Nothing Bygone About Larry Vigon

Larry Vigon is one of the lucky ones. At just 7 years old, he had it all figured out ― he would spend his life making art. 

Vigon’s parents supported his raw talent with lessons at home. His elementary school encouraged him by excusing him from math class so he could paint in the hallway, “which probably explains why my math skills aren’t what they should be,” he said. And many decades later, he’s still producing with the same curiosity and passion as that eager kid with a brush in his hand.

“Doing art is like breathing for me,” Vigon said. “If I’m not doing it, I don’t feel right.” Even though he’s 75, he feels as creative as ever, “Maybe even more so, because I’m always learning, always solving design problems,” he said. “And I’m still having too much fun.”

At Pasadena’s prestigious ArtCenter College of Design, Vigon honed his inherent gift into a marketable skill. He had his work cut out for him. He went from being a big fish in a small pond to a plankton in the Pacific. “I remember walking into the lobby on my first day and seeing the senior work on the wall and thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing? How did I get in here?’” 

With a characteristic sense of purpose, Vigon set his sights on one day designing record covers. “I’ve been listening to music since I could turn on a radio,” he said. It was the first thing he did when he woke up, and the last thing he did before bed. “So, I always thought the best possible job in the world would be to design albums ― to combine my love of music with my love of art,” he said.

Upon graduation, Vigon hit the pavement, submitting his work to Los Angeles record companies, a few of whom had heard about the ArtCenter hotshot looking for a job. One day, he got a call from a creative director who asked if he had any experience in hand-lettering. “I said, ‘Of course!’ even though I didn’t,” Vigon said. But he pulled it off, and then some, collaborating with Captain Beefheart for the band’s Bluejeans and Moonbeams album.

A few gigs later, Vigon found himself working for Fleetwood Mac. There was an element of fate to the union. Vigon’s current wife of 48 years, Sandra, had previously lived with the band’s founder, Peter Green. Green had even written a song about her: “Black Magic Woman.” “It was pretty funny,” Vigon said, “to listen to that song all those years and then marry the woman it was based on.”

Vigon’s design of the Fleetwood Mac record Rumours ― which went on to sell 40 million copies worldwide ― cemented his reputation in the rock and pop world and led to a steady stream of contracts with big-name acts, including Eric Clapton, Chicago, Counting Crows, Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt, Frank Sinatra, Carole King, and many others. 

Later in his career, Vigon dove headfirst into the realm of dream analysis, recording every dream he had with an accompanying illustration for 17 years. In another moment of serendipity, he met one of the last living analysts to study with the godfather of dream interpretation, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. That ultimately led to Vigon overseeing the art direction of The Red Book, the definitive collection of Jung’s groundbreaking research.

Vigon certainly didn’t mind the financial success that came with such exposure, but it’s not what motivated him. It’s still not. “I’ve never really been driven by money,” he said. “For me, it’s always about the art…. Whether it’s a new client or I’m getting paid a fortune, if my name is on it, I give 100 percent to everything I do.” Over the years, that has included work for print, broadcast, and interactive media and encompassed every type of advertising client, from airports to vitamins.

That personal ethos was on display over the summer when Vigon won the opportunity to design this year’s Summer Solstice poster ― a piece he called “Harlequin Dream Dancer” ― and develop the event’s new “Sun Drummer” logo. Organizers said his work “elevated” the branding of the annual parade and festival. Soon after, he helped lay out the 2025 Fiesta poster, another aesthetic high point of local marketing.

“I wanted to do something for my new hometown,” explained Vigon, who moved from Europe to Santa Barbara six years ago after regular visits for much of his life. During his dream journaling days, and when the Miramar was $70 a night for an oceanside room, he came here often to paint. “I’ve always had this kind of love affair with Santa Barbara,” he said. “And we just couldn’t face another English winter.”

Not long after arriving in town, Vigon taught a class at UCSB ― The Art of Journaling ― that happened to include a wealthy patron of the arts. She was so impressed by the depth and breadth of his portfolio that she made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. She wanted to sponsor the publication of a no-expense-spared retrospective of his career. “All artists need a patron, but few are fortunate enough to find one, much less have one choose you,” he said. “It was an incredible gift.” Serious Play, a two-volume tome, was published in 2022.

Even though Vigon’s 50-year career has been officially memorialized, that doesn’t mean it’s over. He’s currently working on a line of aquatic-themed paintings for an upcoming show at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, and he’s looking for other opportunities to share his stuff with the wider public. “You do your work, but unless the public sees it, it’s not really complete,” he said. “This is my way of giving back to the community and being in the world.” He’d also like to teach more. 

“I’m always keeping my eyes open for inspiration,” Vigon continued. “Not necessarily another piece of art, but maybe a bird or a shadow. And I always keep a pad of paper next to me that I’ll go back through and say, ‘Oh, that’s interesting. Maybe I’ll develop that.’ I’ll probably die with a paintbrush in my hand.”

See larryvigon.com.