Meet the man behind Hef’s bunny ears

In 1986, just four years after college, with only $135 in her pocket, the young Jennifer Hou Kwong, or Jian Ping, got off an airplane in New York City. She was on her way to Ohio University to study film theory and history.

“I couldn’t afford to make any films, but I was always interested in literature and film,” she said.

Growing up in China, Jian Ping studied at Jilin University in Changchun. She developed a passion for filmmaking after working as a movie subtitle translator at China Film Corp. But due to the high costs of making films, she couldn’t turn her dreams into a reality.

Little did she know that many years later, she would become the director of a documentary: Art Paul of Playboy: the Man Behind the Bunny.

The movie, which celebrates the life and accomplishments of Playboy magazine’s founding art director Art Paul, took four years to complete. It was screened recently at the Mill Valley Film Festival, Heartland International Film Festival, and Chicago International Film Festival.

During the 54th Chicago International Film Festival, a “Chicago Award of Artistic Excellence” was presented posthumously to Paul, who passed away last April at the age of 93.

The film interweaves conversations with Art Paul with archival footage and interviews with artists, graphic designers and art directors, as well as former Playboy executives, including founder Hugh Hefner himself.

“Playboy was always a controversial magazine, but in its first 30 years, when Art Paul was the art director there, it was a major social force in the US,” said Jian Ping.

“I felt he deserved to be better known, because when people come to know Playboy, (it’s) always (about) Hugh Hefner, about the sex revolution, but nobody has ever talked about the creative design, artistic work in the magazine.”

Jian Ping said she came to know Paul after a chance encounter 10 years ago with the late iconic bunny logo designer’s wife, photographer and writer Suzanne Seed.

“I realized the achievements that Art Paul had made, and I was amazed how humble and down-to-earth he was,” she said.

Paul worked at Playboy from its inception in 1953 until 1982, when he left to pursue his own art projects. He is credited with helping Hefner define the look of the fledgling magazine.

He has also won numerous awards during his lifetime, including: the Herb Lubalin Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Publication Designers, induction into the Hall of Fame at the Art Directors Club and the prestigious Alliance Graphique Internationale.

But Paul is perhaps most famous for designing the famous logo — a silhouetted rabbit with cocked ear wearing a tuxedo bow tie, which has since become the symbol of Playboy’s entertainment and publishing empire.

“He was always ahead of his time. He was really a genius,” Jian Ping said. “He motivated people to do what they are good at, directed them when they needed direction, gave them free rein to do their artistic work. That was a real enlightenment to me.”

Jian Ping said she was most impressed by the manner that Paul handled himself, even after he became diagnosed with dementia, aphasia and muscular degeneration.

“As he aged, he aged gracefully. He played with his limitations,” she told China Daily. “He kept at work until the last moment. That was amazing. His wife keeps saying, an artist never stops working, and he certainly did that.”

In a way, like Art Paul, Jian Ping never stopped pursuing her artistic dream and reaching higher goals despite challenges.

She came of age during the “cultural revolution” (1966-76). Jian Ping got accepted at Jilin University in 1978, one year ahead of her classmates and right after China held its first nationwide university entrance exam after the “cultural revolution” ended.

She got a job at China Film Corp in Beijing upon graduation, where she worked with experts from other countries who helped her with English.

“I felt pretty lucky that also I felt the door to China just cracked open back then,” Jian Ping said, “and as a young person, you want to get more exposure, you want to learn more.”

She has several ambitious plans in mind, including writing a sequel to her book Mulberry Child and generating a positive impact on the US-China relationship.

“Working on Art Paul’s film also inspired me to see what kind of impact and tremendous achievement he has done as an individual,” Jian Ping said.