Tel Aviv, Israel

(posters by the inimitable David Tartakover)

Washington, D.C.

In today’s New York Times, op-ed columnist Frank Rich provides an insightful portrait of “Forgotten but Not Gone” George W. Bush, reminding us of Dubya’s “seemingly bottomless capacity for self-pity” over the past eight years, even as he “drove his country off a cliff,” stubbornly stayed his disastrous course abroad, and created a wake of monumental chaos and tragedy.

Image: ‘The First 1000’ illustration by Mark Bryan; 11 x 14 inches, oil on panel, 2004. Below: cover of the just-released ‘Highlights of Accomplishments and Results (of the) Administration of President George W. Bush, 2001-2009.

A great Flickr set of classic Penguin & Pelican book covers… enjoy. (Also check out Joe Kral’s impressive archive of over 700 book covers from his personal library, as well as over 500 magazine images).

Repressed Hostility

Indecision

 Schizophrenia

Inferiority

I just stumbled across these remarkable illustrations by Russian-born Boris Artzybasheff, a master of anthropomorphism, on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive (a great resource for illustrators) here. Artzybasheff had a long career as an illustrator, beginning in the late 1920s with art deco style illustrations and extending all the way through the 1950s. Samples shown above are from the first section of Artzybasheff’s book As I See—titled ‘Neurotica’ it’s a visual depiction of extreme states of mind.

“Well maybe it does present more of a challenge this way, but I still think you should have let me wear my other hiking outfit.”

—Bill Ward, 1919-1998 (‘good girl’ cartoonist/illustrator)

Winnipeg, Canada

Best wishes to friends and colleagues worldwide… may you find hope, happiness, and fulfillment in the coming days and new year ahead.

Cheers, Rob

“The 2008 crash is probably the most serious economic crisis we have faced since the Great Depression. Stock markets from around the world fell as much as 20% in a single week, dozens of banks either failed or were rescued by government and private institutions, and companies started laying off employees as a consequence of the reduced demand. We know how we entered into the crisis, but we don’t know when or how we will be getting out of it. Considering that issue, we decided to do our little bit to help cheer everyone up by redoing the logos of some renowned companies …. after the crisis.”

(original source unknown—thanks, Guy)

…and they’re written on subway walls and tenement halls, all around the world. Here’s a selection of delightfully stenciled and graffiti’d truisms—from the U.K., the USA, Colombia, Argentina, and who knows where else… enjoy.

(thanks for the ‘car bad—bike good’ image Derek).

Washington, D.C.

I was pleased today to stumble across this avant-garde collection of book covers in the Smitsonian Institution Libraries… from the accompanying essay: “During the period between the two World Wars, the Czechoslovak Republic was an important and prolific center for avant-garde book design. Signed, limited editions showcased experimental design techniques, high-quality materials, and specially commissioned graphics. Book design for the general public, although mass-produced and much more affordable, was similarly innovative and attentive to questions of design. Not recognized as an important focus for academic inquiry until the mid-1970s, Czech book design has recently been the subject of several exhibitions and publications, including The Czech avant-garde and Czech book design: the 1920s and 1930s at the Florham-Madison Campus Library, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey.”

“Avant-garde Czech book design sprang from the Devetsil Artistic Union, a highly influential group of avant-garde poets, writers, artists, and designers active from 1920 to 1931. ReD [1927-31], the most important of Devetsil’s journals, published work by leading names in the fields of writing, art, and architecture, among them poetry by Mallarmé and Apollinaire; prose by James Joyce; reproductions of art by Arp, Chagall, Kandinsky, Brancusi, Mondrian and El Lissitzky; and articles on the architecture of Le Corbusier, Gropius, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Czech designers were also in direct contact with a range of artistic activity in Europe, especially France and Russia, and collaborated on projects with several important journals, including Merz, the publication of German Dada artist Kurt Schwitters. The Devetsil group encompassed, if at times uncomfortably, Czech artists working in two major styles, Poetism and Constructivism. Czech avant-garde book design separates broadly into four major movements: Poetism, Constructivism, Surrealism, and Socialist Realism. Each approach developed and utilized its own unique philosophy and aesthetic vocabulary…”

Read the full essay here and view the entire collection of covers here.

Books shown: George Bernard Shaw’s Obráceni kapitána Brassbounda, cover design by Ladislav Sutnar; Ladislav Sutnar and Oldřich Stary’s (eds.) Nejmenší dům, cover design by Sutnar; Joseph Deltaile’s Cholera, cover design by Josef Šíma.