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.

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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.

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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.

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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!