you may (or may not) have noticed that i’ve been slowly adding more links to the right sidebar of this blog. i recently added the category “posters!” (as well as a few others) so that i might pay some tribute to and link to the websites of some designers and artists i respect and admire.
posters and art prints are like crack to me. what started as a teenage propensity to tear out pages from my favorite magazines and plaster my walls with teen idol and rock star imagery turned into a love of band gig posters and album cover artwork in college, and then expanded to the appreciation of various printing techniques like silkscreening and letterpress and the many forms they take – from folk art and other art prints to commercial design and more. in recent years my love of street art and folk art has turned me on to a slew of blogs that cover the poster and design worlds, and i turn to them often for inspiration and just appreciation of both technique and creativity.
as i was catching up on my feed reader the other day, a few pieces grabbed me that i wish i had the disposable income to waste on. (not that i think spending money on art is a waste – not at all – but unfortunately in my world, i have to prioritize, and eating and paying rent kinda trump buying art for my walls, even when it is incredibly affordable art.) so i’m posting them here both as a means to share them with you and as a record for me so i can go back and find them later when hopefully i do have the money to spend.
this first one is kind of random, and i’ve never heard of this person/company before (brainstorm print and design), but i kind of really love it. it’s a 5-color silkscreen print and being the font-freak that i am, i think it is, well, fucking fantastic. simple. to the point. great retro font and awesome colors! i would just love to have that up on my wall!
this next one is from the delicious design league, another new-to-me company that started out making gig posters for fun and has since grown into a full-fledged commercial design firm. i love the simplicity of the design and the brilliance of the concept.
new orleans folks might be aware of the hurricane poster project, which was implemented after katrina as a means for designers to do something to raise money and help victims of the gulf coast region in the aftermath of the storm and floods. well now there is the haiti poster project, which is offering limited edition sets of posters from artists, designers and design firms from around the world in order to raise money for doctors without borders, who are helping in the aftermath of the horrible earthquakes in haiti.
i have several favorites, but these are just a few. spend some time flipping through the gallery – there’s some really amazing design work there and it’s all for a good cause. and if you are an artist/designer, they are still accepting submissions.
one of the artists i became aware of during all the obama art craziness in 2008 is scott hansen. he’s a san francisco designer who does both commercial work as well as fine art. his progress print was one of those released officially by the obama campaign to fundraise (i originally bought one but ended up trading it for shepard fairey print i wanted more). he was one of the many artists i shared wall space with in washington d.c. at the manifest hope show during the inauguration, and i’ve been coveting his skyway print since i first saw it. now i have a new one to add to the wishlist:
it’s called terrabyte, and it’s a little pricey! but oh-so-cool. i love it and think it would look amazing against the bright blue paint color in my studio/office. <sigh> oh well. a girl can dream. (the original terrabyte festival gigposter that utilized the same design is only $17, though, with just a few more words on it.) i like a lot of scott’s stuff, and would definitely buy a bunch of his work if i had the money to spend.
one of my favorite discoveries of the past few years has been the print mafia. i just love their technique – old school, baby, hand-pulled and manipulated – and the results they get are just so spectacular. if i was a rich woman my walls would be plastered with their work. i have a hard time picking out just one or two to share but this recent cat with antlers is just the kind of tongue-in-cheek humor and eye-catching imagery that makes me smile:
ok, i need to stop cuz this post is getting long. but you get the concept – i could go on and on about my love of good graphic design and interesting technique. and i didn’t even get to the letterpress folks! i guess i’ll save that for another post later. but keep an eye on my links to the right as i continue to add more.