He’s Lake Geneva’s artist

LAKE GENEVA’S Artist

Neal Aspinall’s work has distinctive, but familiar style

by Sandra Landen Machaj

CORRESPONDENT

While you may not recognize him by name, if you have spent any amount of time in the Lake Geneva area, you have certainly seen his work.

He is Neal Aspinall, illustrator and graphic designer who has created posters and logos for many events, landmarks, and businesses in the Lake Geneva area.

His work is unique and his style is simple and uncluttered. He draws inspiration from posters of the WPA during the Great Depression and retro-American advertising from the pre-1960s. He loves simplicity in his images and likes for the viewer to fill in the images with his or her own imagination.

“You may notice that I like to include objects from the past. For example, if there is a telephone it will not be a modern phone but a black rotary dial phone of the past,” Aspinall said.

His colors are vibrant yet he outlines most of his projects with a black frame and often uses a lot of white in the drawing. There are always details in his work to catch the viewer’s eye.

A piece he created for the Lake Geneva Water Safety Patrol is one such work that seems to jump off the page. The boat is white with No. 1 in red lettering. Against a background of quiet blue water and massive greenery along the shore, the white wake of the water as the boat speeds along, makes the viewer feel the speed of the boat.

Like many of Aspinall’s works there is that unique detail near the shoreline –

from top: Artist Neal Aspinall displays some of his works at the Geneva Lake Museum; A variety of notecards by Neal Aspinall have some of the most significant buildings in the Lake Geneva area.