The original link to this video is [here], the video you’re seeing there is under our account with a blanked out name to keep it secret and keep it safe should the squares ever come hunting for our friend 17. Dance in glorious concentric circles and walk backwards immensely, friends!

Perchance you’ve heard of the Talking Heads, band headed by David Byrne. Perhaps you’ve been to a live show of theirs, and thusly know of the magical nature in which it’s been known to unfold. Designer Olli Hannonen knows of this, and for a live album’s created a lovely cover encircling the essence of a specific show in which each song of the show is revealed in layers. Titled “Stop Making Sense” and colored in the warmth of the earth.

There’s a magical marriage between the square of the record sleeve and the circle of the vinyl. Take a journey through the major, memorable, and most iconic sleeves in history and you’ll note a big cross section of that same square/circle, and not just in the old ones worn through from infinite plays.

This is magical and sensual. Sassy and infographictastic.

Words from Hannonen on the project:

Infographics for a Talking Heads live show. Every circle represents a different song. The show starts with only David Byrne, the lead singer, with guitar on stage. During the next songs the rest of the band comes on stage and the show grows into a spectacle. Shortlisted in Vuoden Huiput (annual award for the best Finnish graphic design and advertising), in young creatives series.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies album art category.

Photographer / filmmaker / designer Alaric King presents a new way to hold a soon-to-be-extinct media by placing it in an inextinguishable* source of energy, shelter, and food: wood. Designed in Photoshop and AutoCAD, machined and cut using a 3D chisel, finished by hand with beeswax.

The only reason I say inextinguishable is because of Alan Weisman and his book The World Without Us, a scientific look at the possibility of no more human beings. This notion was also basically lifted up, turned around, and renamed “Life After People” by the History channel which released it as a multi-episode 3D animated television series. In a class I had in college about global design, we watched it and renamed it “Buildings Falling Down” since that’s basically the gist.

If we don’t destroy the world first, after we’re gone it’ll all go back to business as usual eventually. All the monkeys and birds in the towers, then no towers, then all green.

Does this cd case speak to that reality? Idunno. It does speak to the idea that CD cases were never a healthy art form. The only way you’ll ever compare to the magnificence of the 12″ vinyl album cover is to make the tiny CD cover into something as fantastic as this. Materials, details, feel and smell. Such a nice thing to behold and beheld.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies CD covers category.

And so, BlackOsprey shall be at a place with a bunch of works. Aaron Horkey makes ultra amazing fantastic works of magnificence. He’s the most insanely wonderful detail oriented illustrator I know about, and he’s got this show coming up. It’s at Remick Gallery in Windom Minnesota and the opening night is on September 12th 2010. It’s totally free and there’s refreshments. Dranks. It’s from 2-4PM which means it’s more of an Opening Afternoon sort of situation, which is more than totally appropriate for his excellent works.

Below you’re going to see a small cross-section of Horkey works for you to sink your eyeballs into. Above you’ll see the poster made for this new solo show, all made of swooshing and swishing letters, and nothing else. Hard.

Associated act: Burlesque Design.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies illustration category.

This lady, this lady named Lady Gaga, she is releasing a remix album. First she had a new-god-level selling debut album, then she made an EP, now there’s this sort of “greatest hits” remix album. Since there’ve been countless remixes of her work already before this studio-approved one, I had to take a tiny dig at it. And while I was at it, I saved the psd file for you so you could too. All of that’s below.

The font that’s used on this cover, this cover being the UK version of “The Remix”, is Trade Gothic Bold No. 2, or something similar to it. Ram some fonts in there, see what comes out.

Download the photoshop file – wfdj_ladygaga_theremix_photoshop.psd and remix it yourself. Probably you’ve gotta also find that Trade Gothic font too if you don’t already own it. Then also take a peek in the tiny gallery below for the original and the blank copy. That one is also made for lovin you.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies album art category.

Master of oddities Michael Gaughan had an amazing idea. He said to himself, “self, you know that movie Spinal Tap and how in the movie they never produce the original artwork for the album Smell the Glove? You should have an art show about that.” And thus he initiated it. To be held at the relatively new (1 or 2 shows deep so far, max) CO Exhibitions gallery in NE Minneapolis.* This show is to be known as the “Smell The Glove” show and is completely open for submissions. That’s hot. That’s amazing. There’s going to be so many submissions that it’ll be a stench of glove by the time the doors open.

*This location is literally one floor above Burlesque of North America and First Ammendment art gallery. Read these words written by Mike of Burlesque Design:

CO Exhibitions is located at 1101 Stinson Blvd at the corner of Broadway & Stinson in beautiful and historic Northeast Minneapolis. We are open weekdays 12-5pm and admission is always free.

The actual show is going to have a screening of Spinal Tap, a Spinal Tap cover band performing, and will have surprises! I hope the surprises include asparagus like the last CO show, I saw they had some in the pics from the show.

