entries Tagged as [design history]
Action Comics 1
Action Comics No. 1 as ‘covered’ by illustrator Tom Addison.
More comic book ‘covers’ here. The original Action No. 1, below.
J-Men Forever!
‘Tells a tale of world conquest by sex, drugs and rock and roll’
Cult classic J-Men Forever! (1979) was a mainstay on the USA network’s Night Flight (titles below).
And after Night Flight went away, J-Men vanished – only quietly showing up many years later on DVD.
J-Men Forever! was the brainchild of Philip Proctor and Peter Bergman of the Firesign Theatre – using cobbled together footage from old serials to create a silly (actually, immature is the right word) new movie; similar to Woody Allen’s What’s Up Tiger Lily (1966).
The Caped Madman (above) and The evil Lightening Bug steal the show. The film’s score features music from The Tubes, Head East, Budgie and Billy Preston.
Watch it in its entirety/in sections on YouTube. Click above to jump/watch.
Dark inspirations
The Bat (1926)
A couple of movies that inspired the creation of The Bat-Man (1939) and The Joker (1940).
Watch them in their entirety/in sections on YouTube. Click to jump/watch.
The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Alraune
‘A frightening, erotic and highly emotional film with fine cinematography.’ – David Wingrove
Genetic experimentation, perversion, mythical alraune (mandrake) root legend stuff, silent German cinema.
Alraune (1928). With Metropolis’ Brigitte Helm.
Watch it in its entirety/in sections on YouTube. Click to jump/watch.
Metropolis reinterpreted 3
Video for Madonna’s Express Yourself. Production design by Vance Lorenzini, inspired by Metropolis. Directed by David Fincher. From 1989.
Metropolis visuals
Cinematography for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) was inspired by Paul Citroen’s 1923 Metropolis photomontage (above).
And so was Boris Bilinsky’s poster for the film (below).
Commercial artists took some liberties with how they created visual promotion for Metropolis – redrawing or recreating the ‘maschinenmensch’ (machine-man) and the modernist cityscapes. [Read more →]
McKnight Kauffer’s Metropolis
Metropolis by E. McKnight Kauffer. Gouache on paper, 1926.
Foreshadows Depero’s compositions, such as his view of New York – and his work for Campari.
Cutting Bembo
Student Mike Thomas went back to basics with his work for my experimental type course.
As part of an 11-week study, Mike explored types created by the originator of italics, Francesco ‘Griffo’ da Bologna (1450-1518).
Mike’s work was produced using a stack of 20 year old, aged paper – and involved media ranging from paint to ink to digital.
His final project (above) was realized by cutting Griffo’s italic directly out of pieces of lead and creating a ‘soot proof’ of the carved letters. Not quite to spec, but challenging nonetheless.
handpicked posts
a piano falls in old manhattan
tetro and typography
it’s typography: film, song and dance
ghosts of gustov klimt
the great times new roman controversy
picking fonts
kapitaal
defining terms: design is not decoration
garcia's 'pure design'
'enhance that image!'
magic highway remixed
the cynic
rad anthem
Brought to you by man dom-
buy my fonts
go shopping
mehalloreads
Divinely Elegant: The World of Ernst Dryden
Jozsef Pecsi: Photo and Advertising
Color: A Natural History of the Palette
Collage: Assembling Contemporary Art
Modern Dog: 20 Years of Poster Art
Gaberbocchus Press: An Experiment in Publishing, 1948-1979
Advertising Art in the Art Deco Style
Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture
Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia
now playing
the work at the mehallo blog. beta. is licensed under a creative commons attribution - noncommercial - no derivative works 3.0 united states license. if reposting, credit must be given to steve mehallo - and if possible, please provide a link back to the mehallo blog. beta.
i include images for the purpose of critique, review, promotion and inspiration - and always make my best effort give credit/link back to the original source. if i’ve screwed up, please fire me a note.
page layout based on the wordpress 'darkwater theme' by antbag, adapted and redesigned by mehallo. valuable php assistance from bill mead.
