Uncle Sam by James Montgomery Flagg

Title: Uncle Sam
Date: 1917
Artist: James Montgomery Flagg
Design Movement: War

James Montgomery Flagg was an American poster designer and artist. This poster here, the Uncle Sam recruitment poster is his most famous and Sam remains an iconic figure in our culture. The poster is inspired by a similar British recruitment poster, and Flagg actually used his own face for Uncle Sam (adding the white hair and goatee). The message is clear and so are the design elements, it is a very well designed poster and an impressive work of art. The figure feels almost 3D with the hand pointing out at the viewer and the bold YOU personalizes the message more than the text could alone. Flagg did other works as well, but non so prominent and witstanding as this one.

Self Portrait by Egon Schiele

Title: 'Self Portrait'
Date: 1912
Artist: Egon Schiele
Design Movement: Art Nouveau - Expressionism

was an Australian painter who lived at the turn of the century and had a profound influence during the Expressionism movement. He is most famous for his many self portraits such as this one where the figures are twisted and harsh with expressive lines and intensity. I like this one in particular because, despite the drama and expressionism that this painting is dripping with, you can still see the artist and tell who it is. His works are very powerful and he remains a key figure in the Expressionist period.

Album Covers

Movie Posters

Original Mascot/Character Designs: Cereal Boxes

Leonetto Capiello

http://www.pixelcola.net/~brian0000/Untitled-2.html

Everything you ever wanted to know about Leonetto Capiello
(but were afraid to ask)

Erik Spiekermann 1979

Helvetica
Erik Spiekermann

A German typographer and designer, Erik Spiekermann has worked all over Europe, particularly between 1972 and the present. He designed the 'FF Meta' typeface as well as Berliner Grotesk BQ, FF Info Display, FF Info Office, FF Info Text, FF Meta Boiled, FF Meta Condensed, FF Meta Correspondence, FF Meta Subnormal, ITC Officina Display, ITC Officina Sans, ITC Officina Serif, FF Unit and several other typefaces as parts of corporate design programmes. He has won many awards and is well respected in the typeface community.

ITC Zapf Chancery® Std Light italic

1979








Hermann Zapf is a German typeface designer who has worked on many famous fonts, a lot of which have been ripped off and copied by other people (knock offs have even appeared on microsoft word). Some of his most popular fonts include the typefaces 'Palatino', 'Optima', and of course 'Zapfino'.

Palatino, Optima, Zapfino

Venture™ Com Script

Wim Crouwel

Helvetica
Wim Crouwel

A dutch graphic designer, Wim Crouwel is a famous, well respected artist who has worked mostly in typography and design. He is best known for the creation of the "New Alphabet" (1967) font set and other abstract fonts.

Victory by Jean Carlu

Title: "Victory, Franklin D. Roosevelt"
Date: 1942
Artist: Jean Carlu
Design Movement: Art Deco

Jean Carlu was a french graphic designer who work primarily in poster design. He helped the increase in American productivity during World War II with his posters such as this one. He enjoyed cubism and was a major player in the Art Deco movement. While his propaganda posters remain his most famous, he work on a lot of projects and is still a prominent figure in this movement. I like this poster a lot (it reminds me of "Dr. Stangelove"), I think it is very effective and I think the blue figures in the back ground are interesting. The red 'V' is cool how the outline alone stays on the picture of Franky D.

Aspen Design Conference Poster

Title: "Aspen Design Conference" poster
Date: 1982
Artist: Paul Rand
Design Movement: International Style

Paul Rand was a great graphic designer and artist who is probably best know for his work and development in company logos. He helped establish many corporate identities including IBM, UPS, and ABC. The simplicity in is work is one of the important factors of his success. This poster for example, it catches my eyes almost more than anything else he has done, yet it is still very elementary and simple (bust still extremely creative). The color choice and the circular design elements are very interesting, the contrast between the two "eyes" at the top capture your attention for a long time.

"The Shining" Movie Poster by Saul Bass

Title: "The Shining" Movie Poster
Date: 1980
Artist: Saul Bass
Design Movement: International Style

Saul Bass was an incredible part of the history of graphic design. His work became some of the most recognizable and sought after, especially in the film industry. He worked with many of the greatest directors of all time including Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, and Stanley Kubrick. This particular poster was made for Stanley Kubrick and I find it extremely interesting because it follows his usual style of cut out text on a single color background, yet it's for a horror movie. Most people would have made it with yellow/orange text on black. I think this is more successful for not doing that because not only does it grab your attention more this way (and it's less cliche'), but also because of the figure in the oversize letter T which now feels like it is in the dark. That wouldn't work in a yellow block. I think the letter T is interesting too because of how it allows itself to be bigger than normal to allow room for the figure.

New Man by El Lissitzky

Title: Neuer (New Man) from Figurinen, die Plastische Gestaltung der elektro-mechanischen Schau "Sieg über die Sonne" (Figurines: The Three-Dimensional Design of the Electro-Mechanical Show "Victory over the Sun")

Date: 1923
Artist: El Lissitzky
Design Movement: Russian Suprematism and Constructivism

El Lissitzky was a significant figure in Russian and Western European art in the early 1900's, especially for the Jewish cultural renaissance during that time.
I find this particular work of art by him to be exceptionally interesting and beautiful, mainly because of the focus on dimension and how shapes and lines can terminate and disappear behind other lines and shapes. The colors used are also very important and intriguing to me, and I like the strong half circle line that directs your eyes from the red square (which you see first) up to the corner where the red star is.