I enjoyed printing up these 3-color posters for Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. Fun stuff.

See more in the posters section…

Good stuff.
We checked out the round barn of Arcadia, OK

then we had a $2.00 burger and a bottle of delicious root beer at Pops

then we wandered around the “riverwalk” and “Bricktown” in downtown OKC and stumbled across this guy:

ok. then, we went to a meeting at Untitled Artspace to talk about an upcoming project. While we were there we checked out the current exhibition by Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G STUFF. Seriously. When someone described this show to me, I thought “yeah, wahtever. It can’t be that great. It sounds like a Photoshop disaster waiting to happen.” Well, I was wrong. It was SEAMLESS.

From the Untitled Artspace website:

The works are from two recent series, the Apollo Prophecies and Eisbergfreistadt.

Kahn and Selesnick, Astronaut and Lunar Rover
© Kahn and Selesnick

The Apollo Prophecies proposes that the first U.S. astronauts to go to the moon discovered that a lost mission of Edwardian-era explorers had already colonized it. The narrative is woven together with large scale panoramic prints illustrating the expedition from beginning to end. Kahn and Selesnick have also created life size props and costumes to further document the story in a fabricated setting that blurs the line between eerily realistic and outlandishly make-believe.

Eisbergfreistadt is a fictional narrative inspired by an actual incident that took place in 1923 when a mommaoth iceburg ran aground in the Baltic port of Lubeck, Germany. As a result, many of the citizens believed the iceberg was a sign of the apocolypse. Kahn and Selesnick have taken this factual event and turned it into a what-if tale of a frozen social utopia that explores currency inflation, global warming, and end-of-world rhetoric. Large-scale panoramic photos, mixed-media drawings and prints, and an assortment of props from both series will be featured in this thought-provoking and entertaining exhibition.

Kahn and Selesnick, Three Musicians
© Kahn and Selesnick

Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick, born in New York City and London, respectively, have been collaborating since 1986. They have exhibited internationally, and their work is included in many notable collections including The Smithsonian Insititution, Addison Gallery of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Untitled Artspace is a non-profit contemporary arts center located in downtown Oklahoma City committed to stimulating new ideas and creative thought through contemporary art. Untitled Artspace is dedicated to providing access to quality exhibitions, educational programs, performances, and publications and to involving the community in collaborative outreach efforts. This exhibition is free and open to the public. For more information about Untitled Artspace or this exhibit, visit www.1ne3.org or call 405.815.9995.

For more information about the artists Kahn and Selesnick, visit their website.

Then we came home.

This awesome documentry about making rock posters has been in the making for a loooong time now. This trailer for it is HILARIOUS.


this is from OMGposters.com:

After making a brief run through the film festival circuit, “Died Young, Stayed Pretty” is finally available on DVD.  If you’re not familiar with this film, it’s a documentary about the current rock poster scene and it features a ton of great artists (Rob Jones, Tyler Stout, Jeff Kleinsmith, etc etc).  For a limited time, orders will include a free screenprinted poster by Steve Walters of Screwball Press.  Regardless of the mixed reviews,  at $25 shipped, this should be an easy purchase.  Visit DiedYoungStayedPretty.com.

…this takes things to the next level.
But I must say, this kind of attention to detail is inspiring.

In a nutshell, this is an obsessive collection of detailed instances of typefaces being used in historical movies in the wrong context. Either the typeface wasn’t actually used at that time, or even worse, wasn’t designed yet. OOPS.

Read about it here: Typecasting

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994, Warner Bros.). I’m a big fan of the Coen brothers’ movies and this is a favorite of mine. Typographically, though, their films are a mixed bag. One complication with critiquing the typography in this movie is that it’s difficult to say exactly what decade it’s supposed to be. According to the story, it’s set in the late fifties, but it often looks more like the forties, or even the thirties. Nevertheless, much of the typography is, at least technically, out of place. For the most part they’ve chosen typefaces that look the part but didn’t actually exist fifty years ago. A good example is the Hudsucker corporate logo which looks like it’s from the thirties or forties, but is actually set in Bodega Sans (1991).

Also used a lot in the film is Univers, a sans serif face that—although released in 1957—was not a common sight until the late sixties, especially for such a pedestrian use as a mechanical job board, for example.

Found via DesignObserver

“American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art” movie

American Artifact chronicles the rise of American rock poster art since its birth in the ’60s.

Director Merle Becker crosses the country interviewing rock poster artists from the different eras to discover that America is currently in the midst of a 21st century “rock poster art movement”, where thousands of artists around the country are doing silk screened rock poster art inspired by their local scene, the music of our time, and the spirit of our era.

The film features interviews with renown artists including Stanley Mouse, Victor Moscoso, Frank Kozik, Art Chantry, EMEK, Tara McPherson, Derek Hess, COOP, Jay Ryan, and more, as well as fans, collectors, and musicians.

Scheduled release for the film is June 20th, 2009.

(I stole this from Swiss Legacy)

Over at Amazon.com you can get a sneek peek at the innards of the new Gig Posters book that’s due out June 1. I’m all giddy and whatnot. This think looks great.

For the past week and a half or so, I’ve had a constant fever and migraine combo that is less than fun. If you are waiting on an email or other projects from me, this might explain why you haven’t heard from me. Hopefully I’ll get better. Someday.

I nearly drove off the road this morning when I heard a report on NPR that vindicated my years and years of doodling.

According to Jackie Andrade, a professor of psychology at the University of Plymouth, though many people assume that the brain is inactive when they’re bored, the reverse is actually true.

Also featured are the doodles of past (and current) presidents, and a short video interview with one of NPR’s science correspondants and her mountain of insane doodles.

Read/listen here

Here’s a doodle by LBJ.

The man that drew this was president of our country. Wow.