Muriel Fahrion
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Muriel Fahrion | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Occupation | Illustrator/Designer |
| Years active | 1970s to Present |
| Employer | Outta Thin Air Studio |
| Known for | Care Bears,Strawberry Shortcake and Get-Along-Gang |
Muriel Fahrion is an American illustrator and the original designer of the girl's toy, Strawberry Shortcake.[1]
Early life and education
Muriel Norris Fahrion was born in Cleveland Ohio, grew up and went to school in Rocky River, Lakewood and Cleveland, Ohio. She was one of 7 children of John H. Norris and Catherine (Wunderle) Norris. She began drawing at the age of 4 and attended free classes at the Cleveland Museum of art during grammar and high school. After attending Lourdes Academy in Cleveland, she earned a scholarship to Cooper School of Art in Cleveland, OH graduating with a major in illustration.
Career
Immediately following art school, Fahrion was hired by American Greetings as a greeting card designer. She worked in Juvenile & Humorous Planning in creative division where she created greeting card designs.
In 1977, during her time as a greeting card designer, she was given the assignment of coming up with a rag doll character with strawberry and daisy theme for a greeting card lin then Fahrion created the original graphic and color depiction for Strawberry Shortcake, her cat Custard along with Blueberry Muffin and Huckleberry Pie. The line was determined to be a licensing property from a presentation given to Bernie Loomis of General Mills. Moving to TCFC (Those Characters From Cleveland) in 1978 she continued on the Shortcake line eventually depicting 32 characters in the line. Fahrion's sister, Susan Trentel, also of Cleveland, crafted the first Strawberry Shortcake doll based on the Fahrion's original greeting card design. The line was launched in the winter of 1979 and 1980. This design made a big impact, and in two years, Strawberry Shortcake went from 12 card line to an entire selection of books, clothing, dolls, toy accessories, and home decor. The line joined Herself the Elf, Holly Hobbie and Ziggy forming the new toy and licensing division "Those Characters from Cleveland" (TCFC), under American Greetings but located in separate building became a well known think tank for toys and licensing. While there she also worked on drawings and ideas for numerous licensing items.
While working for Those Characters From Cleveland, Fahrion also worked on several other toy design teams which included writers. She depicted the first concept are of characters in the of The Get Along Gang and Care Bears both properties then moved to other design teams. Like the first Strawberry Shortcake doll, many of these designs were first prototyped by her sister Susan Trentel who also worked at TCFC.Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears and Get-Along-Gang were all made into animations.
Fahrion took several years away from American Greetings freelancing for Fisher-Price, developing illustrations for the Puffalumps and working with Disney and Snoopy licensing.
American Greetings' toy division eventually was reduced in size and moved back to the corporate headquarters. Muriel Fahrion then became senior art director for Enesco in Chicago. After working a few years at Enesco, Muriel Fahrion moved to Oklahoma 1995 to become Creative Vice President at United Design in Norman, Oklahoma, where she headed up sculptors and paint designers she worked for United Design for seven years.
She and her husband, Michael Fahrion, ran a freelance studio Big Rock Works in Medicine Park, Oklahoma until they both retired. her husband developed cancer and was in remission but eventually it returned and they moved to Tulsa Oklahoma Fahrion. After her husband passed Fahrion relaunched her career under Outta Thin Air Studio in 2019 where she continues to create new characters under her own business. Fahrion is very active in the Tulsa art community belonging to Whiteside Portrait Artists, Rainbowland Art Studio Figure Drawing and Inkslingers of Tulsa. She travels and does talks, workshops and demos.
References
https://www.buzzsprout.com/216735/963405-coffee-house-interviews-muriel-fahrion'
- ^ Fahrion, Muriel (September 2005). "Muriel Fahrion". Oklahoma Living. (cached link) [dead link]
External links
- https://www.instagram.com/outtathinairstudio/
- https://www.patreon.com/outtathinair
- https://www.facebook.com/outtathinairstudio/
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