posters

Bare Knuckles poster circa 1977

Last night a few of us went down to the Parkway theater in Oakland to check out the classic blaxploitation film Bare Knuckles. The film stars Robert Viharo as Bounty Hunter Zachary Kane who’s on the hunt for a motorcycle riding, masked serial killer ninja! It doesn’t get any better then that!

Bare Knuckles is one of several films that inspired Quentin Tarantino’s GrindHouse flick. Tarantino loaned his copy of Bare Knuckles to Will Viharo (son of Robert Viharo) for the viewing. Robert was in the audience last night and joined his son on stage after the film. It was awesome to see this guy in person after he just kicked two tons of serial killer ninja butt a few minutes before.

One of my favorite parts of the film is Zach’s training session. One minute he’s whaling on a punching bag and the next he’s in the lotus position playing the flute! Now thats Bad Ass!

Check the soundtrack for the film as well. It was reissued recently. Vic Caesar put together a gritty funk masterpiece.

also worth checking:
Nikkatsu Action Cinema

Technorati Tags: films,1970s,blaxploitation

El Gran Robo Del Tren De San Trinian - c1968

I recently received an email for this great new blog that focuses on Cuban posters. The site is a wonderful resource for posters produced by ICAIC, OSPAAAL, COR, Casa de las Americas and other cultural, political and social agencies in Cuba.

Wayne Pate runs GoodShapeDesign, a Brooklyn, NY based design shop and all around fun place. I’m really into his “Flock” series — if you’re a fan of our feathered friends, now you can have 18 on a single poster!

Also check out his artwork section for some really inspiring collages.

Zurcher Kunstler in der Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland- c1966

Beautiful poster by Swiss graphic designer and author Hans Neuburg.

If you like this, check Publicity and graphic design in the chemical industry  a book by Hans Neuburg.

(via Crabstick’s killer Flickr photostream)

Mike Krol designs for musical bands, sandwiches, accordions, gorillas, light bulbs, and maple syrup, among many other things. He has a very good sense of humor, wit, and typography. I love finding work where the designer’s personality shines through. Especially if that includes heavy metal and Eskimos.

Check out the walking backwards to school video. I loved that!

Win this Herbert Bayer Olivetti Poster !
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If you missed our last Olivetti Poster contest, it’s not too late to win on grain edit. On Friday April 25th, 2008 one lucky winner will be taking home the Herbert Bayer poster seen above. This is not an original, but rather a reissue of the original designed by Herbert Bayer for the Olivetti Divisumma calculator in 1953.

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From the book - Jacqueline S Casey Thirty years of design at MIT

Beautiful work from graphic designer Jacqueline Casey. It mentions in the book she was inspired by Karl Gerstner, Kurt Wirth and Anton Stankowski.

“In the early 1950s, John Matill, a writer and editor, founded the MIT office of publications. He was joined in 1952 by Muriel Cooper. Cooper was among the first designers ever hired by a university to represent it graphically. She and Matill hired Jacqueline Casey to design summer session materials in 1955.” Casey continued to work for MIT until her retirement in 1989. (Taken from the introduction of the book.)

original version

upadated version by Daniel Knef

Several weeks ago I posted a Jacques Nathan Garamond Telefunken poster. One of my comments was the poster would look better if Jacques killed the telefunken logo located to the right of the reel to reel. Grain Edit reader Daniel Knef was nice enough to send us a modified version of the poster minus the logo (see above). I realize this poster would not of been possible without the client and obviously their branding is going to be part of the design. However, its nice to see the design without any distractions.

Many thanks to Daniel for sending us the updated version. Be sure to check out his electronic music compositions at gran où lée.

Pino Tovaglia book - The rule that corrects emotion

In addition to this blog, I own a small design bookstore. As a bookseller, I find it hard to find publishers that consistently produce quality titles. Italian publisher Edizioni Corraini is one of a few publishers that I look forward to their new releases each year. If you own or have seen any Bruno Munari books, you are most likely familiar with their work. They have reproduced dozens of Munari’s books, many of which I own in my personal collection. In addition to the Munari collection, they have produced books on or by Martí Guixé, Enzo Mari, Aoi Huber-Kono (Max Huber’s wife),Taro Miura, Albe Steiner and many others. With this in mind, I was delighted when I received an email from them mentioning that they had been reading Grain Edit and that they would like to send a package my way.

