Burr Giffen

Burr E. Giffen (March 3, 1886 - April 2, 1965) was an American artist and illustrator^[1] working in New York City. His most famous creation was while he was working for an Advertising Company in 1910. He created the Fisk Tire Company Boy holding a tire and night candle as a proposal sketch in charcoal. This sketch became the company's well-known registered trademarked image in 1910.^[2]

Burr Giffen
Born	Burr Edwards Giffen (1886-03-03)March 3, 1886 Rockford, Illinois
Died	April 2, 1965(1965-04-02) (aged 79) Westchester County, New York
Known for	Artist, Illustrator
Style	contemporary art
Spouse	Bertha Tischler Giffen

Biography

Burr Giffen was born in Rockford, Illinois. When he reached the age of 4, he moved to Des Moines, Iowa where his father Marvin Q Giffen, was successful in the wholesale furniture business. Burr was noted without an occupation in the 1905 Iowa Census and soon left for New York City.^[3]

In 1910, he was working for the ad agency Wagner and Field (established Nov. 1908).^[2] Giffen says he got the inspiration for the drawing at 3 A.M., sat down on his bed and rapidly sketched the little boy with a tire over his right shoulder and a candle held in his left hand. Simultaneously, he coined the slogan: "Time to Re-tire."^[4]

The sketch was an instant hit with the Fisk Rubber Co., which a few years earlier had introduced its first pneumatic automobile tire. It appeared nationally in Life magazine in 1911.^[5]

Norman Rockwell was one of the artists who illustrated the Fisk tire boy, which allowed him to be creative.

Over the decades, the tousle-haired, sleepy-time boy appeared on every Fisk car and truck tire, in ads, on all stationery, booklets, posters, TV slides, calendars, tire store displays and even on clock faces.