Poster Love with David Hughes & Glenda Borchard
First it was a painting, then it became a poster and now it’s our Winter Cover. Jodie Cameron meets the artist who brought a lighthouse to life and the designer who gave it a story…
Interviewing our cover artists is my favourite part of the job. There are interviews where you discover something new, and interviews that make you wonder if you’re enjoying yourself too much to call it a job, then there are the ones that simply make your heart sing. This was one of those.
I arrived at the Yandina Creek home of graphic designer and retro poster artist David Hughes and his wife, fine artist Glenda Borchard – her work graces the front cover of our sister publication IN Noosa Magazine. I was expecting to talk all things art but sitting in their sun-drenched studio, I caught a glimpse of a world quietly built on second chances. Glenda paints the world she remembers, sees and feels. David researches, adds narratives, illustrates and layers timeless typography to bring nostalgic moments to life.
A typography aficionado with 40 years of graphic design experience, David is a man who has never been idle, and never wants to be.
He owned a multimedia company, held design consultancies in tourism, publishing and fashion and still contracts to Sydney University. Whether he’s restoring an ornate piece of antique furniture or crafting the design for a poster – in David’s mind working with form and shape is sheer delight.
“I fell in love with decorative fonts from the cursive script handwriting books in primary school” he says. “Those swashes and ligatures were art to me.”
Growing up in an antique-restoration family, David developed an appreciation for craftsmanship from an era when things were built to last – rare woods, hand-carved detail, beautiful objects that held stories from previous lives. In recent years, David and Glenda individually navigated widowhood before finding each other online during COVID. What followed was a courtship that could have belonged to another era entirely. Emails first, then Zoom and within months Glenda had said “yes” to his proposal.
“When you know, you know,” David says. “At the time, neither of us had a handle on the extent of each other’s art backgrounds. It blew my mind when I saw just how good Glenda’s art is, she was extremely modest about it.”
Marrying in Brisbane and honeymooning on the Sunshine Coast, fate intervened in the form of a house not yet on the market, a motivated seller and a tip from a real estate agent’s son. Their tree change was decided almost overnight; a fresh start on new ground, for two people ready to love again.
“Our first creative collaboration was in textile design,” Glenda says. “I painted chinoiserie designs, a fusion of East and West, that David printed onto fabric to reupholster antique furniture.”
It was the beginning of something neither had foreseen, and the springboard for David’s poster work. Glenda’s imagery and his design skills created a fresh opportunity. The Caloundra Lighthouse on our cover is an example of Glenda’s painted image, and David’s graphic eye with its carefully researched narrative layered to match its nostalgic presence.
“We have great compositional conversations, and enjoy collaborating occasionally” Glenda says.
The penny drop moment came during a European holiday – retro travel posters were everywhere.
“Seeing the posters in Europe made me wonder why we were labouring over textiles when paper was so much more immediate, and made the most of the lifetime of skills that we’d both acquired.”
A lover of poster design, David’s art heroes include Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha and Bauhaus designers.
“Art fused with text resonates with me,” David says.
Retro travel posters has become the perfect passion for a man who’d spent decades in antiques, printing and design.
“I have 100 years to play with, from 1880 to 1980,” he says. “Every era has its own design language; art deco, psychedelia, the atomic age. I love it all.”
For David, the research is the essential part of realising the design. His Dicky Beach poster regales the story of the SS Dicky shipwreck of 1893 – the dances held on the wreck, a kerosene lantern that started a fire, and a permanent wreck that remains to this day.
“I research the whole story to make the finished piece potentially authentic,” he says. “With tourism destinations, there’s usually a backstory somewhere and people love a good narrative. It’s a real memento from that time, and our customers often ask if it’s actually an old poster. I call it ‘contemporary retro’.”
David disappears into the print room and returns with a giant poster of Caloundra Lighthouse – a gift for our office. David explained why he deliberately chose the older, more characterful lighthouse over the modern one.
“The older lighthouses are majestic objects that people are drawn to, they speak of the excitement and adventure of being on the high seas,” he says. “The newer ones lack a bit of romantic tension.”
In a time where AI can generate a retro poster in seconds, David draws on technical knowledge – silk screen printing, lithography, stippling – while deliberately introducing imperfections that AI simply hasn’t thought of yet.
“I’ll simulate a misregistered screen print so the text sits slightly outside where it should, which is exactly the way it would have been printed back then,” he says. “I want people to be entertained by the artistry, as well as nostalgic memories.”
For all his passion and prolific output, David is clear about where the real legacy lies.
“There has to be joy in what you create,” David says. The ‘posters period’ as he calls it, is his time to “do what he wants to do when he grows up”.
But the big picture he says, is helping Glenda to realise a body of highly professional, original work.
“That’s the legacy. And that is the journey we’re on together,” he says.
And no doubt, somewhere in the world, this couple will realise a dream of seeing Glenda’s paintings in a gallery and on beautifully restored, functional furniture reimagined and brought back to life much like the artists themselves. Two artists, two bodies of work, one extraordinary life, and they’re just getting started.
WANT MORE?
Discover the work of David Hughes at www.davidhughes.com.au or at these locations:
- Better Living, Montville
- Eumundi Market Stall (Saturdays)
- Lamington Hastings St, Noosa Heads
- News Travels, Sunshine Coast Airport
WIN!
David is giving away a framed poster of Sunshine Coast ‘Boardrider Girl‘ from his collection, valued at $260 to one lucky reader! Head to our WIN page and subscribe to our enewsletter for your chance to own a classic piece of the Sunshine Coast!
THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED
Read Glenda’s story….
