Identity for Ohio Arts Council designed by Noel Martin

Noel Martin was a self taught graphic designer who taught at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and served as the in-house designer for the Cincinnati Art Museum for many years. He was one of the first to modernize art museum exhibition catalogs. In an article at the New York times Steven Heller also notes, “With the ubiquitous branding and expert merchandizing of museums today, it is easy to forget that graphic design was once a low priority for them. In 1947, when Mr. Martin became the Cincinnati Art Museum’s first graphic designer, most museum publications were staid and musty.”

The Container list has a nice post on a self-promotional piece titled, Identity Programs, that presents some of Noel’s iconic minimalist logos.

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2009 International Year of Astronomy Poster designed by Simon C Page

Simon Page is a self-taught graphic design whiz with a mathematics background. He takes shapes and morphs them into cerebral abstractions. His style shifts around futuristic digital designs and 1960s minimalism, trotting the delicate line between simplicity and detail.  His International Year of Astronomy 2009 poster designs caught the eyes of discerning design writers, including the New York Times and Creative Review. It may be the year for Astronomy but its equally a big year for Page, his posters got a boost in sales from all the acknowledgment he’s been getting in print and on the web.

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From 1957-1965 W. Eugene Smith, a prolific American photographer, documented New York jazz musicians in his small loft and ended up with 4,000 hours of audio and 40,000 photographs. His dilapidated loft in the wholesale flower district was the place for late-night jam sessions for Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Steve Reich, Zoot Sims, Roland Kirk, and Alice Coltrane. He also recorded drug addicts, neighborhood cops, radio programs about aliens, MLK and JFK on the radio, James Baldwin and Frank Lloyd Wright in interviews. When Smith died, he accumulated 1,740 reels of tape. Below are some of his photos and tape boxes from his collection.

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Take a look at these adorable smiling faces filled with holiday cheer!

J.P. Miller’s illustrations for Kathleen N. Daly’s Jingle Bells (1964) are just so festive and inspirational! The story is a nice twist on the old holiday tune, and is about a sleigh full of animals that help Santa when he needs it the most. I love Miller’s use of color and texture to achieve different values, and his depiction of animals are always so whimsical. Did you notice they’re all smiling with sweaters on?

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1962 Denmark Christmas Seals designed by Erik Petersen

Glædelig Jul! In the early 1900s, a Danish postal clerk came up with the idea of selling Christmas seals to raise money for children with tuberculosis. Over 100 years later, these “cinderella” (unofficial postage) stamps have become a worldwide holiday tradition. In 1962, Erik Petersen designed this sheet of Christmas seals, depicting the gamle håndværk (“old trades”) of Denmark. I want to live inside this illustration; I’d stop by the pipe maker’s shop on my way to pick up some candles and clogs.

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Jez Burrows – Walden (Part of the Kitsune Noir Poster Club)

Over the next several months, several design blogs (including grain edit) will be collaborating with the stellar art & design social network Society 6. First up is the Kitsune Noir Poster Club. Bobby of the excellent Kitsune Noir asked five of his favorite artists to interpret books they really enjoy into a print that will be a lasting work of art.

The project includes:

Jez Burrows – Henry David Thoreau’s Walden

Mark Weaver –  Herman Melville’s Moby Dick

Frank Chimero – Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughter House Five

Cody Hoyt – David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest

Garrett Vander Leun – Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

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The Grain Edit Holiday Giveaway Bash ends at 5pm (PST) today. It’s not too late to enter.

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Sanna Annukka Limited Edition Wooden Soul Birds

Sanna Annukka recently launched a new portfolio and online store. I love these solid brown oak Soul Birds which are now available for pre-orders in her shop. I’ll have to add these to my Christmas list!

On her website, Sanna shares this bit about the the Soul Bird which stems from Finnish mythology. “In Karelia there was an ancient belief in the Sielulintu or Soul bird. The Sielulintu was thought to deliver the soul to newborn babies and also to transport the soul to the afterlife at the moment of death. It was believed the Sielulintu protected a persons soul at it’s most vulnerable; when dreaming, and it was tradition to keep a carved wooden bird by the bedside to keep the soul safe during sleep.”

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Grain Edition #01 – Limited Edition Grain Edit T-Shirt designed by Invisible Creature

We are excited to announce the Limited Edition Galaxy Blue Grain Edit T-Shirt designed by Seattle’s own Invisible Creature. We love the design and hope you do too! The 5 color t-shirt features a gaggle of cool creatures sitting down for story time (my favorite is the little guy with the red and blue eyes). Each shirt is lovingly screen-printed by the guys and gals over at Blue Collar Press right here in the good ole USA.

The shirts will be $20 till this Friday at Midnight (PST). After that the price jumps up to $25. Also for every t-shirt you purchase you will receive 1 entry in the 2009 Grain Edit Holiday Giveaway Bash.

*** Please note this is a PRE-ORDER. We will be receiving the shirts at the end of Dec and shipping orders the first week of January. ******

You can PRE-ORDER the Limited Edition Galaxy Blue Grain Edit Shirt here.

For more details + pictures etc.

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Dear Santa, Hanukkah Harry, and Kwanzaa Ken:

Searching high and low across the vast realm of the interwebs, we’ve collectively compiled probably one of the hugest lists imaginable with some of our favorite artists! We’ve all been on our best behavior, assisting elderly ladies and gents across the street and working our fannies off. Please take a moment to give this list a good read, and say you’ll bring some of these things our way!

Sincerely,
Grain Edit & Friends

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