I was pleasantly surprised to see that from the 23rd of October to the 5th of December this year the Zach Feuer Gallery in New York had a retrospective exhibition of works by the Pop artist, teacher and nun Sister Mary Corita.
One of my all time favorite image makers who sadly passed away in 1986 spent 30 years practicing as a nun at the Immaculate Heart Convent in Los Angeles where she also had an art studio and used her time to create screen prints and serigraphs.
Her work features a beautiful mix of type and image usually in bright or fluorescent colours. Newspaper photos, chopped up slogans and quotes, advertising images, jingles and hand rendered type all came together to illustrate political and world issues she felt strongly about with a great sense of playfulness and freedom
It has been said that she is “responsible in part for advancing the silk screen process as fine art”. I can only hope one day to see them with my own eyes. Maybe next time…
Alex Geoffrey
Posted on Thursday, 10th of December 2009 Permalink
While leafing through The New Yorker or The Economist over the past few months I’ve stopped to admire advertisements for IBM’s Conversations for a Smarter Planet. It’s a series of ads that tries to position Big Blue at the forefront of technological thinking, albeit through some quite retro design.
With the Swiss typography, white space and Rand-inspired iconographic illustration, these ads have more to do with IBM ads from fifty years ago, perhaps evoking a time when IBM were thought more progressive than they are now. They might be talking about the future but their design evokes the 1960s.
David Rainbird
Posted on Sunday, 27th of September 2009 Permalink
Mobile phones – 1979; Moog synthesisers – 1969; home computers – 1967 and, umm, snooker playing robots called Hissing Sid – 1981. All of these technologies and more had their first mass airings on Tomorrow’s World, the BBC’s flagship science program that spanned almost 40 years, where science fiction was presented as science fact. The BBC has today released an archive of quirky film reports and live experiments that, in their time, examined the changing state of technology. You can see the future then… now… here.
Nathan Usmar Lauder
Posted on Monday, 14th of September 2009 Permalink
Sunday saw almost 200 models in the shape of children’s TV favourite Morph arranged in a terracotta army outside Tate Modern to honour the memory of the late TV artist Tony Hart. If you don’t know who Morph is, he appeared alongside Hart from 1977 on several of his UK TV programmes, notably Take Hart and Hartbeat. Tony Hart influenced a generation of artists and designers, including me. Check out the different morph renditions here.
Vikesh Bhatt
Posted on Monday, 2nd of March 2009 Permalink
Heres a lovely flickr collection of vintage tape inserts. The collection features inserts from Dixons, Phillips, BASF. If your into 70’s and 80’s material check out the full collection here, brace yourself for some brave typography and colour combos.
Vikesh Bhatt
Posted on Monday, 16th of February 2009 Permalink
The V&A was awash with con’s by the end of this years Village Fete. And what a sorry looking bunch of miscreants you all were – Dance Floor Murderers, Fraudsters, Racketeers, Fashion Criminals and Nuclear Arms Dealers all rubbed shoulders with the other law-abiding visitors.
Criminality saw no boundaries as offenders young and old queued up to have their fictional Civil Liberties stripped. Some followed in the footsteps of other dynamic-duos and chose to be photographed with a partner-in-crime, others took the wrap for themselves and stood in the docks alone. Either way we caught some real hardened crims and did our part at ridding the streets of some of society’s most dangerous transgressors.
Our thanks goes to all those who took part and kept us busy for the entire event. And, if there are any of you felons reading this who received a Fibre Criminal Record, can you send us a scan of the picture side of your cards so that we can add it to our files.
Alex Geoffrey
Posted on Tuesday, 29th of July 2008 Permalink
What inspired this video for DVNO by Justice? With scores of flying, exploding, 3D, rainbow and chrome logos – it can only be 80’s TV graphics. Motion by Machinemolle and designed by So me, the talent behind last year’s awesome Justice video – D.A.N.C.E. (via Stereogum)
David Rainbird
Posted on Sunday, 2nd of March 2008 Permalink
Mad Men will make you a happier person. It’s the US show about a 1960’s Madison Avenue ad agency that will make your teeth whiter and it’s coming to the UK on BBC4 – tonight. Created by Sopranos writer Matthew Weiner, it’s a realistic portrayal of a lost time in advertising and American history, before equality, smoking related illness and car seatbelts. Cigarettes, whiskey and discrimination is encouraged in the workplace, but as you’ll find out, not without consequences. The show has a great cast and production values, so satisfaction is guaranteed. AMC’s site for the show also has some nice clips of Ad Legends.
David Rainbird
Posted on Sunday, 2nd of March 2008 Permalink
Things Magazine bring you The Pelican Project, hard to pick a favourite decade or cover, the 60’s and 70’s are where most of the superb graphic solutions are. My favourite changes everytime I visit the site, some are above, but today it’s ‘How Children Fail’
Dave Brown
Posted on Wednesday, 30th of January 2008 Permalink
I recently attended and 80’s party where Pacman won first prize, Sheera was a close second and we haven’t seen Bungle since Thursday night. On that note…this really nice Wispa ad by Publicis London looks back at life in the 80’s, the copy is well written and worth a read whilst munching on that Wispa, yum. Have a read here.
Vikesh Bhatt
Posted on Monday, 17th of December 2007 Permalink