Love to eat that stuff! It’s so smelly.

SUBMISSIONS
If you’d like to see yourself be a part of this show, you can submit your own work!
Deadline – July 15th, 2010
To be mailed or dropped off at

ATTN Michael Gaughan / Smell the Glove
CO EXHIBITIONS
1101 Stinson Blvd
#12
Minneapolis, MN
55413

Medium: whatever you’d like. Any doubt, contact Michael or one of the fine folks at Burlesque and I’m sure they’ll set you straight.

SMELL THE GLOVE
Opening party Aug 7th, 2010
7-10PM
Spinal Tap cover band, movie screening, and surprises
CO EXHIBITIONS
1101 Stinson Blvd
(at the corner of Broadway and Stinson)

Michael Gaughan has several internet connections: first, check his youtube channel out at michaelgaughanicerod, then go over to his hot online portfolio of magic and paint. Then if you want to contact him, michael.gaughan@gmail.com is his email.

NOTE: Michael Gaughan graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the same place I graduated from. You know what that means? It means he rocks, and it’s basically like we’ve go the same blood. But he has more rock and roll in his soul. I don’t go around saying that about just anybody.

DOUBLE NOTE: One of the greatest things MG has ever done is make a band with his sister, a band which you may have heard of: “Brother and Sister.” I once saw them perform at the Minneapolis College of Art and design with a candy guitar – during the set, MG asked people to come up to the stage and lick the guitar as he played it. The entire situation was magnificent. If that’s any indication of what’s to come, expect greatness. The kind of greatness that only comes around every once in a while. Believe that.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies album art category.

So graphic design and poster printing team Aesthetic Apparatus is ten years old. …wait a second, weren’t they ten years old LAST YEAR? Yes, yes they were. That’s why there’s an exhibition at the MCAD gallery here in Minneapolis that’s going by the name “AAXI: A DECADE OF AESTHETIC APPARATUS, ONE YEAR LATE.” View MCAD-approved photos of the opening night below.

Words from AA/MCAD about what’s going on here:

The distinctive, hand-printed concert posters of Aesthetic Apparatus duo Dan Ibarra and Michael Byzewski have garnered international acclaim since 1998. In 2002, Aesthetic Apparatus became a full-fledged, award-winning studio, completing a spectrum of design projects in addition to the posters they loved to produce. “Aesthetic Apparatus: 10 Years, 1 Year Late” showcases their many treasured “artifacts” from the past 10 years as well as a collection of their acclaimed work.

Ibarra and Byzewsk have created for such clients as Blue Q, Stella Artois, Harper Collins, The Economist, and Criterion Collection and for such bands as Cake, Frank Black, Spoon, The Hold Steady, The New Pornographers, Dinosaur Jr., and Grizzly Bear. Their work has been featured in Print, Step Into Design, Communication Arts, Creative Review, HOW, Rolling Stone, Swindle, Jane, and ReadyMade Magazine, along with heavy handfuls of design book publications and the rock poster bible The Art of Modern Rock.

Start Time: Friday, May 28, 2010 at 6:00pm
End Time: Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 6:00pm
Location: Minneapolis College of Art And Design – Main Gallery
Street: 2501 Stevens Avenue
City/Town: Minneapolis, MN

Ohh and there’s an audio guide! I wish there were an audio guide for every big (and tiny) event I attend in my life. Think of the possibilities!

AAXI: Ten Years of Aesthetic Apparatus audio tour available for download here: www.aestheticapparatus.com/AAXI.zip

Slap it onto yer MP3 player and bring it to the event!

OR

Call 612.435.3316 to listen to the audio at the event!

OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY MAY 28TH 2010 • 6PM • MCAD MAIN GALLERY

Below you’ll find a small collection of photos taken by MCAD photographer Amalia Nicholson on the night of the opening. Highlights: the big moosey, original hand-written business plan (not pictured), and the big huge GIANT wall of prints – one that goes up several stories into the school.

Go cheque it out!

BONUS: Also included below (first in the gallery) is the postcard used to call the city in to have a nice opening party. It uses a nice photo of the fellows also shown in the show.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies celebration category.

Since the dawn of highschool there’ve been attempts by people enflamed by the art that affects them to show their love for it. Often this sort of thing disappears. It’s written on a desk, or now blogged and re-blogged, and it fades out. Of course the source, the music, that stays strong. Even the weakest song is still a song, a recording of that song or an orally passed down tradition, songs are rare to be fading. But then there’s the rarity: the strong second step. Designer Mico Toledo has taken that step, and done it in a way that sticks. For that extra amount of time sticking that makes it into a lovely design masterpiece, or set of masterpieces that will ring true into the future.

This project is called “Music Philosophy” and it is a rather excellent clash of brilliantly written lyrics and typography. Design of this caliber is often reserved for paying customers, but Toledo does this project as a hobby. The closest this project has come to the physical plane is some printed versions of the posters and a painting project on the wall of a friend’s apartment. Fab!

