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‘Kit Kat Klub, Berlin 1931 . . . .’

The great Joel Gray. From Bob Fosse’s Cabaret (1972).

Muppet version, below.

Tags: music by steve
1 comment . . .

TRON, repackaged

‘Just a huge fan of this movie. Wanted to make a exciting trailer with a modern feel’

A reimagined trailer for the original TRON (1982). Reedited and updated by DrewboiX.

Tags: cool finds, design history by steve
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Train of Thought

‘A short film in paper by Leo Bridle & Ben Thomas’

More info here.

Tags: illustration, photography by steve
1 comment . . .

A TETRIS History of the Soviet Union

Video for Pig With The Face Of A Boy’s A Complete History of the Soviet Union as Told by a Humble Worker, Arranged to the Melody of TETRIS. Directed, animated and edited by Chris Lincé.

Tags: design history, education, music by steve
1 comment . . .

Hanksy

Spotted in Soho.

Found via According to G

Tags: art, cool finds, design, illustration, typography by steve
5 comments . . .

Batman’s Futura

The 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car: The model for the 1966 Batmobile. The car originally appeared in the motion picture It Started With A Kiss (1959).

George Barris did the conversion, video below. And (just cause I found the link) here’s a quiz on the most recent Bat vehicle.

Driving thru Bronson Canyon (1966)

Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford in It Started With A Kiss (1959)

Found via Batmania UK and The Invisible Agent

Tags: design, design history by steve
4 comments . . .

Tee vee tix

I’ve been to a few tapings of television shows. The tapings are free, since tee vee is (supposed to be) free. Getting in, however, can be a struggle. Especially if a show is popular.

I saw a few tapings of The Tonight Show the final year Johnny Carson was hosting. But Carson wasn’t working much, mostly on vacation. His contract gave him Mondays off and several weeks vacation per year. Supplementing as ‘permanent guest host’ was this guy named Jay Leno.

My dad often referred to Jay Leno as ‘Jeno.’ I always liked that.

I remember Jeno was funny. Really funny – when he worked for Carson. Things changed after Carson retired. Today, don’t like that Jeno isn’t really the sweet guy he pretends to be.

Tee vee is pretend. [Read more →]

Tags: design history by steve
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Drew Friedman, old Hollywood and Joe

In the 1970s, old Abbot and Costello movies were on channel 44 on Saturday afternoons; followed by The Bowery Boys.

At one point, I actually had the entire ‘Who’s On First’ routine memorized (and this Carson version was a great update).

But I digress.

Bumpers for the afternoon movies were licensed portraits from Al Hirschfeld, with Dr. Don Rose doing the intros. The movies were a different world of in black and white, with complex set ups for the comedy.

In the 1990s, I knew former child star Joe Cobb (1916-2002). Joe was famous as the chubby kid (above, click to view larger) in the original silent Our Gang comedies. Somewhere along the way, I was watching a documentary and saw that because of his girth, Joe was actually the inspiration for a character called Porky Pig.

I never could figure out how to tactfully bring that up in a conversation. So I never did. [Read more →]

Tags: art, illustration by steve
2 comments . . .

Coolness: Stippled Conan

‘it took a week to do it’

For anyone who’s taken an intro to typography course with me – there is a fair amount of stippling involved as part of some really complex letterform studies.

And one of my former students – Freya Kiessling – who dotted her way thru letters – has gone national with her work.

Her color Conan O’Brien pointillism illustration (above) was used as a bumper on Conan’s show, April 11, 2011. The drawing was submitted thru their Coco MoCA page (many, many images abound).

And today – per show request – a print hangs in the show’s green room at Warner Bros. in Burbank.

Below, another Freya-produced Conan piece – from a beginning animation class.