New York, New York
Puerto-Rican-born Antonio Lopez (1943-1987) was a major figure in fashion illustration from the 1960s through the mid-1980s; his work appeared in publications such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Interview and The New York Times. Lopez is attributed with discovering and launching the careers of Jerry Hall, Grace Jones, and Tina Chow.
Shown above are Lopez illustrations from a 1967 editorial in Elle Magazine.
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Honolulu, Hawaii
Artist and designer Won Park creates incredible origami pieces using only one dollar bills. A typical sheet of paper used for origami is square but he has adapted his folding technique to bills that are rectangular… his creations are made strictly by folding—no cuts, no glue, no tape, and no instructions. See more of his value-added creations here.
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São Paulo, Brazil
Ronald Kapaz has sent me yet another of his lovely sketches on “questioning…” keep them coming, my friend!
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Durban, South Africa
It’s been a while since I’ve featured i-jusi and the work of my friend Garth Walker on this blog… from 2011, here are some spreads from the third issue in “a series of type-specific themes, encouraging artists and designers to create typefaces, hand lettering, and the like, based on their own personal South African experience.”
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Tel Aviv, Israel
Masters on 45s is a new series from Israeli photographer Tamir Sher who took his turntable, attached images of Old Master artworks, and shot photos of the classic paintings and sculptures while rotating them at various speeds. It’s a contemporary twist on timeless masterworks that reinterprets their meaning and creates a surreal visual style…
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Toronto, Canada
In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message. Enjoy, here…
London, UK
On the occasion of the London 2012 Olympics, Virusfonts has release Olympukes 2012—with the support of FontShop and TYPO London. Olympukes is a new set of pictograms for the London games designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, Jon Abbott, and Marwan Kaabour. In 2004, VirusFonts originally took on the Olympic pictograms— the ultimate designer’s commission—but with a witty subversion. Rather than expressing ‘inspirational’ human endeavour, the Virus pictograms acknowledged the complex contradictions of the modern olympics. “The occasion of the London 2012 games gives us an opportunity to revisit this concept, not only because VirusFonts is based in London but also because much has changed globally in the last eight years,” says Virus founder Jonathan Barnbrook.
The 2012 games come at a time of great economic and political uncertainty. Since 2008 the global economic system has lurched from one crisis to the next. Greece—the host of the 2004 games—now sits at the epicentre of a crumbling Eurozone. Ironically, the last time London hosted the Olympics, they were nicknamed the Austerity Games. Sixty-four years later, we find ourselves back in an era of austere cuts which serves to highlight the absurd expense of the 2012 games.
Another aspect of the Olympics that is back for 2012 is the unfettered commercialism. If you think the games are about sport alone, think again. “In Beijing we took it for granted that a dictatorial one-party state would suppress human rights in order to deliver the perfect games. What was a little more unexpected is the excessive security measures due to be employed by a supposedly liberal democracy.” says Barnbrook in his press release. And: “In a country with an estimated 1.8 million cctv cameras, maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised.”
Where the 2004 Olympukes celebrated the general greed, manipulation and skulduggery in the Olympics, the 2012 version looks more specifically at complaints, controversies and accusations leveled at the London games and associated events. Countless hours went into researching accurate and thought-provoking stories, presented here in pictogram form. Olympukes 2012 is available in dark and light weights in the multi-platform OpenType format.
Download Olympukes 2012 at Virus. (Thanks to Toze Coelho for the link).
Nuremberg, Germany
A selection of the unmistakable posters of Pierre Mendell (along with preparatory sketches and small collages) is on display until 14 October at Neues Museum für Kunst und Design, Nuremberg.
See more and learn more here.
San Francisco, California
Results of the international poster competition (with participants from more than 30 countries) on the theme of “Occupy: What’s Next?” have been announced… winners were chosen for their graphic impact and creativity in confronting the challenges of economic inequality, greed, corporate influence, political corruption, and environmental tragedy that were identified by the populist Occupy Wall Street movement of fall 2011.
See more and read more here and here.
“Viewed together, these posters convey the intensity of discontent with the status quo maintained by a hyper-priviledged 1% while demonstrating the role that designers around the globe can play by engaging constructively in social debate. Designers were urged in the briefing to go beyond the conventions of protest by creating positive messages. The submissions and the jury’s selections make clear how difficult that task is.”
(Thanks to David Peters, [no relation], one of the gig’s organizers).