OH also there’s a t-shirt store.

To see more works by Mico Toledo, check out micotoledo flickr or email at micotoledo@gmail.com for requests for work. All designers like to feel loved!

BONUS: there’s another Cargo-Collective-esque collection site for these that I believe was made by Toledo too!

Lookin good chile!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies typography category.

Yays the fellow called Kaws, also known as Brian Donnelly is in this month’s edition (May 2010) of Interview Magazine. The cover has Madonna with a red painted cross on an image of her face. In celebration, it’s time for a master-blaster of Kaws-related pics. Blaster. Master. A collection right here and now, below, in no particular order, for the greater good of understanding the simplicity of his genius superstrokes. It’s all in the single line. The one that goes from fat to thin. Doubled up, placed on the face. Placed on the glove. Perfection.

You see the x x eyes? They are key. Elements to also look for are the teeth, the row of the teeth, and the sharp, black curved line. Outline. Below you’re going to find photos that span the whole art career of Kaws, from when he began spraying that name, “KAWS,” to now, when he’s doing very well for himself with his own brand and lots of artshows and toys and products. Everything a design-minded artist individual could want in this modern world.

If you love Kaws, and are unaware of how to find the continued works of him and his companies, take a look at this limited list. It’s super fabulous:
http://www.kawsone.com/blog/ Donnelly’s blog on Donnelly’s site.
http://blog.honeyee.com/kaws/ Donnelly’s blog on Honeyee’s site.
BBCIceCream Kaws tag archive at blog written by Pharrell Williams and crew.
http://fuckyeakaws.tumblr.com/ infinite updates of random KAWS images

Now take a hefty set of clickings through this vast* set. *Vast, yet limited, when compared to the true group of Kaws creations that are in the world. Variations on a theme, and hundreds and hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. At least hundreds of variations, thousands of items. Domination of the street art conscious world. This planet anyway.

Peeks!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies celebritarianism category.

Here at this headquarters for fabulous artifacts and non-facts and ideas we like to call World Famous Design Junkies, there is a great big love for the continued proliferation of the pop symbol bangin’ Mickey Mouse. You know who else feels that way? Designer Todd Proctor. He’s part of an excellent breed of designer functioning in today’s world using his wits as well as his skills for arrangement. That’s how you get some sweet exposure. That’s how you get some sweet mula. Maybe.

Above and below you’ll see a couple Mickeys and a whole lotta other amazing things. Lots of digital work here, but in the spirit of antiquity*, you can feel that Proctor’s payed his dues. He’s payed the cost to be a pixel boss. *And you know when I say antiquity I’m speaking of the absurd notion that analog design is passe. One cannot become a skillful designer without the ability to draw pictures in sand.

These images make Todd Proctor “internet famous.” But take a peek and see, many of them have reached fruition unto the physical realm of our real world. Our real world where, of course, it is at. You get born there, you die there, and if you’ve never printed or seen print the ink to a piece of paper the poster you’ve designed, I dare you to die a satisfied individual. I say thee nay! Dirty hands made these.

Devour these works by Todd Proctor and check him out on his own network or contact him and hire him directly, you lucky dog, at: Email:todd@toddproctordesign.com or Phone: 0414 452 284 or Skype: Todd777

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies deconstruction category.

For this occasion I’ve got to offer up this modified/chopped version of words from poet W. H. Auden: “Silence the pianos and with muffled drum. Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead. Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead. The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood. For nothing now can ever come to any good.” Truly it is an epic moment for the artist who brought us decades of undeniably epic fantasy art, Frank Frazetta, is dead.

This man was a fantasy artist, completely and utterly. He painted and drew, illustrations that cannot be touched now or then or anytime. He worked on cover art for novels, comic books inside and out, movie posters, album covers, and every sort of painting small and large for the sale to the rich.

This past November, a cover art painting he did for Conan the Conquerer sold to an unnamed collector for $1million bucks. This was such big news that WIRED had a flip-out session about it. He did the utterly wild covers of Molly Hatchet albums, covers and insides of Vampirella, and yes, yes! the movie poster for Beastmaster. Plus a whole big batch, nest, mountain of other works.

I only mention the Beastmaster poster because it’s mentioned in the forever-classic graffiti film Style Wars. Frank Frazetta was an influence to shitloads of people, the readers of the fantasy novels he covered to the graffiti artists in this film. Dig it:

Now I’m not going to say much more about the man here, I’ll let his images do the rocking, but just so you know, he died on May 10 in Fort Myers, Fla, and he lived to be 82 years old. Also here I’d like to thank my main homie johnstonamerica for alerting me and the rest of thegiant crew to Frazetta’s passing.

Now devour his greatness!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies ancient category.

