June 2008

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2008.

STEP Inside Design business annual – cover design by Wink

wink step inside design cover

Finished Cover

The cover of the July/ August issue of STEP Inside Design magazine was designed by Wink. Scott Thares of Wink shares with grain edit some of the thoughts that went into the cover:

Read the rest of this entry »

Matthew Bowers

Matthew Bowers

German Shepherds and Ham Radio! My two favorite things together at last! Matthew Bowers, purveyor of such fine imagery and juicy type, is a Portland, OR based designer. In addition to his regular work, he also publishes the art book series, Downy Bird Art Kingdom.

Forest Small Book Series

forest small book series

Of Great Masses Moving at Visionary Speeds – Small Book Series vol. 2

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while. Joel over at the design studio Forest (of The Drama magazine fame) sent us this swell little book that’s part of the Forest Small Book Series. Books in the series are released quarterly and feature various thoughts, sketches, collections, and travels. Each issue is handmade using French paper and designed by Forest.

Vol. 2 (seen above) features photos by Joel and quotes from CS Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet. I really like the quotes Joel selected for inclusion in the book. Here’s one:

“To EVERY MAN, in his acquaintance with a new art, there comes a moment when that which before was meaningless first lifts, as it were, one corner of the curtain that hides its mystery, and reveals, in a burst of delight which later and fuller understanding can hardly ever equal, one glimpse of the indefinite possibilities within.”

Each issue is only $5, so stop by the Forest website and pickup vol. 2 and the recently released vol.3. You can sign up for a yearly subscription as well.

Charles Goslin – graphic designer and illustrator

charles goslin graphic design

Bedside Nurse magazine design from 1968, 1969 and 1970

Charles Goslin (1932-2007) began his career at Lester Beall’s studio in 1954 and left to pursue work at corporate identity firm Lippincott & Margulies in 1958. Three years later he parted ways again, but this time to begin what would be a lengthy career as a freelance designer and illustrator. During this time he started teaching at Pratt Institute as well, where he became known for unique assignments.

For those interested in learning more about Charles Goslin, former student Scott Santoro has written a lovely piece about him here.

Also of interest:

Graphic designer Clarence Lee – He worked at Lester Beall’s studio in 1958, possibly at the same time as Charles Goslin.

Petit Collage animal alphabet poster

petit collage aninal alphabet poster

Animal Alphabet 18 x 24 poster. 3 color screen print

I first ran into San Francisco based Lorena Siminovich’s work at a local store that carries modern goods a few years ago. It was the Elephant collage seen on this page that caught my eye. Since then she has released a small zoo of colorful collages, posters and notecards.

The poster seen above is the latest addition to her collection. Check out that chocolate elephant! He’s hanging out with his mysterious friend that starts with a letter “i” and drinking some yummy camel leg. Lots of Fun!

You can see this poster and the rest of the collection at Lorena’s website: Petit Collage.

Airline memorabilia – vintage playing cards

british airways playing cards

British Airways standard playing cards – 1970

Woah, British airways on acid! Anyone know who designed this deck of cards?

Philippe Apeloig

Philippe Apeloig

Philippe Apeloig runs his own studio, Apeloig, in Paris, France. Not only does Philippe have a lot of work his site, but it’s very well documented and photographed. You can get a sense of the amount of experimentation and playing that goes on in his work.

Modern book cover art – Creative America

creative america-cover

Creative America: Art director- Albert Squillace c1962

Thanks to Chad for sending this in. Looks very similar to the book cover design work of Paul Rand.

Also worth checking:
Modern Dutch book cover design
1960s Penguin books

Editor of Dwell Magazine reveals his modern home + his owls

sam grawe editor of dwell house

sam grawe editor of dwell house

Apartment Therapy posted photos of Sam Grawe’s apartment yesterday as part of their 2008 home tour series. Sam is the Editor-in-Chief at the San Francisco based Dwell Magazine. If you are unfamiliar with Dwell, it is a magazine that focuses on modern architecture and design.

Sam has lots of goodies in his house. The place is filled with Danish modern furniture, Bertoia chairs and Scandinavian nic nacs. What did me in was the record covers and the owls. This is a man that loves owls! He has a slew of these Edvard Lindahl looking ceramic miniature birds of prey. Too be fair, it looks he holds no Owl biases. I see examples of Strigidae (Heck yea, I’m name dropping) as well as the barn yard variety. I actually know nothing about Owls. I picked all this up in a two minute search at Wikipedia. Anyways, I’m getting off track. To sum up, just check out the house tour.

