Gerry Anderson Stamps

How did I miss these fantastic Gerry Anderson “Supermarionation” stamps when Royal Mail issued them last Autumn and Winter! The series showcased some of his puppet based TV shows from the 1960s: Thunderbirds, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90. Royal Mail also issued a series of Thunderbirds stamps with lenticular effects that animated the Thunderbirds 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 countdown. Super cool.

Here’s a Creative Review article about them:

Vintage Souvenir Penants (Part 2)

Here’s the second part of my vintage souvenir penants post. The first one one last week featured vintage penants for U.S. destinations, and this week it’s all the Canadian destinations. These great old penants were discovered in my in-laws basement when doing a huge clear up. One of my fantasies is discovering nice old forgotten gems in lofts and basements, so this really was an exciting find.

Vintage Souvenir Penants (Part 1)

Recently discovered these wonderful vintage souvenir penants while clearing up my in-law’s basement. This series is of a bunch of US destinations (plus the RMS Queen Mary) all circa 1930s – 1960s Next week.  I’ll show all the Canadian destinations. If you like these, you’ll enjoy my Vintage Luggage Tag post from a while back. Thanks to Ron for bestowing this great collection on me.

Vintage penants from Disneyland, New York City, Columbia University, Cornell University, St. Petersberg Florida, Cleveland, Buffalo.

Bull Ring type

Just had a trip to the sunny, south of Spain and visited one of the few remaining bull fight rings in Mijas. No bull fights that day (thank goodness), but I did have a nice self-tour of this miniature bull ring, with my new camera and f0.95 lens. Love those ceramic seat numbers, and have always loved vintage bull fight posters.

Age of Persuasion Titles

Been working on main titles and inter-titles for a pilot episode of The Age of Persuasion with Bunbury Films. A proposed television series based on the popular CBC Radio series of the same name.

AOP is a fabulously written, intricately researched, and highly entertaining survey of the history and impact of advertising. The images above are some still frames from a series of inter-titles I created, that will appear throughout the episodes. They are obviously “homages” to famous brands, and were a lot of fun to create. You can see them in motion below.

The main titles are nearly complete, and I will post them next. Let me know what you think.

Vintage tire posters – Soho London

Been far too long since my last post.  I’ve been meaning to show off these great old tire/oil posters that I discovered in a Soho parking garage a month of so back.  I was shooting a music video in the space next door, and there they were!

The posters must be circa 1950s, and are actually painted right on the wall of the garage entrance – perhaps inside, one could spend some time in the “lubrication bay”! Nice to see the old BP logo again. Energol is still one of their products today.

Luckily, unlike so many others, these have survived all these years without a decision to paint over them. Reminds me of the amazing discovery of some 1930s posters in the Notting Hill Tube Station.

Long live wood block type!

I was fortunate to catch a wonderful (and rare) vintage letterpress type show in Shoreditch, here in London, just days before it ended (thanks Jovanna). The amazing New North Press put on a show called “Reverting to Type” featuring an impressively curated array of prints, made entirely of block printing letterforms.

At first glance, the prints almost appear to be antiques, plucked from the Victorian era, but on closer inspection, they are laced with a wit and edge that is unmistakably now. The juxtapostion, while not necessarily new, is always refreshing.

The official show description reads: It is New North Press’ great pleasure to invite you to our very own typographic extravaganza!
Curated by Graham Bignell & Richard Ardagh, Reverting to Type will showcase the work of twenty contemporary letterpress practitioners from around the world, contributions from three leading art colleges and the first eight in an ongoing series of prints with especially invited collaborators.

Though the show is now over, prints can be purchased via New North’s website.

Bradbury’s Gallery: Posters for Dalston

Back wall featuring a rare Buster Keaton poster from the 1970s

Woody Allen, Play it Again Sam poster from 1972

We’ve lived in Dalston, North London for about 3 years now, and though I wasn’t so sure about it early on, but I’m definitely coming around. The hip and cosy Tina We Salute You cafe has made me love our little corner of Dalston, and now Bradbury’s Gallery/Poster Shop is extending my range of affection even farther.

When I first walked past Bradbury’s a few weeks back, I did a double take and literally gasped!  A vintage poster shop, 3 minutes from my house!  I walked in and introduced myself, then told Peter, the owner, that he had single-handedly made Bradbury Street 1000% hipper (and Dalston too).

With an ever-changing selection of vintage, but not at all typical, film posters from all over the world, always curious Polish film posters, gallery art prints as well as local artist prints, Bradbury’s is a more than welcome addition to the expanding reputation of Dalston as the new arts epicentre of London, which is something I am really chuffed about.

So head over to Bradbury’s and enjoy the fab posters, perhaps you’ll even find something for that oh-so-hard-to buy-for person on your Christmas list. I guarantee you’ll love it.

Archive, archive and more archive! Ben Reed’s Sweetheart video

Just found this mega-graphic-designy music video by Ben Reed for The Wave Picture’s track Sweetheart. It’s a pure celebration of the visual & typographic ephemera of the archival printed page. Archive, archive and more archive. Type specimens, kids books, educational periodicals, random crazy stuff….

While I’ve explored this aesthetic a lot over the years, most closely through my Dinnick & Howells’ “Juxtapose Cards” (see bottom) this video takes it to another level. The sheer amount of research to uncover all these images is an impressive feat.  Each moment in the song’s lyrics is supported by multiple visual & typographic “samples” and this happens again and again, without any reuse of previous images. If I were to count (virtually impossible as it all rushes past to quickly) I would estimate we’re approaching 1000 images here! I hope you had some interns helping out on this one Ben! You can watch the full video here:

And here are some of my Dinnick & Howells “Juxtapose Cards” from 2004 (pretty close eh!).
Card meanings (from top): “Miss You”, Ho Ho Ho (Christmas card), Sweet Heart (Valentines Day card), Tanks/Thanks a Lot (thank you card).

La Antenna (typographic feature film)

I recently stumbled across an amazing filmic find: La Antenna, a “silent-film” made in 2007 by Argentinian Cinematographer/director Esteban Sapir. Shot in a chalky black & white, with lavish, though lo-fi production design, it is probably the most typographic film I’ve even seen.

The titles/subtitles, are as much dramatic props as they are communication. The visual approach of La Antenna draws inspiration from Russian agitprop films and posters (the same inspirations as Canadian Guy Madden‘s wonderful films) but also a broad array of other influences including early German films like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, 1940s American Film Noir, and even turn of the century cinema pioneers such as Georges Méliès.

Where La Antenna goes further (typographically speaking) than Madden’s films, is by stepping further away from the more strict authenticity that mark Madden’s efforts, into areas that also borrow from contemporary motion graphics and graphic novels, resulting in a far more adventurous and integrated use of type throughout. Definitely find and watch this one.