The following is a collection of photos as shot by John, Pubes, and Roam, all of them from the Obey Giant Clothing Line. I’ve included here the shots of early in the day and during the show, but purposely left out the after-party shots so you could go check them out at the post they have going on the official Obey Clothing blog. Look at this madness! A million billion people showed up for this masterworks show by Shepard Fairey. Rumors said there’d only be a set of large portrait canvasses, but BANG! There’s just so much more than that. Album covers, rubyliths, retired stencils, giant canvasses, small, medium, invisible, everything!

Best show ever. Of all time. You’ll maybe want to also take a look at the Shepard Fairey archive we’ve got going here on WFDJ if you’d like more info on the show, as this is just the actual event itself.

And if you happened to be there and got some shots, please feel free to send em on over or point us in the right direction, as all the coverage in the world is never enough!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies event category.

Dear internets. While everyone basically in the whole of these nets see the video and videos of the group of two rappers and a DJ Hi-Tek, that group called Die Antwoord, let us not forget the other half. Yes, in the brilliance, the flasher of lights, the one who captured the first glimpses of these new-world visionaries, that man! His name is Sean Metelerkamp and he brought and is bringing it to your faces. He both took the photos and shot the videos that made you first see Die Antwoord, and he too, is a brilliant mind contributing to society 12x the internets that anyone else is.

So what’ve we got here, this video, first, is sort of the bigtime Antwoord promo video using their song Zef Side (which is much longer than the video suggests), this video was directed by Metelerkamp:

That’s the only video I know for sure is made by him, then there’s these photos, which, when I first tried to find any information on this crew, these photos were the only things on these interwebs. They are fantastic. Word is that when Antwoord were starting to get serious about getting recognized wordwide, which is I’m pretty sure the same time they basically started thinking about recording an album, they called up Metelerkamp who had just won some award for photographing other South-African cultural photographies. And he said yes, and these photos popped up!

Good news though, apparently, I read in one interview I don’t remember where, I read it today, that he’s gotten international calls for photos and such since Antwoord sort of blew up, all at the same time. So hooray Metelerkamp!

BONUS: Check out this amazing zone for fans of this group. The official site for Antwoord makes them look totally official: [http://dieantwoord.com/]. And oh my god they just signed with Interscope Records.

Look at this weird stuff going on! These photos represent the people in the musical group: vocalist NINJA, vocalist Yo-Landi Fi$$a, and DJ Hi-Tek.

Drop da beat box dogg.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies bad-taste category.

Oh my crap look at this awesome stuff. This guy right here Bill McMullen had a show from Feb 21st 2009 to March 28th 2009 and bam, if it weren’t just what you never expected to be there, but a genuine R2-D2 boombox. Does that sound familiar to you? It does to me, pal, it does to me hella familiar if I do say so myself. If you know what I’m talking about, you know I’m talking about the R2-D2 boombox that’s still on the World Famous Design Junkies front page as we speak! It’s a dead ringer for the one in this art show, and this is the perfect time to talk about it at the same time as talking about IT!

The show you’re looking at is the Hype Hustle Rip-Off by Bill McMullen, one that’s taken place around a full year ago.

The thing we just reported on a few days ago was a shirt design called Recycled Future.

Take that how you will.

At the same time though, let’s check out this show that happened, and totally get into Bill McMullen because his artworks are pretty fly.

Hype Hustle Rip-Off
Constant Gallery
Los Angeles, California
February 21st – March 28th 2009
[Gallery Info]

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies custom culture category.

Emek is a man. Emek is a poster man. Emek is an illustrator, graphic designer, squeegee pulling, printmaking, sort of dude, and he works with and on amazing projects from here to Badu. Below lets devour the magical mysteries that are the Emek rock and roll poster extravaganza, since that is his claim to fame, and let us reflect on the majesty of the process, from original illustration and hand-written letters to screen to hand-pulled inks.

Emek makes big posters. I mean gigantic. I don’t mean physically large, I mean more like, oh, filled with majesty. He explores not only the depths of his pallet, but his pallet as well. He strives as much to print new as he does to print well. He’s done many methods, and he’s done many mans. The alphabet of posters, the alphabet of artists.

A moment of his time, from his manifesto:

“I appreciate the flexibility this medium allows me because the bands generally give me total creative freedom (as long as I include the show info). I am allowed to dip into the recesses of my own imagination and see what spills out onto the page. I am my own art director so I can experiment with different concepts and styles to keep things fresh. Today’s disposable culture paves the way for tomorrow’s collectible nostalgia… I’m just trying to keep it interesting.”

And you know where he dances on that.

Come, click away with me into this ocean of ink. Come, click away with me, though this sea of pixels. Come, click away with me, and glue your eyes to this.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies celebritarianism category.