Elizabeth Shoes – Vintage shoebox – 1970s ?

vintage elizabeth shoes box

Elizabeth shoes shoebox possibly from the 1970s

I just about flipped when I found this image of an Elizabeth shoe box on flickr. I love the organic lines flowing inside the butterfly wings. Is it me or does it look like the body of the butterfly is rising from a lighter thats created when the letter “L” and letter”i” are placed next to each other? I doubt that was their intention, but its still looks cool. I can’t get enough of those branches that stem from the letters. Has anyone heard of this company? Is this a new company or is this from the 1960s or 1970s?

Many, Many thanks to Fountaineer for posting this.

Aldo Novarese – Recta Sans Serif Typeface for Nebiolo

Aldo Novarese recta san serif typeface

Aldo Novarese – Recta Type Specimen sheet circa late 1950s/ early 1960s.

Beautiful san serif typeface by Aldo Novarese. He designed Recta in 1958 while serving as the art director at the Nebiolo type foundry (Societe Nebiolo Torino) in Turin, Italy. Novarese is well known for designing the modern typeface Microgramma, which later became Eurostile.

In the pictures below, you can see a few examples of the 21 fonts that were included in the Recta font family.

Read the rest of this entry »

Poster Offensive 4 – Minnesota poster art show

poster offensive 4

For those of you in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area, Poster Offensive 4 will be hitting your hood on Friday August 29th 2008 at the Black Dog Cafe.  The show later travels to the Frank Stone Gallery on October 3rd.

Poster Offensive is partnering up with the organization, Provention: A group of Minnesota artists offering a peaceful welcome to the GOP conventioneers as they arrive in town. The Poster Offensive is a non-partsian poster show dedicated to the promotion of peace and democracy.

Participants include: Aesthetic Apparatus, Peet Fetsch, Todd Bartz, Boyd Brent , Kelly Munson and many others.

For gallery times, dates and locations click here.

Many thanks to the gracious people at Spunk Design Machine for putting this event together and for sending us some of the swell posters seen above. If you live in the Oakland area and would like a poster, please contact me.

1950s Alvin Lustig album cover design – Vivaldi

vivaldi album cover design

Classical album covers from 1954

Finnish illustrator Elina Minn captured these lovely record cover specimens designed for the Haydn Society by Alvin Lustig hiding in her Grandmother’s vinyl collection. I really like the colors of the album on the right. Every time I look at it, it reminds me of this Alexander Girard nativity poster.

After you check out the Vivaldi covers, wander down to Elina’s website. Plenty of great illustration and collage work to look at.

Many thanks to Gina Federico for sending this my way and Kind Company who designed the Alvin Lustig website, for alerting us that these album covers are the work of designer Alvin Lustig.

Other work by Alvin Lustig:

The Collected writings of Alvin Lustig
Alvin Lustig brochure design

Michael Fusco Design – Black Kids poster

Michael Fusco Design

Process colors! Animal illustrations! The fantastic pop stylings of Black Kids! Michael Fusco and Co. did a great job of mixing the band’s outgoing, addictive hooks with their literate lyrical side.

In addition to the posters, MFD can also handle your book cover, identity, CD packaging, and wedding invite needs.

Maria Holmer Dahlgren – Bricka Stockholm tray

Maria Holmer Dahlgren Bricka Stockholm tray

Orange buildings, black suns and a white glob with two eyes in the upper right corner. Anyone have an idea what the white glob is? I guess it doesn’t matter, it looks cool.

Many thanks to Kim Eriksson for posting images of this Bricka Stockholm tray. You can get in on this good stuff here.

Karl Gerstner and Markus Kutter – die neue Graphik

karl gerstner die neue graphik book

Karl Gerstner and Markus Kutter – the new graphic art – c1959 published by Arthur Niggli Ltd.

Classic book that surveys modern graphic design from its origins up till the late 1950s. Filled with advertisements, posters, packages, lettering, logos and displays. Lots of Swiss design to drool over.  I just wish there were more color images.

I love the clean type and the 3 column grid on the cover. The modern day remake of the cover would be exactly the same except someone would replace the header “die neue graphik” with “this is a design book”. Ha

Includes work from: Hans Neuburg, Joseph Muller Brockmann, Richard Paul Lohse, Ladislav Sutnar and many others.

Read the rest of this entry »

Daphne Padden – Vintage travel posters

Daphne Padden posters for royal blue

Allison at The Lark posted an amazing collection of vintage travel posters by British artist and illustrator Daphne Padden. Most of the posters in the collection were created for Royal Blue Coach Services (A Bus company located in the UK) during the1950s and 1960s. Her work is fun and filled with little men with big beards! The illustration style reminds me of Tom Eckersley and Abram Games.

