Don't Make Excuses - Make Good! Between World Wars I and II, the U.S. economy was booming - workers had choices and employers competed for their time. How to motivate and gain loyalty from a labor force that knew it could walk out the door and find more work soon?
Charles Mather, head of a family printing business in Chicago, offered employers a solution: the
first motivational posters for the private workplace market. Printed between 1923 and 1929, Mather's "
Work Incentive Posters" used strong imagery and short, clear messaging to encourage workplace values like
teamwork, punctuality, safety, and loyalty. Today, some of his 350 designs can be seen in
traveling exhibitions and
poster galleries, and
Antiques Road Show - or you can soak up some motivation from his modern-day successors at
Successories - or
generate your own.
[more inside]
posted by Miko
on Oct 12, 2010 -
25 comments
At ComiCon 2009, comedian Paul Scheer stood up during the LOST panel and introduced
Damon, Carlton, and a Polar Bear, a painting on black velvet of the two head writers/executive producers of LOST with a friendly polar bear, as well as a
website that turned into an almost five month scavenger hunt/Fan appreciation event, where fans were given the opportunity to purchase 16 LOST-inspired posters commissioned by artists such as
Daniel Danger,
Dan McCarthy and
Olly Moss.
The
hub page, which has been updating with clues since the beginning of August, has brought out fans from Tokyo, Argentina, Arizona, Honolulu, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Glasgow to events where the URL to purchase these prints (300 limited editions, less than 200 for sale) has been given out.
LOSTArgs has been following the action since the beginning.
Tomorrow, the LOST Underground Art project wraps up with the reveal of the 16th poster (rumored to be a Season 6 spoiler), at the
Gallery 1988 art show in Los Angeles.
posted by roomthreeseventeen
on Dec 14, 2009 -
10 comments
"Pryde and I came across it one day in an old stable, on a sack of fodder. It is a good, hearty, old English name, and it appealed to us, so we adopted it immediately."
That's how
The Beggarstaffs, a short lived but influential paring of graphic designers, got their name.
[more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher
on Jun 16, 2009 -
9 comments
Peace and War in the 20th Century is an ambitious, in progress, massive assemblage of posters, photographs, propaganda, ephemera, letters, diaries, paintings, sketches, stories, letters, music and related items, from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The collection is international in scope. Some of the nodes lack content, and the navigation is a little confusing, so the jump I list some of my favourite case studies from their site.
[more inside]
posted by Rumple
on Jan 2, 2009 -
4 comments
Legendary artist Alton Kelley created a graphic style that rocked the world beginning in the psychedelic sixties. His
concert posters, logo designs, LP album covers, and fine art have forevermore defined that time.
Kelley passed away peacefully at home on Sunday, June 1, 2008 of complications from a long illness.
posted by terrapin
on Jun 2, 2008 -
18 comments
FillCell is a sort of graffiti wall of mini-posters drawn with very simple tools (to impressive effect, in some cases). Flash - drag the background to see more of the wall.
posted by Wolfdog
on Jan 4, 2008 -
1 comment
The Color of Top Grossing Movies. A movie’s theatrical poster is only a very small part of the larger marketing and hype machine that turns movies into spectacular blockbusters, but as part of a whole, they are fairly representative of the “image” of any given movie. So, as an exercise in color trends, and to see if any significant pattern emerged, I decided to break down the colors of 25 posters — the top 5 of each MPAA category.
posted by brain_drain
on Sep 12, 2007 -
35 comments
Winners of an international poster competition to raise awareness about prostitution (probably
NSFW).
Quanto "
wants to arouse new reflections to bring forward a topic that tends more and more to hide and become unconspicuous,"
by "attempting to explore the meaning of the word "prostitution" both from a moral and a sexual standpoint."
200 more entrants.
the via is also teh NSFW .
posted by Rumple
on Nov 20, 2006 -
26 comments
Underground Wonderland The RISD Museum is hosting a
retrospective of Providence's DIY marketing approach to underground shows. The exhibit, with every wall plastered from floor to ceiling, feels like a time-capsule.
Fort Thunder and its associated bands has been mentioned here on the blue before, but the sense of community that comes through, and which still runs through Providence's subcultures thanks to individuals like
Ryan Lesser and his "Lots of Noise" site deserves yet another post. Be sure to check out the Lots of Noise image and photo gallery for more fun stuff. (No direct links, sorry!)
posted by stagewhisper
on Oct 9, 2006 -
7 comments
This Gallery of Posters from Exploitation Movies is far too brief, but is still better than not having ANY exploitation movie posters. Apparently the gallery is just a teaser for an exhibit & a book.
posted by jonson
on Sep 14, 2005 -
9 comments
Page after page of late 50s/early 60s pop posters, advertisements and more, designed by the studio of
Lefor-Openo,
which consisted of Marie-Claire Lefort and Marie-Francine Oppeneau.
Via Papel Continuo
posted by iconomy
on Jun 29, 2005 -
6 comments
Freedom on the Fence: The Polish Poster. While we're at it:
The history and culture of the Polish poster and an analysis of
American Films in Polish Posters. Or, if you'd prefer,
The Classic Polish Film Poster database (where the
Disney/Children's film posters are quite lovely). Also,
The Wallace Library at the Rochester Institute of Technology has a fantastic searchable and browse-able database, with many hi-res images. Finally, some other
Polish Poster Galleries. (What's that? You want more? You want artist-specific galleries? Okay. Here's work by Mieczyslaw Gorowski, Piotr Kunce, Wieslaw Walkuski, and Jan Sawka. Oh, you wanted Communist-era Polish propaganda posters? Fine. Here ya go.) [previous MeFi discussion on Polish film posters; also, some of the images from these links may be NSFW, depending on how S your W environment is.]
posted by .kobayashi.
on Mar 13, 2005 -
10 comments
We all seem to know
about
Gary Panter: set designer
for
Pee-Wee's
play house and author of the
JIMBO
comics. His site archives an increasing radius: see his
comics, for instance,
some Jimbo covers:
1,
2, 3.
Or his
custom
drawings, which are done based on one to three words you supply. The ink drawings:
1,
2, 3
and the
sketchbooks
are nice, too:
1,
2, 3,
4.
Seems like he's everywhere: writing on his
blog
or that oft remembered
manifesto,
sometimes
being
taught or
written
about. And, as connective tissue, his
Screamers
design is one of the more well regarded punk images out there. When I think
of Panter, I also think of
Raymond
Pettibon, brother
of
Greg
Ginn (Black Flag/SST). Featured in
PBS
ART 21 (check out the multi-media), his work graced numerous
Black Flag and
Minutemen
album covers and
flyers.
Zines
also played an early role in his development.
Mike
Watt's own
Hootpage documents some of
Ray's
art from the summer of 2003. Known for his
interplay
of
image
and
word,
some
pieces
seem to be in
process,
but
all
are
still
striking.
More
pieces can
be seen
at tractor.com. When I think of Pettibon, I sometimes think of
Art
Chantry. His
posters
(
1, 2,
3, 4,
5, 6,
7) are
inspirational
and his
logos
ain't too shabby either. Mr. Chantry has been known to
debate
the rise and fall
of rock and roll graphic design,
speak
up on issues of the state of
graphic
design today (as well as
Seattle).
Some people can't
surf, indeed.
posted by safetyfork
on Feb 18, 2005 -
30 comments