You know that terrible feeling you get when spring comes and everyone is all happy but you’re kinda bummed out because you can’t wear your big ugly boots anymore? That’s like kinda sorta the opposite feeling people who garage sale get. The garage sale people (and me, I’m one of them) get really pumped up. They go get their cup of quarters, their fanny packs, their walking shoes, visors, and maybe even their water bottle ready. They have all this stuff ready, and they get out there, and they buy stuff. They buy stuff they might never have ever thought about needing, and they pay 10 cents for it. The photo set you’re about to lay your eyeballs on is called “!GARAGE SALE!”, taken by Caroline Palla.

Photographer Caroline Palla had a hankering. A hankering for a journey of weird proportions. So where did she go? To AMERICA. Yes! Perhaps you’ve heard of the epic 127 Corridor Sale, the one that runs through the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama? Yes, she went there.

*I realize that “To AMERICA” doesn’t make much sense to the majority of WFDJ readers, so I think mentioning that artist Caroline Palla comes straight outta Zurich, Switzerland.

Read this mission statement, it’s excellent!

Garage sales are part of a do-it-yourself-culture, where people help themselves and create a parallel economy. My work traces this otherwise unmapped trade and reflects on the ever-changing value of objects under given circumstances. I create a document of every item before letting it re-enter the commodity circuit through my own garage sales/exhibitions, using a scanner or a camera. As the project progresses, other materials such as sales receipts, invitation cards, polaroids, texts and more documents are added to create a snowball effect. Each garage sale generates new material for an ever-growing image database.

The photos you’re delighting yourself in looking at here are only a small portion of the 120 photos in the !GARAGE SALE! extended set. Will we ever see all of them all? Please miss Carolina Palla please, oh yes, that would be amazing. Some gallery! I am looking in your direction.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies rummage sale category.

Let’s talk about copying for a moment. Ripping off someone else’s hard work, and using it as one’s own. Let’s start by me saying that I basically have a hard time taking anyone seriously who says they’ve not been properly credited in these modern times. I don’t believe for a moment that any one person is qualified enough to explore a single idea to the fullest. I believe in the sharing and free distribution of ideas, and the idea that once an idea is freed into the world, it is free. For the betterment of the idea. The following set of images (and the one above) were found and set up by designer / artist / internet person / retired design professor Bob Caruthers.

Above: Nikolay Petrovich Prusakov (1929); Elizabeth Ackerman (1999)

Step back naw yall, things might be getting messy. What’s the great thing about this internet age? The open market, one where you can get your works made into wonderful creations like prints, computer cases, shoes, stickers, carvings, hamburger stamps, basically anything! What’s the bad thing? It’s a lot easier for your ideas to be released before you want them to be. And then you know what happens. Tumblr, ffffound, and dropular.

Einstein once said, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

The pairs of images in this set are similar in one way or another. Some are more similar than others and some are just SIMILAR without being influenced by the other.

They are presented for no other reason than to shed some light on the creative process.

-BCaruthers

Catuthers has also been so kind as to put all of these images up on flickr so that you might interact with them that way if you wish. I’m certain I’ll be throwing several of these up on the WFDJ tumblr too, spread the love!

IMPORTANT NOTE: this post and its contents are being discussed heavily over at GigPosters.com – I encourage everyone to join in.

And while you do it, think about how far away these similarities are from one another, then think about how far they are from the obvious go-tos like Andy Warhol and Shepard Fairey (who, incidentally, is on this list already,) then think about if the cave dude who first wrote on the wall with dung “HEY, that is MY idea, don’t you DARE write on the wall with dung.”

Bang. No modern world.

BONUS: if you look carefully, you’ll notice several works here from designer Paul Gardener of Flora Fauna, whom we covered in [March on Thru, Flora Fauna]

Movie Poster (1965); Concert Poster (2010)

Designer Unknown (c. 1940s); Music Promotion (2008)

Space Stamp (1961); Concert Poster (2010)

Chinese Propaganda Poster (ND); Concert Poster (2010)

Stamp (1960); Concert Poster (2010)

Concert Posters (2007); (2009)

Halftonedef.com (2007); Jonathan Harper (2008)

Frederick George Cooper (1918); Concert Poster (2009);

Pelican Ink Ad Art (ND); Biking Poster (2009)

Otto Treumann (1962); Political Poster (2008)

Yusaku Kamekura (c.1975); Concert Poster (2009)

Lanny Sommese (1987); Ignition Print (2009)

R. Deutch (nd); Felix Sockwell (2009)

Concert Poster (2009); Stefan Kanchev’s Operetta State Theater Logo (1969)

Ellen McFadden (1968); Designer Unknown (2007)

Jim Datz (nd); Concert Poster (2009)

Concert Poster (2009); Advertisement (1965)

Bob Gill (1962); Concert Poster (2009)

Robert Lachenmann (1937); Concert Poster (2009)

Solve Sundsbo (2008); Concert Poster (2009)