Read the rest of this entry »

Joseph Muller Brockmann – album cover design

joseph muller brockmann album cover design

Andre-Francois Marescotti / Armin Schibler album cover – Designed by Joseph Muller Brockmann

I’m off to a late start today, I was up late last night making a few changes to the far right column. In addition, I’ve added a page dedicated to our Modern Sticker + Stamp club and Paul Rand group. Give it spin!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Has anyone been to the Birth of Cool : California at Midcentury exhibition yet? I’m dying to go but, I haven’t had a chance yet. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the exhibit.

Up above. Beautiful example of Swiss graphic design via Alki1.

Chronicle Books & Jason Munn: Cool Bag!

Small Stakes bag for Chronicle books

Our good friend and design champ Jason Munn designed the above bag for book publishing champs Chronicle Books. Chronicle wanted to create and encourage a non-wasteful, reusable bag solution, and Jason had the perfect caterpillar turns butterfly idea.

For more info, visit Chronicle.

Many thanks to Hannah for posting the mock ups!

Invisible Creature interview

Don  Clark disney pic

Invisible creature is the three-time Grammy-nominated Seattle based design duo of Don and Ryan Clark. Including their work while part of Asterik Studio and current work for Tooth & Nail Records, the two have created hundreds of CD packages and limited edition silk-screened posters. A small sample of their Client list includes: Foo Fighters, Chris Cornell, and Billboard magazine.

Their work is inspiring and fun to look at and they have no problem with experimentation. I’m amazed by their ability to consistently create quality work in a broad range of media.

In this interview, Don Clark shares with us some of the history of Invisible Creature and an exclusive look at the process behind “family portrait”, a piece in their recent gallery exhibition titled Haven.

Read the rest of this entry »

Charley Harper prints in ABC’s book

charley harper abc book

Charley Harper’s ABC’s – published by AMMO Books c2008

Greg over at daddytypes always posts top notch modern design goodies for kids and dads alike. Yesterday he posted this sweet ABC book which features Charley Harper prints. At $10 this is a must for any Charles Harper fan.

You can buy the book here.

Also worth checking:
We posted a bunch of images of the heavily sought after Giant Golden Book of Biology, written by Gerald Ames and illustrations by Charles Harper (Copies sell for $300 +!) Click the link below to see the image gallery.

Charley Harper illustrations – Giant Golden Book of Biology

also see:
Charley Harper Ford Times

Grain edit on Coudal – Guest editor for June

coudal identity symbol logo 

Jim Coudal of Coudal Partners had some nice things to say about grain edit and invited me to be the guest editor at Fresh Signals (Coudal’s daily news section) for the month of June. I’m a long time fan of Coudal, so this was quite an honor.

Keep an eye out for the posts marked with “dc”. Thats me!

William Golden and the history of the CBS logo

william golden cbs logo

CBS logo designer William Golden

The CBS logo has shaker roots! Who knew? In this video, fellow CBS designers Lou Dorfsman and Kurt Weiss explain how creative director William Golden was inspired by an article on Shaker art that ran in Alexey Brodovitch’s Portfolio Magazine.

(via Lined & Unlined)

Montreal EXPO 67 memorabilia – Soviet guide book

[pictobrowser 10159078@N03 72157605411048523]

Ephemera from the Soviet Pavilion at Expo 1967 (World’s Fair)

I found this guide book a few weeks ago hidden in a box of old paper goods. I almost dropped a loaf when I saw the maps contained within. The maps display the table arrangements and walking paths for each floor of the Soviet Pavilion which was designed by Russian architects M. Posokhin, A. Mndoyants and B. Tkhor. Simple and effective layout of the information. I love Circular blobs, lines and arrows and these maps are chock full of that good stuff.

The Soviet Pavilion was filled with cool exhibits including; Russian postage stamps, Matryoshka dolls and folk art, space exploration as well as a restaurant that featured bliny and Ukrainian borsch.  I wish I could of gone, but I wasn’t even born yet.

Grotesque poster

akzidenz grotesk swiss poster

peter & wendy just released this classy piece of posterage entitled “Grotesque”. It’s a double-sided 170 gr/m² Offset paper poster printed in black and PMS 871U. Get your hands on it while you can. It’s a limited edition run of 100.

Chicago 3 – Society of Typographic arts design annual

chicago design annual

Cool cover for the 1969 Chicago 3 design annual. Consists of three “C’s” or if you look from left to right, the letter “C” and the #” 3″. The annual is a catalog of work from the Artists Guild of Chicago, Chicago Society of Communicating Arts and the Society of Typographic Arts.

Page 1 of 198123...Last »