I will cover the contents of the package in several posts. The first being the Pino Tavaglia book seen above.

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Stedelijk Museum program / poster c1970 - Wim Crouwel - designer

Total Design was responsible for designing many of the catalogs/ programs for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The program above was created by Wim Crouwel and Jolijn van de Wouw (of Total Design) for an exhibition in 1970. The program folds out to a full size poster that reveals a huge letter “A” and the number “7″ which stands for Atelier 7. Atelier translates to “work shop” in English so, this might be referencing a gallery number or possibly the name of the exhibition. On the other side of the poster, it lists the artists and their artwork featured in the gallery.

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1960s IBM 7094 poster - Designed by Clarence Lee

Clarence Lee graduated from Yale in 1958 and went on to work for the uber graphic designer Lester Beall. In 1962 Clarence left Beall’s firm to work for IBM. During his time at IBM he designed the poster above for the IBM 7094 Data Processing System. The 7094 was released in 1962 and was built for large-scale scientific computing.

During the late 1950s - early 1960s, Paul Rand, Charles Eames ,Marcel Breuer and Eliot Noyes were involved in design work for IBM. It would be interesting to find out if Clarence had any interaction with these designers.

I wish I could tell you more about this one. I pulled this out of a book I have on 70s + 80s Japanese graphic design. All the text is in Japanese so, I have no clue on who designed this. Anyone recognize this work? I have no idea why theres a gaggle of balloon animals chillin in a tree. If someone could translate the text below the animals, that would be great.

Poster for Telefunken c1965

The piece above is one of a series of posters that paris based designer Jacques Nathan Garamond produced for Telefunken. I just wish I could cut out that Telefunken logo. It kind of kills the vibe of this poster. You have all these round edges on the type and the reel to reel player and theres this crazy sharp edge ninja star with lightning bolts.

During the 1950-1960s Garamond began deconstructing objects into geometric shapes. This is evident in the print above as well as his poster work for Air France. I’ll try to scan in some of the Air France posters when I get a chance.

Silkscreen Print for a Drama magazine sponsored show at Nonesuch Gallery

Cool design work from Wyeth Hansen (Casual Aesthetics). His website includes t-shirts, posters, type faces as well some motion design. I’m loving the type work above.

(Via Wrong distance)

Israel -the land of the Bible Tourism posters by Jean David (L) c1954 (r) 195?
produced for the State of Israel Tourist Centre

My Knowledge of Jean David (Sometimes referred to as Jan David) is limited. However, what work I’ve seen from him has been nothing less that stellar. Just look at the posters above. I could easily see someone slanging these at a Flatstock poster convention. Dang, I totally nerd out when I see this stuff. Its just so good.

Looks like the whale is riding a boat of waves. Meanwhile, Jonah is relaxing after downing a keg of Vitamen C. Just look at all that orange!

Poster by John Foster / fuszion

Great posters for a better cause.

Donated by designers and artists around the globe, posters sold at the So-Cal Fire Poster Project raise funds for victims of the wildfires that devastated Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego Counties. All proceeds will be given to the Salvation Army, for the 2007 California Wildfire fund.

Posters by: Paul Frank / Park La Fun, Hatch Design,Wink, Modern Dog, Micah Smith, John Foster / fuszion, Josh Higgins / Mike Carnevale, Robert Palmer, Barretto & Co., Frank Chimero, Buchanan Design, Lanny Sommese, Jason Gomez, Madeleine, Ryan Russell Design, Chaz Russo/The Graphic Soul, Nick McPherson, MiresBall, Bernie Tiano and Shepard Fairey.

Get some here

My first introduction to Wink was four or five years ago when their packaging for Sunmilk was making the rounds in the design magazines and annuals. Since then, I’ve tried to keep an eye on their work. What has impressed me the most about Wink has been their ability to consistently produce top notch work.