Josef Muller-Brockmann (1960); Shepard Fairey (2006)

Czechoslovakian Matchbox Label (1950s-60s); Concert Poster (2009)

Hatch Show Print (1944); Concert Poster (2008)

Abram Games Poster (1956); Concert Poster (2008)

Saul Bass Movie Poster (1965); A Concert Poster (2003)

Le Chat Noir Poster (1880s); A Concert Poster (1996)

Russian Anti-Drinking Poster (left); A Concert Poster (2008)

Idea Magazine (1955); Concert Poster (2008)

Maurin Quina Poster (1920); Concert Poster (2002)

Two Ben Shahn Illustrations (c. 1950s); A Hurricane Katrina Poster by Wink (2005)

Two Zwicky Cats by Donald Brun (1950); Concert Poster (2004)

Clockers (1995); Movie Poster by Saul Bass (1959)

Original Ward Schumaker Illustration (date unknown); Concert Poster (2005)

A Pearl Jam Concert Poster (2006); Two E. McKnight Kauffer Posters (c.1919)

Aldo Calabresi’s Original Ad (1960); A Polish Poster (ND)

Lanny Sommese Poster (1987); Two Variations on the Theme (N/A)

Mad Magazine Cover (1974); Concert Flyer (1996)

Robert Miles Runyon Illustration (1961); Concert Poster (2003)

Ikko Tanaka Poster (1958); Concert Poster (1998)

Concert Poster (2007); Goscie Poster (1973)

Japan Air (1924); Concert Poster (2001)

Jerry Smath Illustration (1961); Concert Poster (2008)

Waldemar Swierzy Poster (1973); Concert Poster (2001)

Funny Girl Playbill (c. 1964); Concert Poster (2008)

Tadashi Ohashi Exhibition Poster (1970s); Concert Poster (2001)

Faustino Perez Poster (1968); Arab League Poster (2007)

“Ruth the Acrobat Carnival” Poster (1941); and a Concert Poster (2008)

At the bottom here I’d like to once again mention that these matchups (most of them, all of them) were researched and connected by Bob Caruthers. This very cool man is a retired Professor of Graphic Design at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. Born and raised in Greenwood, Mississippi.

Big props to him, and I hope this project is continued both for those people who consider it a crime AND those who consider it part of the building process.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies deconstruction category.

Let us now devour the poster works of Minneapolis design team LandLand. They’ve made it their mission to toss out the traditions of rock postermaking and act on instinct. The use the Force. But tossing out that tradition doesn’t mean tossing out the tenants of design and good artmaking. These skills are high and present up on this collection of masterpieces. Look for yourself at a few of em, then take a trip to Minneapolis, rock capitol of the world!

Below you’ll find the following:

The Swell Season (w/ Rachael Yamagata) at the Pageant in St. Louis, Missouri.
Info: 5-color screenprint on 100# French cover stock • 19″ x 25″ • Signed & numbered edition of 225
Illustration/Design: Dan Black
Watercolor: Jessica Seamans

Built to Spill at First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minn.
Info: 4-color screenprint on 100# French cover stock • 25″ x 19″ • Signed & numbered edition of 100
Illustration/Design: Dan Black (PICTURED ABOVE)

Cursive w/ the Berg Sans Nipple at First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN
Info: 3-color screenprint on 80# cover stock • 19″ x 25″ • Signed & numbered edition of 80
Illustration/Design: Dan Black

France Has the Bomb 7″ Record release show at the Hexagon Bar in Minneapolis, MN
Info: 3-color screenprint on 80# French cover stock • 18″ x 24″ • Signed & numbered edition of xx
Illustration/Design: Dan Black

Check out the green Cursive poster – I and my gal went to that show and stole one of these posters off the wall. It was at First Avenue in Minneapolis. It’s been MONTHS since that show, and I just figured out who did the poster now. Wild stuff, yes?

These peeps are located at their site at http://landland.net/ If and when you go there, you can check out some older posters (the ones in this post are amongst the newest). I recommend them highly on especial account of their great inks application.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies music category.

Oh my goodness I thought the age was complete! I say now nay! The Gorillaz continue on! Five years after their last LP album comes this thing called Plastic Beach, in reference to the terrifying pollution-made floating islands in the ocean. Hope you know about those. Today’s the day the first song gets leaked to the internets. This first single song is called “Stylo” and features the same lead singer as before*, featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack. Pump it on up! See below and above for the music you set your eyes to!

The album releases March 9th. This track’s released by Murdoc himself (one of the fictional characters in the band and the band’s official soundman.) It’s always a lovely thing when Mos Def sings, but it’s a fantastic present from the music gods that Bobby Womack decided to grace the world with his voice again!

Everyone should own both the albums below, I say without having heard the Gorillaz one. The other is an album by Womack called “Communication.” Go to a flea market or a record store and find it for a dollar and own it forever.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies blessings category.

