Notes from Russia by Alexei Plutser-Sarno
After 20 years of research and collecting, Alexei Plutser-Sarno gives a glimpse of Russian street culture as observed through the graphic fragments of hand-made public notices.
The interior design of the book is very elegant, with careful selection of paper stocks. Embossing on the paper over board cover is a nice touch to help give the tattered paper aesthetic a more authentic look.
This is first title I’ve purchased a book from the publisher Fuel. The publishing group Fuel is an outgrowth of a design studio of the same name founded by Damon Murray and Stephen Sorrell in 1991. Murray & Sorrell (FUEL) were both the designers and the editors for the book.
Link: Notes from Russia book
The Graphic Design Festival Breda is a 5 week long festival, running from May 23, 2008 — June 29, 2008 in Breda, NL. Below is an animated short movie for the event designed by Studio Smack.
For the 35th Anniversary of Wacky Packs, The Topps Company and Harry N. Abrams published a fun book that is designed beautifully. I bought the book purely based on the cover and curiosity. The book was shrinkwrapped---and at the time I wasn’t familiar with the pop culture icon, Wacky Packs. I’m very happy I took the chance with this one.
The look and feel of the dust jacket resembles the original wax paper used for Wacky Packs. Art Spiegelman, an original artist for the stickers, wrote the foreword “Wacky Days.” The book is a nice size, almost 250 pages (233 Wacky Pack stickers are shown in 4-color) with approx a 5 x 7 trim.
The designer of the book is Neil Egan.
“Wacky Packages—a series of collectible stickers featuring parodies of consumer products and well-known brands and packaging—were first produced by the Topps company in 1967, then revived in 1973 for a highly successful run. In fact, for the first two years they were published, Wacky Packages were the only Topps product to achieve higher sales than their flagship line of baseball cards. The series has been relaunched several times over the years, most recently to great success in 2007.
Known affectionately among collectors as “Wacky Packs,” with artist Art Spiegelman, as a key creative force, the stickers were illustrated by such notable comics artists as Kim Deitch, Bill Griffith, Jay Lynch, and Norm Saunders.
This first-ever collection of Series One through Series Seven celebrates the 35th anniversary of Wacky Packages and is sure to amuse collectors and fans young and old. “Includes interview with Art Spiegelman and bonus pack of four rare and never-before-printed Wacky Packages stickers.” ” –from publisher Abrams
For a quick and easy history of Wacky Packs, there was a segment on a Food Networks Unwrapped episode:
Link: New Wacky Packages Book
Last month I picked up the import dvd for the slightly controversial Studio Ghibli film, Tales from Earthsea. Goro Miyazaki had much to live up to with the legacy already set by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Despite receiving the disapproval from his own father, Goro completed the direction of Tales from Earthsea. Though the animation style is heavily reminiscent of his father’s, the strokes are more painterly and he succeeds in adding a touch of his own. The storyline is very sad—but the characters are compelling. I believe it deserves a space in the Studio Ghibli family. This doesn’t top any Ghibli film I’ve seen before, but it is a great success for a first time director.
Here is a Japanese trailer for the movie:
“Two years ago, Goro Miyazaki found himself in a terrifying position. Anime producers Studio Ghibli tapped him to direct his first feature film, Gedo Senki, based on the classic novel Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin. LeGuin had released the rights to Earthsea on the proviso that Goro’s father, Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away), direct the flick. Unfortunately, Hayao was unavailable so Ghibli brought in Goro, who had never worked in film before.” —from article by Dominic von Riedemann
Prior to directing Tales from Earthsea (Gedo Senki), Goro was involved with the design of the Ghibli Museum.
A 28yr old painter from Bologna, Italy, goes by the alias “Blu.”
He has recently emerged in the world of international public street-art.
Blu sets himself apart from fellow graffiti artists with his aesthetic of using black outlines filled with white paint, often with little use of color.
But what interests me most is the way he juxtaposes his street art into slightly creepy, but amazing animations. His latest video animation, Muto: An Ambiguous Animation Painted on Public Walls, was made in Buenos Aires and Baden.
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
(The soundtrack for the animation is by Andrea Martignoni)
I discovered the work of Blu today while thumbing through the June 2008 issue of Print magazine. Blu is one of 12 illustrators featured in their article Drawn Together: Conversations with 12 Exceptional European Illustrators.
The Print feature includes one spread devoted to Blu. Here’s an interesting excerpt from the interview (but I recommend purchasing the issue as there is plenty more):
Q: What do you like most about drawing and painting?
A: “Painting in public spaces is a really interesting social experience. What I like most is not the piece itself, but people’s reaction, and how the piece is being digested by the city. At the beginning, it is something new: It can be pleasant or distrubing, depending on the point of view. Then, with time, it becomes part of everyday life, and it can take on an old, familiar flavor, like those old, rusted billboards or advertising murals, forgotten in the corners of our cities.” —Blu
(credit for top image: Planet Prozess, Berlin © Blu 2007, bottom image: Comacchio, Italy, © Blu 2006)
Link: blublu.org
Tags
advertising aiga aiga/ny frere-jones amsterdam animation architecture art artist author avatar book book cover book covers book design books bookshelf branding brands brazil bridge browse cards cartoons chairs character character design children chris ware clients clocks club collage color comics commercial competition covers cranbrook creative culture cute democracy design designer documentary drawing eames education elephant engineer ephemera ephemra erik nitsche event exhibit exhibition fashion festival fiction film film video flash flea market flickr french furniture furniture design games george nelson good google graffiti graphic design graphic novel graphic novels green hand-drawn hand-made haruki murakami hello kitty humor icon identity illustration industrial industrial design influences installation interactive interiors international internet interview japan japanese jazz jean carlu john gall jordan crane journal kerning language legend letter lettering letterpress letters logo logos magazine magazines marian bantjes matchbox matchbox labels memoir michael bierut michel gondry miffy mike perry mirko illic moma motion motion graphics movie movies munich music new york nostalgia olle eksell olympics packaging painting paperback paperbacks patterns paul buckley paul rand phaidon photography pixar polaroid polaroids politics pop-up portfolio poster posters print prints product products promo propaganda public art publishing reading record album record albums redesign reel research resources retro russian science sculpture self-promotion signage signs simpsons spanish stamps steven heller student studio studio ghibli sustainability tdc technology television textile design textiles tokidoki toy toys tv type directors typography ugly uppercase video video game vintage vinyl vitra wallpaper web website wolfsonian
About Me:
- Working on:
everything but what I should be doing. - Listening to:
television - Reading:
a few too many things at once: The Host by Stephanie Meyer, The End of America by Naomi Wolf, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami - Watching:
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