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In this card designed by mr.mannun, business ties are flying in the wind as this beast rips down a small patch of Christmas trees all while holding a flock of fudgesicle shaped birds. This is great! One of my favorite finds on Flickr. My top pick in the genre of groucy card design.

You can browse the rest of mr.mannun’s design / illustration work on Flickr. He also has a few poster samples on Gig posters.com

Kieler Woche is a festival that takes place each year in Kiel, Germany. The festival includes nautical competitions as well as cultural events. Each year 5 designers are invited to submit 3 sketches for the event’s poster. The rules are simple. The text on the poster must be limited to only Kieler Woche and the year. The type for Kieler Woche must be set in Adrian Frutiger’s Univers. Lastly the the image must give equal weight to the sailing competition as to the cultural aspects of the festival.

Designers that have contributed to this event include: Wim Crouwel, Michael Engelmann, Celestino Piatti, Anton Stankowski, Waldemar Swierzy, Otto Treumann, Hans Schweiss, Jean Widmer, Ruedi Baur, Ben Bos, Siegfried Odermatt and Rosemarie Tissi. For those interested, I uploaded the Otto Treumann poster to the grain edit flickr account.

( via Etapes)

1972 Olympics rowing regulations booklet

Tons of great work in the Otl Aicher design group on Flickr. Includes posters, brochures, books, stamps, packaging, corporate reports, even a wooden version of Waldi the 1972 Munich Olympics mascot. Projects include the 1972 Olympics identity, Lufthansa and work from his days at HFG Ulm.

Clean, minimal, modern.. I love it. I could look at this stuff all day.
Many thanks to Adam for passing this link along.

Side note - got some cornbread today. Man I love this stuff. Is it even bread? Its like muffin cake.

(L) Disque Bleu by Henri Favre c1950s (R) Caballero by Pedro Vargas c1960s

It’s the beginning of a brand new year, which means its time to compile the latest list of New Year’s resolutions. For some of you this might include a pledge to quit smoking (again). To kick the habit in style how about a farewell stroll down cigarette poster lane? Flickr user lamade has posted a kick butt (no pun intended) gallery of Tobacco related posters. Lamarde’s blog also features a ton of tobacco related advertising and design.

For those of you in the bay area, be sure to check out The Small Stakes: a year in posters going on tonight at the The Curiosity Shoppe. Jason Munn will be there in person, so stop by and say hello!

Heres the details:
The Small Stakes: A Year in Posters
Opening Reception - Friday, December 7th, 6-9pm.
At The Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia Street in San Francisco

(via Smarts and Crafts)

vrije tijd-blije tijd c1960

Modern dutch poster from graphic designer Jim Brair. Killer example of early sixties design. Wow, Thats all I can say.

(via VanSabben on ebay)

Hey everyone, we justed posted the latest grain edit giveaway.
Click here for a chance to win a Raymond Savignac poster from Olivetti.

The 1978 World Cup was held in Argentina between June 1 and June 25. Argentina would go on to beat the Netherlands 3-1. The men in this poster seem to be celebrating victory, but this seemingly innocent poster has a very dark story to tell.

Argentina had suffered a military coup only two years before the cup and was in the middle of a dirty war against left wing sympathizers. Up to 30,000 people “disappeared” during this time. These events coincided with a campaign of political repression involving dictators from other South American countries dubbed “operation condor“. Thousands of people were tortured and many lost their lives.

(via iso50)

Woot! Aesthetic Apparatus is a member of my weekly design web site “do they have any new work up yet?” visiting rituals. So I was happy to find not only new work, but a new web site too! There are plenty of new posters, some new test prints, and if you have not yet seen their “doom” series, it’s worth a look. Very fun.

You can scream along with Dan and Michael on YouTube as they show you how to silkscreen a poster.
Coudal has a nice interview with Aesthetic Apparatus as well.

Update 11.21.07
I’d like to thank Felix of design book stories and Thierry of art.ifficial for tracking down some additional information on Hans Hartmann.

- He was born in 1913. Died in 1991.

- He originally came from the canton of Argovia, next to Zurich and studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich. He then went to Bern and among other things designed the (still in use) logo of the national train company SBB. In addition, he designed a fair amount of post stamps.

