Wednesday, February 24, 2010

amber albrecht

Amber Albrecht is a printmaker and illustrator based in Montreal whose silkscreen prints and ink drawings depict beautiful dreamscapes filled with romance and melancholy. From her artist statement:
I portray dream-fueled absurdist situations, which often draw heavily on my cloudy recollection of the storybooks of my childhood, saturated as they were with strange creatures, impossible happenings and oneiric landscapes. These stories created for me a very idiosynchratic [sic] conception of a past-that-never-was, and much of my work is directed toward bringing this past into being.
via Drawn!

Monday, February 22, 2010

olympic fever

I've been completely addicted to watching the Vancouver Olympic Games this past week. I always watch at least a few events (like figure skating and downhill skiing) but this year I've been watching everything NBC deigns to show us. In keeping with this obsession, I thought I'd show some of my favorite designs from Olympics past. My favorite is probably Munich 72 - the now iconic identity system included a massive array of posters, pictograms and signage, all designed by Otl Aicher and team. Every single piece is amazing and you can see a lot of it here. Mexico City 68, designed by Lance Wyman and Eduardo Terrazas, is also great. The op-art poster works as a stand-alone piece, but if you look at the identity as a whole - the icons, signage, posters, etc., I think it's quite striking and really reflects the spirit of the location. I give honorable mention to Montreal 76. The logo is brilliant in its simplicity and I also enjoy some of the posters. You can see posters from just about every Olympics here, and you can see the logo, poster, medal and more for 46 past Olympic games at olympics.org.

Munich 1972
Mexico City 1968
Montreal 1976

Thursday, February 18, 2010

alexis anne mackenzie

Alexis Anne Mackenzie is a collage artist based in San Francisco. She composes each piece by hand, using images cut from vintage books. According to her artist statement, her intent "is to portray the world as a flawed thing of beauty - a place that shines brightly, but has a dark side to match." Mission accomplished, I'd say.

via SeeSaw Designs


Monday, February 15, 2010

letterheady

I recently found a new blog to obsess over. Letterheady shows interesting letterhead designs - noteworthy for their design, who they belong to, or both. There are some real treasures, including the letterhead of Johnny Cash, Hitler, Albert Einstein and the Star Wars Corporation (ca. 1976). The ones I'm showing here are some of my favorite designs from the site.

via Letterology

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

stacey rozich

Stacey Rozich is a Seattle-based artist and illustrator whose work draws inspiration from folk art and children's books. She uses gouache, ink, watercolor, and even acrylics to create a cast whimsical creatures and dreamlike narratives. She shows regularly in Seattle, and has a show opening February 13th at Dolce Vita in Ballard. For those of you who don't live in Seattle, you can see more on her blog.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

creative condition

I started using Add-Art a couple of months ago. It's a service that replaces adds with art, in conjunction with Adblock Plus, in Firefox. Sometimes the art is really interesting, and sometimes it's just so-so, but it's almost always better than the ads it replaces. These pieces created by New York-based design firm Elastic Brand caught my attention recently. According to the creators' statement, they were inspired by "creative individuals and their real encounters with people in their lives as they started to define their goals and pursue their dreams." They asked fellow creatives to submit "a quote that marked a turning point in their creative lives," along with a photo of themselves as a child and put the them together using a simple color palette and bold type. The goal was to highlight the opposition that many aspiring artists, musicians and performers encounter from family and friends who, however well-intentioned, don't understand what it means to be a creative person. It's a simple concept, but the results resonated with me.