‘Chemins de fer de l’état, Cie. Gle. Transatlantique.’

Vintage travel poster, art by Albert Sébille (1874-1953). More here.

The original Van Halen broke up when I was a senior in high school. And yes, I am an old fan of David Lee Roth, read about it here.

And the reunion no one thought would happen happened and the album no one thought would happen was released yesterday. 28 year wait. The sound harkens back (harkens is the word) to Van Halen I and II – apparently the tracks are based on notes written back around 1975–77ish.

The sound is old – with parts feeling like an odd 1990s solo album Dave put out. Album cover design by SMOG, art directed by Jeri Heiden.

New track: Tattoo, with Dave explaining it here

You Really Got Me acoustic

What exactly are our priorities today?

The work of Alex Cherry.

‘The graphic images were an instant success when they premiered in bus shelters around the city. San Franciscans loved them. Too much, in fact, as some of the posters were stolen from the shelters.’

Often copied, Michael Schwab’s posters for Golden Gate National Parks. Brand implementation by Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby, circa 1993-7.

Case study here. Parks Conservancy store (Schwab’s art on prints, mugs, shirts, chocolate tins and more) here.

‘This poster was created by L.N. Britton circa 1918. It promotes food and resource conservation.’

Many years ago I found a small brochure at the National Archives building in San Bruno, CA. From it I ordered a bunch of inexpensive reproductions of early 20s century posters (pictured) – direct from the government. Framed, they looked great in my first apartment.

Everything is now online. All around 10 bucks a pop.

‘A collection of WPA-era US Travel Bureau Posters as reinterpreted and screen printed by Providence’s Head Light Hotel’

Available thru Tiny Showcase: Reproductions of 1930s ‘See America’ poster art.

So much cooler than the current government-sanctioned offerings of Brand USA, Inc.

The work of Erin Flannery.

Found via Curvy

The work of Dominique Fung.

The work of comic artist Fung Chin Pang.

Found via Cgunit

It’s a new year. Let’s move on.

Grimes is Claire Boucher and her new album drops in the US February 21. Details.

Album design by Jasper Baydala with Boucher’s own illustrations. At bottom, Genesis.

Kriminal-Serie Kommissar X No. 1281. Powered by Gill Kayo.

Found via mickey the pixel

Kriminal-Serie Kommissar X No. 1168. Powered by Gill Kayo.

Found via mickey the pixel

The work of Drake Brodahl.

Sainbury’s Fillets of Anchovies. Illustration by Sue Brown.

update
According to Sue, this particular jar was used in this incredible recipe.

Geo. Watkins’ Anchovy Sauce. Illustration by Hwa Young Jung.

Flickr here, website here.

Typeface: Bang-bang.

Tom Edwards’ Caffeine Curve.

Funky mug version available here.

Odd Todd’s now iconic Coff-ay mug.

Snag it here.

Plaid Creative’s Citizen’s Guide to coffee.

Found via That’s Nerdalicious!

Lokesh Dhakar’s illustrated guide to espresso.

One of these days I’m gonna make it up to Seattle and visit bauhaus books + coffee. Just because I have to.

And available now thru them is the Bauhaus + I Want You shirt, designed by Christian Petersen of DUMB EYES – as a cross promotion with I Want You magazine.

This includes the one pictured above (in its travel option); as well as my best-selling Font Me Typography mug, below.

Input code HOLIDAYSALE4 at checkout. Plus, free shipping on orders over $50. Visit my store here. Zazzle has a new special every day for the holidays, some limitations apply (of course).

The work of Sophie Griotto.

Found via Arlene Time

The work of Jerry Seguin.

Found via Ashley Simko

I love canning stuff. And it’s getting to be the time of year to cram some stuff into bottles.

Pictured, logo design by Roger Estes for Marisa McClellan’s Food in Jars blog.

An image from long ago. The reality is much different today.

Graphic found via Laura Serra

‘And so was born the ‘shop-at-a-glance’ concept’

An ill-fated design experiment from 1965: Ralphs remodeled with departmentalized, color-coded graphic icons. Article here.

I use a lot of color coding in my own work – but with the assumption that the end user will need other organizational tools to find their way around. ‘Shop-at-a-glance’ never quite caught on; tho I’d love to see what data Ralphs collected as part of their process.

Found via Pleasant Family Shopping

‘Great design. Straight from designers.’

Here’s some picks from the Supermarket this year.

‘Exciting, Neue, Romance! Adventure!’

‘Love Boot’ prints, cards and postcards.

