Designer Art Chantry is the second generation rock poster guru who bridged the 1960s and has inspired (directly or indirectly) the current wave of artists.
His book is still floating around, here’s some images. Official site (with gallery link). Oakley sunglasses. And an interview. And another.
Charles S. Anderson Design’s promotional materials for French Paper are legendary. Snag some of the posters here.
The rarities are not cheap though, the Seinfeld final episode commemorative (above) goes for $500.
Every time I teach a publication design course, I assign a famous designer (or other acclaimed individual) as a biographical research subject. As part of the class, students have to do their own research, write their own text and design their own book.
Back in the 1980s, Charles S. Anderson pioneered ‘bonehead’ design, which involved a midwestern attitude and lots of clip art. Art Institute of California Sacramento graphic design student Trixy Riggan ran with it, developing the handmade biographical tome pictured.
On the side, Trixy runs a clothing company, Fabulously Butch. I still have to snag one of her shirts. I’m told there would be irony in me wearing one.
Back in the 1960s, CBS art director Lou Dorfsman created one of the most influential typographic treatments of all time.
Today, designers have rediscovered the Gastrotypographicalassemblage’s 3D complexity – and today it’s been influencing everything from the design of Zune advertisements to kinetic typography videos (note that the new adaptations also tend to be in black/white with minimal color).
The video (above) gives history. And here’s more history. Plus, photos and restoration images here.
‘He was in the vanguard of a relatively small group who fervently, indeed religiously, believed in the curative power of good design when applied to all aspects of American life.’ -Steven Heller, Eye Magazine
Alvin Lustig (1915-55) didn’t limit himself to the field of graphic design – as a ‘generalist’ he designed just about everything he could leave his mark on. Including a helicopter.
Check out the incredible collection of book jackets designed by Lustig here. More here.
And for even more, visit the Alvin Lustig Archive.
Found via Twitter.com/Sandoer
Series of futuristic drawings by Pino Tovaglia for Alfa Romeo, 1958
I just picked up a used copy of the book Pino Tovaglia. La regola che corregge l’emozione. Book review over at Grain Edit.
In 1979, the week the first movie premiered, Paramount launched a daily Star Trek comic strip. Thomas Warkentin was the first writer/artist to work on the title and I loved his attention to detail.
The strip adapted the production design of the first motion picture and Warkentin even went so far as to put small details on the viewscreens that was often wasted when printed small in the paper. I had a drawer full of the clipped strips, they’d turned a nice gold color over time.
The strip itself has never been reprinted, lost in a world of legal ownership issues. But the entire run can be found here. Though not in the best user friendly format. There’s also links to some great UK-based Star Trek comics from the 1970s. Handy checklist here.
When Star Trek first became a global sensation, Toru Kanamori landed a gig illustrating Japanese translations of the original series stories. Wouldn’t it be great to reprint a bunch of these in an art book with text from the Blish novels?
You know, I’d love to design something like that. Somebody call me.
For more about the work of Toru Kanamori, jump here.
The Enterprise by Ken Adam
Somewhere in the limbo that was the 1970s was a never-completed UK-produced film Star Trek: Planet of the Titans.
They made it as far as the conceptual illustrations. Ken Adam was hired as production designer and Star Wars visionary Ralph McQuarrie set about redesigning the Enterprise.
Article here. More McQuarrie art here.
Enterprise interior
Enterprise shuttlebay
Sir Ken Adam was the production designer for the Bond films.
He also developed the forced perspective look of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (his War Room made a retro/1960s/1980s appearance in Watchmen). Many of the recent Bond films still reference his work.
The War Room from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 1963
Peter Lorenz’s Illustrated 007: The Art of James Bond blog looks at all forms of artist interpretations of the British secret agent. Including these great pulp renderings.
Click on the images for the related posts.
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