The Art of Brian Sanders

March 12, 2013 9:00 PM

Seventy-five year old Brian Sanders, classic illustrator, was tapped by Matt Weiner for the Mad Men Season Six Poster. Sanders and Weiner evidently used an illustration Sanders created in 1964 for inspiration.
posted by TrolleyOffTheTracks (23 comments total)

Is it just me, or is Don Draper looking back at himself?
posted by magstheaxe at 9:24 PM on March 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

So maybe the cops in the background of the Mad Men poster don't actually portend anything, because they're also in the original.

The likeness is perfect. Sanders is one talented artist.
posted by orange swan at 9:27 PM on March 12, 2013

What's with Don's left hand?
posted by kenko at 9:35 PM on March 12, 2013

In Sander's 1964 illustration for Women's Mirror, what is Public Shelter referring to, A fallout shelter? I can't find any "public shelter" signs on the web except those ones with the yellow and black radiation signs that are still all over New York.
posted by Ad hominem at 9:37 PM on March 12, 2013

What's with Don's left hand?

He's holding a woman's hand. The real question is, why does she have a stop sign for a head?
posted by oulipian at 9:47 PM on March 12, 2013 [3 favorites]

I just watched Joe Hamm do a song about Taxi with Reggie Watts, so there's that.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:47 PM on March 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

He's holding a woman's hand.

Oh, so he is.
posted by kenko at 9:50 PM on March 12, 2013

The best part of this was finding out that this dinstinctively '60s/'70s style of illustration is referred to as "bubble and streak" in Britain (aka "scumbled acrylic").
posted by scody at 9:55 PM on March 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

There's a jet, so you know the future is close.
posted by mph at 10:44 PM on March 12, 2013

Ad hominem: Yes, a fallout shelter or WW2-era air raid shelter. There are still a few of those signs still out there, albeit in very rough shape. They were around before the standardized yellow and black fallout shelter signs came about. Here's a blog article on the history of the fallout shelter sign, which includes a mention of the "Public Shelter with S" sign.
posted by zsazsa at 11:04 PM on March 12, 2013 [3 favorites]

If you're a fan of amazing vintage advertising illustration such as this, Today's Inspiration is a great blog, and his associated Flickr repository is one of the treasures of the internet.

I would have loved to see Bob Peak's take on Mad Men. He's the illustrator I most associate with that era.
posted by billyfleetwood at 11:29 PM on March 12, 2013 [4 favorites]

Wonderful. Now I have to chase down all these links.
posted by bongo_x at 12:36 AM on March 13, 2013

I love, love, love his work. Really, take a look at those 2001 illustrations, too. The man is a god of texture and negative space.
posted by maudlin at 12:41 AM on March 13, 2013 [5 favorites]

The best part of this was finding out that this dinstinctively '60s/'70s style of illustration is referred to as "bubble and streak" in Britain (aka "scumbled acrylic").

Presumably a pun on 'bubble and squeak'
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:55 AM on March 13, 2013

I feel like I'm channeling James Lileks when I say this, but if you're over 40 you can't see this style without remembering being stuck in a wood-paneled room sitting on vinyl furniture with your mom and your aunt, the one who was a hoarder before anyone knew what that was, and thumbing through 15 year old magazines while they talked about their Aunt Edith.
posted by randomkeystrike at 4:51 AM on March 13, 2013 [8 favorites]

Is it just me, or is Don Draper looking back at himself?

That's what it looks like to me, too.
posted by Gordafarin at 6:04 AM on March 13, 2013

Is that Rachel Menken in the background?
posted by drezdn at 6:28 AM on March 13, 2013

At least judging from the poster, it's nice to see Don has apparently finally lost the hat. I always told myself we'd know when Don finally gets with the modern age when he stops wearing his hats.

Where do these posters get used? Who gets a copy of a Mad Men poster? Do they actually put them up in public? Maybe in major cities?
posted by Thorzdad at 7:01 AM on March 13, 2013

you can't see this style without remembering being stuck in a wood-paneled room sitting on vinyl furniture with your mom and your aunt, the one who was a hoarder before anyone knew what that was

In my case, my grandfather, who kept stacks of old Life's, Post's, Esquire's and more in his basement-turned-rec-room. Poring over them while drinking Squirt was like getting a secret peek into all of the mysteries of grown-up life. It's practically Proustian, that style.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:36 AM on March 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

Where do these posters get used?

I just saw it on the wall in an NYC subway station.
posted by dyobmit at 10:06 AM on March 13, 2013

BBC interview with Sanders.
posted by maudlin at 3:21 PM on March 13, 2013

Slightly longer audio-only interview with PRI's The World.

Interesting piece from Today's Inspiration. Acrylics were slow to show up in the UK, so they had to improvise:

In 1960, Brian was trying to imitate techniques he saw used in American magazines, without realizing that acrylic paints had been invented. This piece was drawn in pencil/charcoal on canvas paper, scumbled with coloured inks mixed with soap, and worked over in gouache.

There was then a eureka moment when we discovered Liquitex acrylic colours and mediums. However, they weren’t on sale in the United Kingdom, but it wasn’t long before parcels of Liquitex paint and mediums were winging their way over the Atlantic, sent by friends and relatives.

7 "Mad Men" Theories Based On The Season 6 Poster

posted by maudlin at 3:42 PM on March 13, 2013

Is it just me, or is Don Draper looking back at himself? That's what it looks like to me, too.

I thought the guy walking away from the viewer is Dick Whitman. Do the cops make more sense now?
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:27 PM on March 13, 2013