Vintage, repeating playbill poster design featuring type and boot dingbat from my Jeanne Moderno fonts.

And  . . .  Save $10 on your order of $35 or more at my store. Restrictions apply, go here for details/to get the discount.

(The prints come out really nice too)

Change to Win’s animate of ‘The End of the American Dream?’ – done in the style of RSA Animate.

Found via Occupy San Francisco

Video for AM & Shawn Lee’s Dark Into Light. Directed by Christian Borstlap and animated by Paul Postma.

‘The tale of doomed Major Tom plays out in Kolb’s bright and retro animation style, giving a face to the legendary Bowie character and making the conclusion that much sadder’

Illustrated just for fun. The work of Andrew Kolb.

David Bowie: Space Oddity

Found via ComicsAlliance and Badass Digest

More posters from my room.

In early 1977, Marine World Africa USA was giving away these Coca-Cola promo posters. Their elephants were used in the first Star Wars movie as the banthas – and I ended up with some free wall hangings.

Knew nothing about the movie and I knew nothing about droids, the old guy with the Jesus circles around his head or why something was called a ‘SEE-THREEPIO.’ Also thought Chewbacca the Bear seemed a bit odd.

A few months later, went to the drive in and saw Star Wars. The previous year, saw Logan’s Run at the drive in. Star Wars was something much different.

Illustration by the great Bob Peak. From 1972.

Found via Martin Klasch

One of my favorite bands from the 1980s is Yes. And former Yes guitarist/vocalist Trevor Rabin has a solo album about to drop, cover painted by Hannah Hooper.

Hooper is in Grouplove with Trevor’s son Ryan. Below, video for Grouplove’s Colours.

‘Drop caps not bombs’

An anonymously-created stencil interpretation of myself – spotted last quarter on the wall at the Art Institute of California Sacramento.

(Okay, I know which student made it, but I ain’t tellin)

‘terry richardson stencil new york city meatpacking district’

Street art snapped by Daniel Rolnik.

Found via Argot & Ochre

‘I’ve been doing posters for tons of cities across America’

In the past few weeks, one of my former students has found herself cast as the visual heart of the Occupy movement. Raina Dayne started with offering to do a poster and it’s blossomed into something much bigger.

Raina’s images can be downloaded for use at the Occupy Together website. Facebook page here, shirts here.

‘Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.’ –Steve Jobs

Intuition is very powerful, once one knows how to trust it. It involves turning off the insecurities of ego and concentrating on pure feeling. And it works wonders.

The news of Steve Jobs’ passing came in via social media. I saw a Facebook post right after I gave a design history lecture on early modern artists and how they’d managed to change the world.

I was fortunate enough to both go to school and work in and around Silicon Valley where Jobs’ approach reverberates and inspires. Playing it safe, following the status quo will not lead to new things, will not improve life as we know it – and Jobs knew how to get the best work out of Apple’s creative team.

He knew that details are excruciatingly important. Leveraging design, using good typography, giving us what we really want – instead of what we think we need – was all part of the package.

Thinking different makes the world a better place. That’s the legacy he leaves.

Image by Dylan Roscover, using Apple’s suite of fonts from over the years

Illustration of Gerrit Rietveld’s Zig-Zag Chair by Brazil-based Carol Grilo.

‘handprinted and unique posters in A0 format, printed and digital invitations and adverts in various Dutch magazines   . . .   woodcut printed.’

E-flyer for Alban Schelbert and Christopher West’s End Exam Show at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. From 2009.

Found via manystuff

The work of Denise van Leeuwen.

‘This is just me fucking about trying to make a secret font’

The work of London-based Kevin Winter. Album covers, fabric collage, printmaking and more. Blog here.

‘Having many food and chemical sensitivities has been a largely trial-and-error process for what can be tolerated and what can’t, and has resulted in many creative kitchen science experiments’

Web designer/cartoonist (and former student of mine) Annie Hero has developed some major health problems. Recently, she’s taken to blogging about her approach to reclaiming her life from years of processed food intolerance.

Annie’s WTF are you eating? can be found here.

‘Between Puck and Heidi Montag’

Another highlight from this season’s Project Runway is Colorado-based fashion designer Julie Tierney.

I love how Julie’s design inspiration comes from multiple, multiple sources – which she then takes to another place – familiar, dramatic and  . . .  layered.

Above, sketches.

Below, chronological images from her 2010 Nomad’s Land collection; starting with pages from her inspiration book thru to the runway.