The Moldy Peaches are a group that sings lovely music in a very raw way. They sing simple songs, about very average and fabulous things. Sometimes with swearing, sometimes for childrens. And all of it wonderful. What we’ve got here is a full-hilt design for an album and world tour for the Moldy Peaches called Fruits in the Back Yard – New in the Neighborhood. Designed by superstar Petita Pou for Kimya Dawson and Adam Green.

This would will would will be fabulous. Advertisements on trash bags and tire swings, cd albums with the peach. Nice little peaches with peaches on the shirts. Shirts and shirts and shirts! World tour in a trailer house. Who wouldn’t want to get to there? Noone. That’s who!

For an example of the crowd and music these two tend to, here’s a short video of a cover of one of Kimya’s songs “Little Panda Bear” by my friend Betsey.

Sounds great doesn’t it? Now look through the gallery to see the whole project, piece by piece, peach by peach. Can’t wait for the new old peaches!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies environment category.

The stash is here. Cliff Chiang‘s sent us in a box of fabulous flats. Prints from the streets of comicdom. Everything we need to start our insane Cliff Chiang collection! First, a set of Atomic Bombshells postcard-sized prints. Then, an insanely colorful signed print of the whole gang from Dr. Thirteen: Architecture and Mortality (fear the Nazi ape.) Next, two more brilliant prints: Batman over Gotham and a totally bad warrior woman battling a minotaur that even if you don’t recognize, you’ll have to love. And the crowning jewels: prints of both the Electra/Flashdance record cover AND my favorite Batgirl/Purple Rain.

Holy crap these are fantastic.

If you’ll remember right, you’ll know we covered the 12″ series a few days ago, and it promptly exploded all over the internets face. [Batgirl Is Now Prince]

Now check them, and the friggin rest of the riggin in the gallery below. Notice the most excellent printing on these prints. I’m a screenprint man, so I’m pretty harsh on the giclée prints, but these, these, holy crap they are finely done. They’re bright, they’re correct (the colors are very TRUE), and the quality is quite fine. The Batman and the Minotaur prints both have a chop, which ads a whole other level of quality.

Makes them look real pro, if you know what I mean.

A “chop” is sort of like a stamp, but instead of laying down ink, it’s got two parts, both metal, that when pressed together on paper, make a 3D mark. The paper is pushed outward in whatever design the artist has chosen. In this case, it’s Chiang’s box signature. Super!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies printing category.

Let me tell you about science manual books. Science manual books are manuals full of science related materials and science related illustrations. Most of the illustrations in science manuals are line-drawings. Since the illustrations in science manuals are line drawings, and on the whole, look basically the same, they’re very viable for super-simple collage. Super-simple collage is what’s going on right here! Super weird compositions by design entity known as Culprit Tech. Main member/illustrator: Matt Pattinson.

The gallery at the bottom contains images from the newest show.

Culprit Tech has been making amalgamations such as the ones found in this post since December 2007. What Culprit Tech does is to create collage works out of old science magazines and books and all that lovely stuff, take those collages and animate them, finally adding music by musician Mammal live!

Culprit Tech’s most recent show was just this November at Analogue Books, their next will be sometime in the next two months! The video below is an example of what you’ll see at a live show, projected on a screen, the music live.

Pictures from the November show on the flicker of [Virtualv]

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies deconstruction category.

Sometimes you need to design a mark for a Finnish Heavy Metal band. Well you know that the greatest heavy metal logos of all time look basically the same. Metallica and Judas Priest, Slayer and AC/DC, and of course KISS. Look at them all. All basically totally the same. Sharp and shiny, a 3D version and a flatfaced version. And today we’ve got RECKLESS LOVE by designer/artist James White.

Now this sort of madness is simple to do once you’ve got a nice typography set in place, but you’ve got to know that the type is vital. The type is like the metal in heavy metal. If you don’t have the metal, all you’ve got is the heavy – and then you’re Marty.

This band we’re talking about here is Reckless Love. It’s reckless.

Olli (the lead singer) and I started hammering through the logo style, which went through a few different versions before we settled on the final design. We both wanted something big, like Metallica or Judas Priest, but still captured the fun of the group’s sound. I posted a few of the different iterations above to show how the process went, from the stripped down vectors to the final renders. As for the cover of the single they wanted something bright and colorful, which I was happy to hear ’80s metal goodness.

Check all the different iterations below and decide if you can see the one that’s final. Hint: it’s the one at the top.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies Album Art category.

Above and below are a couple examples of fabulous inspirations for the Reckless Love title mark design. Note that they’re from different ages in each of the bands’ histories, but they’re all part of the overarching identity.

Ohhh! So you like stuff made by Aesthetic Apparatus, huh? Is that what’s this is all about? Well! Then I guess we’ll just have to talk to The Decemberists, Tapes & Tapes, and Andrew Bird about this. Wont we? Yes. We will talk to them about how Aesthetic Apparatus is making stuff that’s just TOO GOOD for the public. Burn em up. All the 18×24 posters. All of em.

