Details of Jorge Garcia Artist

 

THE JORGE GARCIA STORY

19TH OCTOBER 2024 KARL SCHNELLE

By Fedor Eliseev and Fernando Rey

Text copyright of the Author(s) unless otherwise stated. Photos copyright of Jorge Garcia and Fernando Rey. 

Trying to learn about the history of different manufacturers, the best way is to connect personally with the founders or owners. No doubt that they can tell many details that no one else can. Therefore, we made an attempt to find the production manager at Galgo, Luis Biasatti, nicknamed GiGi; however, he unfortunately passed away several years ago.

We did have a positive result though, because Jorge Garcia, the great artist who worked for Galgo, agreed to tell us about his years with the company. So we can offer our readers a unique story which is not found on the internet or anywhere else. Hope, you’ll appreciate Jorge’s story.

Jorge Garcia was born in 1951 in Buenos Aires. At the age of 11, he was bedridden for 40 days. Trying to distract himself and to feel positive, he started to paint pictures of Disney cartoons on office paper which his father brought him. A couple years later his parents gave him an airplane kit for Christmas. He was so excited, and at the same time Jorge began to draw planes.

By the mid 60s, auto sport became very popular in Argentina and many people spent their weekends at the race track. Jorge and his brother also visiting the track very often to attend practice days. The noise of cars, their shape and sponsor’s advertisement attracted the Garcia brothers, so Jorge began to draw the cars which started his devotion to this sport.

Muky

In 1966, he left lower school to find a job, and so he enrolled at the Pan-American School of Art to learn advertising illustration and drawing. During his 3rd year, a toy car manufacturer Muky was looking for young artists to get cheap design work. So, Jorge decided that it was a great opportunity to start his career.

Muky commissioned him to draw a light blue Corvette and 12 line drawings of the models. The result was incredible so Muky was interested in continuing their collaboration. For the next two years, the company became a constant client of Jorge, who designed their boxes using 24 illustrations.

Many Superviloz Pistas (superfast track) illustrations were done for Muky. Colorful catalogs and boxes are also shown below.

Other Illustrations

Later in the 70s, the next chapter in the biography of the artist begins. Jorge worked in the Art Department of Stani Products ( candies) for a couple of years and later made illustrations for Argentinian and Spanish car magazines. His magazine illustration of the Mercedes-Benz and driver Ewy Roquist is shown below.

At that time, he had much work not connected with cars. For instance, Jorge designed robots and spaceship for children, and in 1977 introduced 26 collector cards of cars, planes and tanks. By the end of the 70s he had gained a lot of experience in the toy industry.

Galgo

When Luis Biasatti was transforming Galgo into the one of the biggest toy manufacturers in South American, he realized that the company needed an interesting packaging design to attract customers. That’s why he recruited a team of professional artists at the end of the 70s and persuaded the Peckareq* brothers to support his decision.

At the beginning, Jorge Garcia worked with the artists Bergandi and Cademartori. After they left, he took over with another artist, Ferrigno, and worked with him for 12 years until Galgo closed its doors.

Previously, Galgo used very simple packaging: small acrylic display cases and plain blisters. Jorge and his teammate designed new black cardboard boxes with stripes . The top side had pictures of each model that was packed inside. Also, new bright and attractive blisters were introduced. Some of them had images of the race car driver and his autograph. The pictures of the cars were incredible and in many cases showed scenes from real life. Two 1:43 Ford Taunus’s are show below and a box signed by Jorge is shown in a previous MAR Onlinearticle.

A few years later Galgo decided to use common packaging for all the models, so Jorge designed blue checkered cardboard boxes with the picture of a little dog driving a race car. The Galgo logo was in yellow. We can surmise that the Peckareq brothers and Luis Biasatti tried to associate their production with British Corgi to attract more customers.

Despite the similar box design for all their main ranges, there were some interesting individual illustrations. For instance, inside the the boxes of some models (see the van towing the race car above), you can see an asphalt road and mountains. No doubt, the scene looks very spectacular.

During his years in Galgo, Jorge Garcia designed boxes for all Galgo cars in different scales, all boxes for 1/25 plastic Eurostil models, packaging for Marjorie dolls, HiColor video cassettes and other products like Commando toys, robots, laser guns, service stations, etc.

Also, wonderful packaging was created for TV series cars like BJ and the Bear, Barbie, Topo Gigio, Dukes of Hazzard, Brigada A (The A Team) and others. The packaging of most of these models looked much better than the actual miniatures! Another excellent work was Galgo Strada, a big hit, which was also in 3D, a city with buildings that opened like a storybook, but it was very expensive to make. 

During a 12 years career in Galgo, Jorge created more than 500 illustrations. Jorge worked independently when at Galgo and has never been on the company payroll. Parallel to Galgo, he worked for Marlboro and many other clients and also took part in exhibitions in Detroit, Pebble Beach, Rally Maya in Mexico and in Stuttgart. Over the years, Jorge received many awards in different countries for his illustrations.

• 1983- CERTIFICATE OF MERIT, SILA 23- Soc. of illustrators of Los Angeles, USA
• 1986- GOLD MEDAL, SILA 25- Soc. of illustrators of Los Angeles, USA
• 1998- AWARD OF EXCELLENCE- Meadow Brook Hall, Detroit, Michigan, USA
• 2001- 2nd PRIZE- International Motoring Art, London
• 2002- AWARD OF EXCELLENCE- Meadow Brook Hall, Detroit, Michigan, USA

Receiving an award in the 1980s After Galgo closed, he did some more work for Luis Biasatti who tried to make some toys but then he completely moved away from the toy business. Jorge and GiGi became good friends despite their lives going in different directions.

Post Galgo

After all his work for Galgo, Jorge has never been a model car collector, and even now only has a few miniatures from many years ago. In 1990 Jorge founded his own school of art called the Centro Visual Buenos Aires; it closed in 2002.

In 2002, famous Argentinian F1 driver José Froilán González presented Michael Schumacher with Jorge’s Ferrari History painting. 

Today Jorge Garcia is still actively organizing the Fuel Art group of artists. We wish him all the best, with new inspirations and new projects.