A direct interpretation of Nomadic life would be a bit obvious – but this goes elsewhere. Julie doesn’t make obvious. Genghis Khan with tube socks and a snowboard. Then Julie.

Beautiful results.

For more, visit Julie’s site here. Project Runway home tour here and here.

Handlettered type for GAMA-GO by the great Ray Fenwick.

Ray is the author of one of my favorite typographic comic panels, Hall of Best Knowledge – now available in convenient book form.

‘It didn’t last long; true-blue Shadow fans (and, apparently, the owners of The Shadow trademark) didn’t care for Helfer and Baker’s smart-ass approach, especially when they killed the character off and resurrected him as a killer cyborg. It’s not surprising that happened to also be their final issue.’ –Robot 6

The Shadow (1987-89) was my favorite comic book series.

It was a sequel to a Howard Chaykin-penned 1986 update to the classic radio program, pulp novel character The Shadow, ‘What evil lurks in the hearts of men  . . .  The Shadow knows!’

Chaykin had brought the character into the 1980s, with uzis instead of .45s, ‘for mature readers’ emblazoned on the cover. And unlike the rest of his crew (Margo Lane and others had aged), Shadow alter-ego Lamont Cranston was still a rather youngish, dapper guy – ready to take on the New York of the Miami Vice era.

A monthly series followed – and after a few artist changes, writer Andy Helfer and artist Kyle Baker made it something else entirely.

Helfer and Baker’s take on The Shadow became a crazy whirlwind tour of Sopranos-like mobsters, wickedly dark humor, extreme violence, unexpected plot twists and in issue 13, they killed off the main character. Then his sons lost his body and with every successive chapter, one could not predict what would happen next.

digging a bit
In 1989, I found myself at a comic book convention (supposedly) talking to Andy Helfer about the cancellation of his title. But Helfer couldn’t tell me much. Turned out the guy with the ‘Andy Helfer’ name badge was actually his assistant. ‘Andy doesn’t like to fly’ I was told.

He spoke about Helfer’s approach – and how he had little respect for purist interpretations of classics and decided to take The Shadow to a whole different place – darker, funnier and just plain strange. I was hooked and saddened to see it vanish. Because, frankly, comic books at that time were becoming rather boring. Same old shit, different month.

A two issue Justice Inc. kept the magic going a little bit longer but that was it. The Shadow held my interest for three years – and when it ended, I stopped buying comic books.

Not dramatically, but slowly. Just couldn’t find much to hold interest. The Shadow was a hard act to follow. Only thing I’ve really enjoyed as much since has been Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2001-2), which really leaves purists sitting on the curb.

finding the shadow
There is no trade paperback of this odd series. But the 1980s Shadow can be found cheap with a little digging – here’s a list; best to start with Chaykin’s version tho, then work one’s way thru Sienkiewicz to the Helfer/Baker issues. And keep in mind there is no ending (final issue pictured below), a cliffhanger never to be completed.

ever since: the team
‘It’s funny, everybody thought Conde Nast shut us down, but it was just that we weren’t making any money. When you work on a licensed book, the owner of the license gets half the royalty check. Andy and I, on one of the later issues, ended up splitting a $20 royalty check, and we decided it was time to go.’ –Kyle Baker

After the series ended, writer Andy Helfer became an editor at DC Comics where he headed up the Paradox Press imprint. Paradox specialized in alternative titles, Road to Perdition and A History of Violence among them.

Kyle Baker – who went on to pen Why I Hate Saturn – has been bouncing around the comicsverse ever since. Some of his wares include updates of Captain America and Plastic Man; most of his work contains brilliant social criticism: His Special Forces was called by the NY Times, ‘the harshest, most serrated satire of the Iraq War.’

Baker’s website can be found here, blog here.

And here’s a great review of the Helfer/Baker Shadow – otherwise, more highlights below.

‘Imagine what it must have been like for those living in America’s eastern cities to hear tales from the Western Frontier  . . .  Images created by Ben Walker tell tales of mystery and excitement that make the ladies squeal with fear and delight as their men quietly slip away to buy passage to The West.’

It all started with a bear and a gun – which was the most dangerous thing Walker would set out to draw. These became icons for Walker, who went on to become an Illustrator of The Great West, spending time on the Ponderosa and a long haul in Sacramenty.

Ben Walker is now based out of San Francisco.

Check out his website here, art and prints available here. Snake Oil Clothing here.

The work of London based-Sandra Dieckmann.

Website here, blog here, shops here and here.