Graphic Travel Ephemera from 1920's & 1930's

Japan

France

Austria, Germany, Hungary, Holland, Switzerland, Russia, Yugoslavia

Automotive

This collection has blown me away (hence such a lot of images posted here!). Some beautiful, some dynamic, some quirky and odd but all really graphic and all capturing the exciting essense of travel from the era.

"My basic passion is paper items such as travel brochures, airline time-tables, ocean liner time-tables, auto road maps, luggage labels,  advertising, and graphic design publications from the 1920s and 1930s, primarily in Europe but also Asia..."

All from the fantastic collection by David Levine at http://www.travelbrochuregraphics.com/
See his Flickr stream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/18528948@N00/sets/

The many ways Star Wars is used in adverts...

Star Wars has been used to sell a mind boggling array of products (including a hefty tonne of it's own merchandise) and it's a bit of a past-time of mine collecting the ads I find along the way. This post shows some cool (and not so cool) examples including ice lollies, Japanese tuna, trainers, as well as actual Star Wars brand products by Palitoy. Most are pretty old school, but I've also included the Adidas Originals ad as I thought that was slick. 

Bonus find: the images below are Rejected Star Wars Promotional Products, I can't imagine why they were rejected?! http://www.geekologie.com/2008/02/questionable_rejected_star_war.php

Bizarre Star Wars Japanese Commercial

"LOST" 1970s JAPANESE STAR WARS TOY COMMERCIAL (SUPER7 STORMTROOPER SUPER SHOGUN)

Palitoy Factory - Star Wars Toys (This isn't an ad, but it's rather interesting to see the toys production line)

Star Wars™ Cantina 2010 / adidas Originals

My other Star Wars posts
Quirky Star Wars Finds http://kathykavan.com/quirky-star-wars-finds and http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathykavan/galleries/72157623704463457/
Unusual Star Wars Posters http://kathykavan.com/-unusual-star-wars-posters
The Original Star Wars spoof 'Hardware Wars'  http://kathykavan.com/the-original-star-wars-spoof-hardware-wars-st
Star Wars Uncut 'The Escape' http://kathykavan.com/star-wars-uncut-the-escape
The Vader Project http://kathykavan.com/the-vader-project-starwars

Modernist Science & Tech Ads 1950's & 1960's

Modernism + Science + Tech + Graphic Design = Win

"This is a random assortment of science ads collected from various science and tech magazines of the 50s and 60s. We're particularly struck by how they have utilized the modernist aesthetic in a manner particularly appropriate for its subject matter."

From Bustbright's massive collection http://www.flickr.com/photos/bustbright/sets/72157612943324998/with/4507172146/

Excellent Light Painting

Stop motion form and colour, using light painting techniques. 

"I've been interested in taking my Light Study photo series and evolving them into motion pieces. I shot a lot of footage for a VJ gig for FITC San Francisco. So I edited together those stop motion sequences, mashed up some audio from the Tron Legacy trailers, and out came Light Drive. The video is stop motion, so every frame is an individually shot photograph. Each photograph is a long exposure photo, with exposures reaching up to 20 seconds in some cases. To control the lights, I used an Arduino controlled via bluetooth to drive a stepper motor. The stepper motor controls the movements of the lights remotely from Processing. The light sources include cold cathode case lights, EL wire, lasers and more." Lighting: Kim Pimmel Sound: Tron Legacy trailers

Light Studies - http://www.flickr.com/photos/djspyhunter/sets/72157615077454920/

Japanese Fabric & Paper Patterns

Here's a collection of a few modern and vintage Japanese fabric & paper designs I've been hoarding - from cutesy Kawaii, Chiyogami (meaning "1000 generation paper") which are traditional block-printed paper patterns and Kimono fabric and panels they show the remarkable beauty and diversity of Japanese design and are also downright sumptuous, enjoy... 

