1000 POLISH BOOK COVERS

Just when I thought I had seen it all at the outer limits of the Polish poster, I discover Polish book covers. Fans of Polish art and design have until now relied on fantastic posts at sites like 50 Watts to get their fix. I'm now aware that many of them can be found in a hardback book, curated by Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński and entitled One Thousand Polish Book Covers, which seems to be the definitive tome on this incredibly deep and diverse visual world.

For fun, and in celebration of this book's existence, 50 Watts has announced their contest to design a Polish-style cover for your favorite book, with a $400 cash prize. I plan on entering as a fun exercise, and if you're an artist or illustrator, you should too, as its not very hard to get inspired when looking at this stuff.

Here are some of my favorites introduced to me by 50 Watts - all of these images come courtesy of Will Schofield and his valliant work on that blog, so please check out his other posts here and here to see many more. And if Polish childrens books are your thing, feast your eyes on the Mizieliński's mind-blowing personal collection, chronicled on this blog.

INGE K. CIMIC

Forgotten pumpkins

While traveling in Croatia, I discovered the work of Inge K. Cimic in a Dubrovnik gallery, and brought home these postcards. I know nothing about the artist or where she is from, and I haven't been able to find much of anything about her online. If anyone knows any more information about her or her art, please leave a comment. I love the charming fancifulness of the trees, villages and landscapes and the mystery these images contain, like illustrations from some lost fairy tales.

A big surprise

Winter morning

Winter motif

NASHVILLE FILM FEST POSTER

I made this poster for this year's Nashville Film Festival which starts this weekend. Inspired by UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES. This poster isn't in print or for sale... just made to encourage people to check out the film and the festival in general.

NORM

Dave Paulson of The Privates has released a new EP as NORM. He asked me to whip some artwork overnight for the cover. Download the excellent NORM EP on Bandcamp here.

DAVID KLEIN + THE HEIGHTS PLAYERS

David Klein was an incredibly prolific and influential illustrator who is most well known for his iconic vintage travel posters (about which I will most definitely post again soon), but thanks to one of my favorite blogs Stickers & Stuff, I just stumbled across his posters he made for The Heights Players, a Brooklyn community theater founded in 1956. Klein designed plenty of wonderful posters for proper Broadway shows as well, but these have a remarkable unifying style that is playful, colorful and iconic. I absolutely adore his color schemes and his great lettering, from the playful Saul-Bass style block letters of On the Town and The Caine Mutiny Court Marshall to the perfect modern elegance of his Glass Menagerie title treatment. I'm too inspired to look at these any longer... I must go draw!

Process: SHOAH

Here is a poster concept for SHOAH that we didn't end up using as the final one-sheet for IFCFilms. There were many, many striking images in Claude Lanzmann's 10-hour holocaust documentary, some more harrowing than others, but all of them beautiful in some way. It was very important to avoid presenting the film as a gloomy or morbid nightmare, because the film itself, difficult as it is to watch at times, is anything but. This was my favorite poster idea, and below is another. For the final poster, I gave a new treatment to an iconic image that was used in the original promotion of the film 25 years ago, both also seen below.

unused poster concept, 2010

original promotional poster, 1985

final theatrical poster design for IFCFilms, 2010

CHILDREN'S BOOKSHELF: Victor Chizhikov

I found some great old children's books on my most recent trip overseas, and here I present the holy grail of them all, this German edition of a Russian folktake "Wie Der Wolf Ein Liedchen Sang" (something like "A Song Like the Wolf's Song") illustrated by Victor Chizhikov. I found it crammed into a shelf in a tiny magical old bookshop in Berlin. Chizhikov began as a caricaturist and went on to illustrate countless childrens books. He also created the beloved Misha, the mascot character for the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Not much of his artwork seems to be online, so I'm happy to share some pictures from this title which showcases his gorgeous illustrations. Click these to see the details enlarged, and find a few more at my Flickr page.

TOUR FINDS

Some finds from Berlin, Copenhagen and elsewhere on tour. Pics & posts coming in the future...

50 WATTS

A Journey Round My Skull, my favorite blog on the internet, is now 50 Watts. And now its even prettier, like its cousin But Does It Float. Curated by the great Will Schofield, 50 Watts highlights fantastic and mysterious found book art and illustrations. Just see it for yourself. Also follow 50 Watts on Twitter, and find the link permanently on the right hand side of my blog for future browsing. Thank you Will for the endless inspiration!

SATURDAY EVENING POSTER

Fun 60's British postal poster that I found while browsing through a bookshop in London. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that advertising used to look this great. I'll be posting some more tour finds soon...

JERZY FLISAK

Here is a selection of wonderful film posters by Jerzy Flisak, one of my favorite Polish poster artists. I haven't been able to find out much information about the man other than that he began as a satirical cartoonist (some of his cartoon illustrations can be seen in this untranslated video) and also illustrated children's books and even directed his own animated film. Sadly I haven't found any evidence of either online. Flisak's imagination seems boundless, and more than anything his work inspires me to draw. See more of Flisak's posters here and here. Also: Saturday Evening Poster - The Little Prince (which I'm proud to say is the first Flisak poster I own and have hanging on my wall).