what was happening back on the home front”. McEwans snapped him up again. “We need you lzy” they pleaded, but the re-union, as pleasant as it was, could not withstand the poaching efforts of his old school mates, Con the Greek and Mimmo the Italian. “We solved everything one evening over a few drinks,” lzy recalls. “We got together to create something our minds could handle. All Australian Graffiti is special for me because I know we're different. I can experiment and I’m with friends which is very important to me.

“The postcard book is our way of showing how we relate to Australia. Where we’ve been and where we’re going-the changes. I believe it’s important that the migrant contribution to Australian culture is recognised”. The observation can be made, that in some ways the Graffiti migrants are more basically Australian than native born Aussies. They’re the ultimate product of unsubtle suburbia and the milk bar syndrome.