Scott K. MacDonald (SMAC) is an illustrator/animator living in Vancouver, BC. His style references comic art and street culture. I’m quite partial to the way he represents fashion in his illustrations, he pays attention to intricacies while maintaining the crisp simplicity that permeates his work. Some highlights include the Tyson 85 Book (which I’d love to get my hands on) and the Cold Kids Series.
Maraid has quite an array of vintage matchbook labels from Eastern Europe on Flickr. It’s fascinating to see the effects created by the bleeding inks and the unpredictable registration associated with printed materials of this scale.
Delicious Industries has a wonderful collection of Which? (The Consumer’s Association Magazine) covers ranging from the 1960’s to the 1990’s. The covers were designed by London’s Banks & Miles (Colin Banks and John Miles). Check out the Flickr group.
Bruce Black has an enormous collection of scanned colophons from the 1940’s & 50’s on his website. Each of these marks utilizes a limited color palette and overall shape simplicity. I particularly appreciate the “common” aesthetic found in these marks. They weren’t created to be pretentious or high-end, but to appeal to the average reader who is simply looking for entertainment.
Via Design Observer.
Dark Night of The Soul, an upcoming collaboration from David Lynch, Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys, Iggy Pop, Suzanne Vega, Black Francis, Vic Chesnutt, Julian Casablancas, Jason Lyttle, Nina Persson, and James Mercer, is set to release this summer. The album will be accompanied by a book, featuring 100 photos by Director David Lynch.
*5/15/09 – The entire album is now streaming on NPR Music.
Via Pitchfork.
I’ve seen several “design remix” projects (including the video game/book covers by Olly Moss) but Logan Walters’s Wu-Tang / Blue Note Record covers manage to breathe some new life into the trend. Walters did a great job of capturing Blue Note’s design style and the application succeeds in looking like Wu-Tang’s music sounds, gritty and bold.
Npgraphicdesign has a vast collection of vintage London Underground posters in a Flickr set. It’s a wonderful glance into the stylistic evolution of a culture.
Micah Lidberg has a wonderful artist portfolio, full of illustrations, patterns, and hand-rendered type. The artist uses a variety of media, including digital, to produce these incredibly detailed works.
David Levine has an extraordinarily large collection of international travel ephemera from the 20’s and 30’s. There are some extremely inspiring graphics featured on some of these brochures, and it is quite humbling to imagine that more than 80 years ago someone thought of these great ideas and executed them without the use of a computer. Be sure to check out the brochures from Switzerland.
The latest series of ads for Nike’s SB Custom series have tons of style. The photos, by Jon Humphries are both simple and complex. Each of the riders coordinate with the car that they are skating, not just using the color from the riders’ shoes, but their overall styles as well. The composition of each photo is individualized for the rider, but the series as a whole holds together perfectly. I also like the design of the “label” on the side of the ad. It feels scientific, and it makes each photo look like a specimen, which is a wonderful concept.
Sites worth viewing
For your ears.
Found Footage
The History of The Amen Break
Objectified Trailer
The Dot And The Line
The American Look - 1958
Cold War Modern - Dieter Rams
If Mos Def Were President
The Archive
Children of The Clone - by superbrothers
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLUFound images
Josef Müller Brockmann Flickr Set by Blanka
Dusty Summers
Gebrauchsgraphik via Flickr
Evan B. Harris poster for Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
James Joyce
Planet Propaganda via Street Anatomy
Valero Doval
1950's-70's Flickr Set
Si Scott Studio
Overnewsed But Uninformed via Lightgreen