If you grew up in Hong Kong around the 1970s and 1980s, chances are you would recognize the green, snouted, red-dotted character Lap Sap Chung.

It translates literally as Litterbug and is the face of the Urban Council's Clean Hong Kong Campaign.

Lap Sap Chung could be found all over the city at the time - from posters to a television advertisement in which singer Frances Yip gave voice to the catchy tune.

Lap Sap Chung was created by British designer and artist Arthur Hacker in 1972. While the character is deeply rooted in many people's minds in Hong Kong, the creator behind it was not.

"Growing up in Hong Kong during this period, images of Hacker's work were everywhere, yet he seems to have become a forgotten figure who is due for a reassessment," said Hugh Zimmern, who is the owner of Ping Pong Gintoneria in Sai Ying Pun and curator of its exhibition on Arthur Hacker.

Born in 1932 to an artistic family, Hacker studied at London's Royal College of Art and worked at the London Evening Standard and Philips records before coming to Hong Kong in 1967 as the art director of the Hong Kong government's Information Services Department.

It was there that he created the famed and beloved Lap Sap Chung character as well as other government publicity materials - the logo of the Festival of Hong Kong and the 1982 Hong Kong's Definitive Stamps, to name a couple.

Hacker also drew in his free time and published his first book, Hacker's Hong Kong, in 1976. He published several books in his lifetime, with the 2006 British Hong Kong: fact and fable being his last before his death in 2013.

Zimmern says the book of drawings "sets out the people of Hong Kong during that era; flared trousers, mini-skirts, Hakka hats and US GIs on R&R in Wan Chai girlie bars all appear."

"On leaving the GIS in the 80s, Hacker started producing books on Hong Kong history, worked as a freelance illustrator, and produced art prints and drawings."

The exhibition shows Hacker's work throughout his life - from the album covers of his pre-Hong Kong days to original prints and illustrations from his freelance career - and can be viewed while enjoying a drink and snacks in the Spanish gin and tonic bar on Second Street.

"The highlight for me are the drawings on the gray wall of the bar," said Zimmern. "Here we have managed to find 16 of the original drawings from Hacker's Hong Kong, including some preparatory sketches. His style is unique; mixing patterns and curlicues that are almost baroque in style, to produce drawings which are spare and wholly modern; it's a difficult trick!"

Zimmern's personal favorite is Door Gods, which is shown at the bottom of the stairs from Second Street at the bar.

"This drawing was commissioned by Lilian Tang for an exhibition in London in 2002. They look like ordinary door gods but, look closer, one is flicking a V sign and the other is thumbing his nose."

The Solo Exhibition of Arthur Hacker will run at Ping Pong Gintoneria until July 10.

It's a bug's life