- The Hans Hartmann estate seems to be in the communal library in berne.

- Lastly, here is a short bio on Hans Hartmann (In german).

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Hans Hartmann is one of the lesser known designers that lived in Switzerland during the 1950s. A google search of his name brings up almost nothing. Outside of his native country his work seems to be lost in obscurity. The only information I have on him comes from a small monograph produced in 1958.

Most of his work centered around companies that were in or around Bern, Switzerland. This included designs for PTT, F. Gygi + Co. and Teppichhaus Bossart & Co. Most likely his contemporaries (Armin Hofmann, Emil Ruder in Basel , Josef Muller Brockann in Zurich) located to the North of Bern would of been aware of his work. However, I was unable to find any information that suggested any collaborations with these other designers.

If anyone has any information related to Hans or his design work, please contact me. It would be great if we could build a more complete resource on this talented designer. Thanks to the poster connection for the top 2 images.

I was blown away when I saw this nativity poster by Alexander Girard. The poster is for an Exhibition at the Gallery of Art in Kansas City in 1962. The exhibition included 170 Nativity scenes from Girard’s personal collection. Imagine being in a room with 510 wise men and 170 Jesuses!

Thanks to Andy at Reference Library for posting this. If you haven’t been to his blog yet, Please go now! This is a really cool blog.

I’m just waiting for the day when gangsta rappers start rapping about design nerd stuff. When that day comes, some one has to do a song called “Sippin on Savignac”. It would have to be a posse cut for sure. Each dude talking about how they were rolling through Japan looking for obscure French posters. No doubt in my mind this will be certified Ghetto Gold.

It might be a while before that day comes so in the meantime I’ll have to live with an internet trip to Japan’s own Guy antiques Raymond Savignac poster gallery. You can browse through the posters or drop some cash and buy an original.

Yes studio hooked up a sweet 12″ cover for the UK band the stand. The album is from 2005. Multiple designs were created, colors were mixed by hand and large format prints produced at K2 Screen, London. The resulting artwork was then re-photographed and used on the lp and poster design.

Looks like the length of this record was longer then the band’s career. The band broke up after 3 years and moved onto other projects and their website is now an internet parking lot. At least, we still have the lp jacket to look at.

Our story with Jason Munn (The Small Stakes) begins in the summer of 2005. We had recently learned that his studio was located near our office so we decided for a little suprise visit. We arrived at his front door and rang his buzzer. When he opened the door we said something along the lines of..
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I have a very special place in my heart for poster design. Especially poster design that incorporates type in an interesting, fresh way. I mean, how do they do that? It looks too easy! Andrio Abero, the man behind the poster and design studio 33rpm, is a master at “type and image integration.” This is one of the first firms that kick started my obsession with the poster, way back in the early 2000’s.

This is the recipe for the 5th (1961) San Francisco International Film Festival poster. This poster is reminiscent of Saul’s design for the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo. The cosmograph used in the Vertigo poster is replaced with a ball of film in this poster to create a central focal point with a circular motion. There is an original copy on Ebay right now. These posters rarely surface so this might be your only chance to own one. Click on the link above to preview the auction.

Its funny, I actually counted all the posters just so I could have a number for the headline. I most likely miscounted, but oh well on to the post. Nago has put together an amazing Dutch poster gallery for you to see. Includes works from Total Design (Wim Crouwel), Otto Treumann, Pieter Brattinga, Otto Treumann, Willem Sanberg, Ben Bos, Jan van Keulen and others. The website is based in the Netherlands so if you can’t read Dutch just click on the pretty pictures.

Check out the Grayspace poster gallery for a look at some killer 50s + 60s polish posters.

For those of you who can’t enough of Saul bass. The Excellent Saul Bass Tribute Site Saul Bass on the Web is back after a long Hiatus. Brendan Dawes who created the site does a great job of bringing Saul’s work back to life through flash animations very similar to his title sequences. The site includes a filmography, video of some of titlling works, biography, as well as a poster gallery filled with classic works ( The man with the Golden arm, Anatomy of a murder and Vertigo) by the master.

Also worth checking out is Notcoming.com’s Saul bass title gallery.