Koloman Moser
Posted on 07/06/11.
Koloman Moser (1868-1918) was an Austrian artist who exerted considerable influence on twentieth-century graphic art and one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement and a co-founder of Wiener Werkstätte. Beyond his graphic work for books, postage stamps and magazines, his designs in architecture, furniture, jewelry, and textiles helped characterize the work of this era. Moser drew upon the clean lines and repetitive motifs of classical Greek and Roman art and architecture in reaction to the Baroque decadence of his turn-of-the-century Viennese surroundings. In 1901/02, he published a portfolio of elegant graphic designs for tapestries, fabrics, and wallpaper entitled Die Quelle (“The Source”). Along with Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann, Koloman was one of the designers for Austria’s leading art journal Ver Sacrum.
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Julius Klinger
Posted on 07/06/11.
Julius Klinger (1876-1942) was an Austrian painter, draftsman, illustrator, commercial graphic artist, typographer and writer. In 1895, he found his first employment with the Vienna fashion magazine Wiener Mode. Here he became acquainted with Koloman Moser, who would later be his teacher. In 1897 he relocated to Berlin, where he worked extensively as a commercial graphic artist until 1915. Together with the printing house Hollerbaum und Schmidt, he developed a new style of functional poster design that soon gained him international reputation. Beginning in 1918, Klinger designed a comprehensive and noted campaign promoting the “Tabu” company’s cigarette rolling paper, that was advertised all over Vienna in 1918/19. Klinger devised a promotional strategy, spanning from small newspaper ads to huge billboards.
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Tom Eckersley
Posted on 15/04/11.
Tom Eckersley (1914-97) was an English artist and one of the foremost poster designers and graphic communicators of the twentieth century. In addition to poster making and book illustration he also produced magazine covers and logos. His designs often employed an abstract like quality and collage to convey their message, marring simple text and imagery to relay complex messages in a direct way. There is one of Eckersley’s Transport for London posters in the Wolfsonian, Miami Beach, at the moment. The use of bold colours and simplified form ties in with other posters on show, but the use of Helvetica rather than Johnston Sans gives a more neutral European look to the work.
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René Gruau
Posted on 06/04/11.
Renowned illustrator René Gruau (1909-2004), created some of the most iconic fashion images of the 20th century and influenced the graphic style of a whole generation of fashion illustrators. Gruau’s illustrations for his friend and long-time patron Christian Dior chart one of the most successful creative relationships of 20th century fashion. His bold lines and fluid style were perfectly in tune with the spirit of Dior, capturing the energy, elegance and audacity of the brand. Of his continuing dedication to silhouette and outline Gruau said that ‘with a single line we can express grandeur, nobility, sensuality, the line synthesises sensations and concentrates knowledge.’
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Tom Purvis
Posted on 01/04/11.
Tom Purvis (1888-1959) was a British painter and commercial poster artist. He studied at Camberwell School of Art and worked for six years at the advertising firm of Mather and Crowther before becoming a freelance designer. Purvis is best known for his bold, graphic, two-dimensional style. He used large blocks of vivid flat colour and eliminated detail. From 1923 to 1945 Purvis worked for the LNER under the direction of Advertising Manager William Teasdale and then his successor Charles Dandridge, who both allowed him considerable freedom in his designs. During his time at the LNER Purvis produced over 100 posters which avoided depictions of the trains themselves, instead portraying the resorts that were the holiday destinations of travellers and the leisure pursuits that could be enjoyed there. As well as his work for the LNER, Purvis also designed posters for the Gentlemans’ outfitters Austin Reed and for the 1932 British Industries Fair. We look forward to the Wolfsonian’s new exhibition Art for All: British Posters for Transport which will explore the evolution of transport posters in twentieth-century Britain, showcasing some of the world’s most recognizable images produced by the London Underground and the British Railways. On view through April 14 to August 14, 2011.
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Xavier Antin
Posted on 17/03/11.
London based Frenchman Xavier Antin’s Just in Time, or a Short History of Production is an installation that was used to produce a book with a print chain made of four desktop printers from different eras. Each of the four printers is set to print one of the four process colours, bringing small and large scale production together. The stencil duplicator from 1880 prints Magenta, the spirit duplicator from 1923 prints Cyan, the laser printer from 1969 prints Key, and the inkjet from 1976 prints Yellow. The images in the resulting book are stunning.
Link: http://www.xavierantin.fr/
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Catalogues for Rudi
Posted on 16/02/11.
Although Rudi has moved the majority of his business to the new online store he still needs printed catalogues for more established customers and to direct people to the website. For this we designed a format and templates that can be updated regularly. This is a one colour print, just process black with matching black staples as an added detail. 3 paper stocks were used; a cream uncoated for the interior, pale grey for the cover, and stone for the belly band. The belly band has a centred circle die cut to suggest an old record sleeve and the logo on the cover sits perfectly in the circle as would a record label.
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