All of these are new poster prints from Minneapolis design duo Aesthetic Apparatus. We love them. WE LOVE THEM. And then they get posted by us. That’s what’s up.

THE DECEMBERISTS
w/Laura Veirs & The Hall of Flames

Another Decemberists poster, this time for a show in Minneapolis. Much like our previous offering , the imagery loosely references the band’s current album- Hazards of Love. Chock full of anguished lovers and fawn antlers! It’s sure to be a hit at your next poster viewing party! What are you waiting for? Get one for your wall today.

19″ x 25″
2 color screenprint (light blue, pink) on archival cream stock

THE DECEMBERISTS
w/Laura Veirs & The Hall of Flames

The Decemberists were nice enough to once again commission us to do a poster for them for their recent show in Lexington, Kentucky. Both The Decemberists and Lexington are lovely, yes? Why not commemorate their loveliness with a large piece of paper with bright colors on it? With it’s obscene, nature themed imagery this might not be the best print for a child’s room but perhaps dimly lit room or opium den.

19″ x 25″
3 color screenprint (light blue, orange, black) on archival cream stock

TAPES ‘N TAPES
Tour of The Twin Cities

Hometown band Tapes ‘n Tapes kicked off the Fall season with a little Tour of the Twin Cities playing some of the more recognizable venues in the area. Life’s been hectic around the studio lately so we didn’t make it to any of the shows but looks like the lovable Mayor of Monster Town paid another visit to Minnesota to check out all three nights. That guy really likes to party! In honor of 3 nights of rocking we’ve printed three color versions of the poster. Pick your favorite or collect them all!

19″ x 25″
2 color screenprint (red/blue OR orange/green OR purple/yellow) all on archival white stock.

ANDREW BIRD
(Janus Horn Silos)

Over 10 years of postermaking and this is our first Andrew Bird poster. How did that happen?! We have no answers as of yet but this is not the time to look into the past with regret. This is the time for the future, the future is now. RIGHT NOW! Embrace those around you that you love and tell them “My loved one! You have some popcorn stuck in your teeth!” Because there is no popcorn stuck in our teeth in the future!

19″ x 25″
3 color screenprint (light-blue / silver / red) on archival off-white stock

This post is from the World Famous Design Junkies Vintage category because that’s where all the graphics come from. They come from there, they’re twisted and flipped, and designed right there into the posters.

This duo of images is officially part of the “Hero” craze, they being the cover of a “collectable” case for DJ Hero’s Renegade Edition. Eminem and Jay-Z have tracks on this edition of the game, and they hired Studio Number One to whip up a lovely image of these two legendary music making faces. No word on if the images will be produced anywhere else but on the DJ Hero ephemera, but DO expect them to maybe make an appearance in some fine art in the future, as Shepard Fairey like to explore all options with images once he’s done the illustration work. Colors, mediums, rubyliths, everything and anything.

Below you’ll find an extended collection of the portraits Shepard Fairey’s done inside and outside the Obey Giant street art campaign. The portrait making of Shepard Fairey started all the way back in 1989 and continues till today. Some portraits have the person as the subject matter (like Jay and Eminem above, Joey Ramone and the Notorious B.I.G. below), while some others have the portrait “hidden” in the poster (the Pretty Vacant poster below has a portrait of musician Marc Bolan (source being a record album with him on the cover: T. Rex’s 1972 “Solid Gold Action.”)

Check em all out!

This post from the World Famous Design Junkies Celebritarianism category.

Marc Bolan and others on Pretty Vacant Posters

Joey Ramone and the Notorious BIG

Subcomandante Marcos and Tupac Shakur

Michael Jordan and Barack Obama

Huey Lewis and Jimi Hendrix

Oh my scary goodness! Misfits have been making records since before… well not quite as long as KISS, but still, pretty long! And here’s a new one. As nearly always, we’re in on the artwork part of it, and I’m gonna go right ahead and say this is pretty swanky. Full of zazz. The cover is painted / designed by a mister Arthyr Suydam of “Marvel Zombies” fame. Do you recognize the setup? BONUS: the release date is Halloween 2009.

Oh my goodness there’s no more room in Hell! This record has the first new “original” material from the Misfits band in 10+ years. The cover is done in direct homage to George Romero’s zombie legacy of movies, with a 100% genuine “Fiend Skull” on the neck of the underwater zombie.

If you’ve really gotta buy this thing then you’re gonna be in such a love with either version: red clear vinyl for the limited-edition LP, clear orange for the tour-only edition. All of these are on vinyl. Vinyl only. Or you can download them from … just steal them. Let’s me honest with eachother. Then buy the vinyl anyway.

This post slithered out of the World Famous Design Junkies grotesque category.