TRASH HUMPERS PRINT

I'm proud to announce this new print celebrating the new film from my old Nashville friend Harmony Korine. This print will be available for purchase at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville this Friday, May 28th at the regional premiere of TRASH HUMPERS. I'll be printing this at Boss Construction as always with the help of Andy Vastagh, tomorrow or Friday before the film. Check my Twitter for print process pics.

I was blown away by Harmony's latest work and its an honor to be involved tangentially in the local movement supporting it. It was extremely difficult designing a concept for this unique film experience. Ultimately, the only concept I felt confident about ended up being the idea of avoiding the imagery from the film almost completely and paying tribute to the aesthetic concept behind the film (saying "film" over and over about this project is beyond ironic). Thus the VHS tape pile; Harmony has described Trash Humpers as a kind of artifact, like something bizarre you would find in an old pile of discarded tapes in someone's basement. To create this collage, I went through some old boxes of VHS tapes -- taped TV programs, home movies, and school videos-- and took photos of the tapes and boxes, which was fun. Below are a couple of other abandoned concepts in rough draft form that I didn't feel were good enough to pursue to completion.

ETERNAL SUNSHINE by ROSS McCAMPBELL

Great poster design by Ross McCampbell.

DAN McCARTHY

Yesterday I posted one of Dan McCarthy's prints in my Lost screenprint roundup, and I just couldn't go 24 hours without sharing some more of his amazing work. Currently working from his new shop in E. Falmouth, MA, Dan's hand-drawn and painted prints are sublime, evoking a stark natural world that is wintery and wild, yet comforting in its awe-inspiring scale. See more at DanMcCarthy.org, and click these to enlarge; you'll wanna appreciate the detail.

LOST PRINTS

Or, the #1 reason why I wish I was already a famous poster artist. These limited edition art prints were commissioned for the final season of LOST, with new ones dropping each day between now and the finale on Sunday. Designed by some of today's most successful poster artists (many of whom I plan to feature soon on this blog), some of them are just okay and some are just great. My favorites:

Olly Moss

Jason Munn

Nate Duvall

Ken Taylor

Dan McCarthy

Jay Ryan

Tyler Stout

Mike Mitchell

Daniel Danger

BIOGRAF

For fun, I've turned the ridiculously irrational task of listing my favorite movies of the past decade into a little design project. I've imagined a fictional European film magazine seemingly made just for me, featuring my favorite films on each cover. Although I'm not very skilled with the whole making something fake look real thing, a few people I've talked to actually believed this was a real magazine. I'm fully aware that dropping a film still into a template and slapping some type on it doesn't really count as sophisticated design, but as with last year's 2009 film stamp series, its just a fun way to celebrate these movies I love aesthetically as a change of pace from writing about them. More will be trickling in through my Flickr page over the coming weeks so check back.

THE SHORT FILMS OF AL JARNOW

Wow. My mind has once again been blown courtesy of Grain Edit, an essential bookmark for any design lover. Today's post tips us off to a new DVD anthology of the short films of Al Jarnow, the artist responsible for so many of those early-80's Sesame Street and 3-2-1 Contact animations that have lingered in the back of my subconscious since childhood. This new DVD set, also featuring a documentary on Jarnow, was released by the Numero Group, an awesome label known for their vintage funk, soul and R&B compilations. And into the Amazon shopping cart it goes.

BRANDON SCHAEFER

Meet my new pal Brandon Schaefer. He makes film posters. I suppose Brandon's stuff falls partially in the "minimalist" movie poster movement that has been sweeping the web for the past two years, but his work succeeds in creativity and composition where many other designers fall short (a lengthy post on this movement is soon to come). Brandon has been a great person to check in with for inspiration and solidarity amidst this increasingly over-saturated trend. Here are some of my favorites of his. For more, peep Brandon's site or his Flickr.

AB AETERNO

LOST print and tee design by m. Brady Clark. Shirt for sale at TeeFury today only for $9, print is here. File under: Wish I'd Thoughta This.

FRANK FRAZETTA

Today one of the great American fantasy artists passed away. Frank Frazetta first became a rock star with his hand-painted renderings of Conan the Barbarian and the countless fantasy book covers that he subsequently illustrated. His paintings-- highly detailed and masterful illustrations of beasts, battles, demons, and hot chicks coiled up with serpentine monsters-- were distinctive and iconic and made Frazetta one of the most in-demand commercial artists of his time. Though he was highly sought-after by Hollywood and created a couple movie posters, his only feature film project was FIRE & ICE, a collaboration with Ralph Bakshi (the animated LORD OF THE RINGS) that I can't believe I haven't seen. Frazetti created the characters for this 1983 animated fantasy epic, and it looks to feature some nice rotoscoping, a technique of animating over live action photography, used in early Disney features as well as recent films like A SCANNER DARKLY. The result-- a fluid and uncanny realism to the heroes' bodies in motion, and a natural fit for Frazetta's penchant for exposed bosoms and buttocks. Here's the trailer, but first some of my favorite paintings by the legendary Frank Frazetta. (click each image for a larger view)

RETRO BASKETBALL LOGOS

It's NBA Playoff season, so I thought I'd share a few tight retro basketball logos. Most sports teams go through countless logos, and only a select few refrain from trying to fix something that ain't broke. Just like candy and soda logos, these simple vintage logos further accentuate just how bad today's logo designs can be. I'll start off with a late-70's version of current favorite logo in the NBA-- one that's been only slightly altered over the years-- for the Portland Trailblazers.