New York
This is Luba Lukova‘s latest poster design for The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare at La MaMa e.t.c. (final poster at top, poster sketch below and a detail of conceptual sketches). Internationally recognized, Luba is regarded as one of the most distinctive image-makers working today — her original art uses metaphors, the juxtaposition of symbols, and an economy of linear illustration and text to beautifully capture the essence of basic humanity.
Austria, or wherever…
This is one of more than 350 vintage travel posters in an online collection compiled by The Boston Public Library’s Print Department—most date from the 1920s-1940s, the “Golden Age of Travel.” Enjoy the rest here.
(image source unknown)
Boston, Massachusetts
My friend Chaz Maviyane-Davies, a Zimbabwean expat and Professor of Design at the Massachusetts College of Art, has for the past few years stuck a new tear-sheet flyer each month with a different quote on it outside his office door in the college… above is the current offering, and following is Chaz’s explanation…
Paul Peter Piech (1920–1996) was a mentor, teacher and friend. He was perhaps the most prolific, skillful and passionate graphic designer I will ever meet and whose influence on me still resonates. His obituary in the UK Independent began “Some remarkable individuals keep on believing, throughout their lives, that the world could change for the better. The artist and printer Paul Peter Piech was one such man.” They concluded “In our current climate of fin de siecle despair at the state of the world Paul Peter Piech stood out as a man who knew how to turn any anger about man’s inhumanity to man into creative work with a disturbing social message.”
Even as a troublesome upstart, he supported me totally and in 1980 just before I completed my BA at Middlesex University, he graciously illustrated (lino-cut) this identity for me for my stationery needs. A kindred spirit, this quote reminds me fondly of him as we need the likes of Paul more than ever today.
(mid-Century flashback)
I stumbled across a website/archive yesterday which shares more than 14GB of scans and cover illustrations from the genre known loosely as “pulp.” While some of the wide range of topics covered (1153 different tags!) will appeal to some and less so to others, this is an outstanding repository of paperback and magazine illustration well worth perusing for those interested in cultural ephemera and vintage (mostly American, and much of it cheesy) publishing : Pulp Covers
(Lent seems, somehow, appropriate for this post).
Hmmm…
Perhaps these will be funnier for folks who survived puritan or fundamentalist religious upbringings… (-:
I get a good chuckle, having been raised in a relatively devout Mennonite family (Mennonites are much like our Swiss cousins the Amish, but we get to drive in cars and use zippers instead of hook-and-eye closures and buttons — the risk being, of course, that both cars and zippers are “too fast” and do not provide the opportunity for reflection and sobered second thought).
Cardiff, Wales
UK-based freelance illustrator Ed Fairburn draws on maps… which I like very much. See more here.
Through graffiti… in every corner of the world.
(original image sources unknown)
Burbank, California
Stay-at-home-Mom (and former elementary school art teacher) wins $200,000 Art Prize for her pencil mural “Elephants”… read more here.