Reference:

http://printpattern.blogspot.com/2010/02/book-modern-patterns-of-japan.html
http://www.etsy.com/shop/FromJapanWithLove
http://www.spoonflower.com/tags/japanese
http://tokyobunnie.blogspot.com/2008/08/cute-fabrics-at-superbuzzy.html
http://www.superbuzzy.com/index.php
http://www.japanesepaperwholesale.com/index.htm
http://yonagadou.com/item.html
http://www.artfire.com/supplies-Paper-Origami/3/321/0/0/0/0
http://www.kimoyes.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlie_pop/with/419220913/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atelier-media/

Good F***ing Design Advice

Good Fucking Design Advice
I laughed out loud almost every time - http://www.goodfuckingdesignadvice.com/

"Good Fucking Design Advice aims to serve the needs of the greater design community for the common good.  Whether you’re a student unable to receive a timely response from a professor, a designer eagerly awaiting feedback from a vacationing art director, or a sheltered freelancer lonely toiling away in her studio apartment, Good Fucking Design Advice will provide you with immediate unbiased assistance 24/7."

Eno's 'Oblique Strategy' cards
While we're on the subject of design advice I've always found Brian Eno's 'Oblique Strategy' cards rather good, they also have less swear words in them! Created with artist Peter Schmidt, Eno's deck of creative suggestions has been inspiring mind blocks since 1975.

Online versions here: http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html and here http://www.joshharrison.net/oblique-strategies/
More info here: http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/ and buy them for the Eno store here: http://www.enoshop.co.uk/
Image from this article, where the author tells how you can use the cards to get you out of a culinary rut http://www.gourmet.com/food/2009/06/brian-eno-oblique-strategies-recipes

Also see my post on Bruce Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, another great inspiration - Top of the 'Incomplete Manifesto' Pops | Bruce Mau http://kathykavan.com/top-of-the-incomplete-manifesto-pops-bruce-ma

Mexico 1968 Olympic Identity by Lance Wyman

I hope this is a useful collection of reference for the Mexico 68 graphic identity system - it still looks fresh, the logo epitomises 'Sports' with it's go-faster, motion aesthetic and it's just all round cool!

Lance Wyman http://www.lancewyman.com/ and http://olympic-museum.de/design/lancewyman/wyman.htm

"Graphic design became an important visual ambassador for the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games, It was the first time the games were hosted by a Latin American nation. In planning for the games, Mexico, an emerging third world nation, could not afford to make the extensive architectural statement made in Tokyo four years earlier. Graphic design contributed to the ambiance of the Mexican games and helped to make a meaningful visual impact for fewer pesos."

Linking Huichol imagery to Op Art gave the Mexico Olympics a memorable graphic identity http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=123&fid=539

If we define communication as ‘a connection allowing access between persons or places’, then MEXICO 68 communicated supremely. It connected people with people, places with places, and each with the other as logically, elegantly and joyfully as may be possible. Above all, the value of the design was in the concept and construction of a graphic system within which every design element was integrated into a general proposal. The proposal delivered a jolt through the ingenuity of its imagery. 


Reference:
http://olympic-museum.de/pictograms/Picto1968.htm
http://aqua-velvet.com/2009/11/mexico-1968/
http://www.mestudio.info/2007/10/30/sign-of-the-times-2/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Summer_Olympics
http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Olympic-Games/All-Past-Olympic-Games/Summer...
http://musselsoppansvanner.blogspot.com/2008_08_12_archive.html
http://www.europeanposters.com/
http://velorunner.blogspot.com/2009/08/olympic-cycling-posters.html
http://www.geradesoeben.de/2008/08/olympia-design-mexico-1968.htm
http://www.pedrofriedeberg.com/Press.html

See also my previous Olympic post 'Graphic Heroes: Otl Aicher, Designer 1972 Munich Olympics Identity' http://kathykavan.com/graphic-resource-otl-aicher-designer-1972-mun

Graphic Design of Fred Troller 1930-2002

Simple and timeless...

Fred Troller 1930 – 2002 was a distinguished American graphic designer and educator who emigrated from Switzerland. He was born in Zurich in 1930 and graduated from the Zurich School of Design in 1950. He worked for Geigy Chemical Corporation and later established his own design studio in New York working for clients such as Exxon, General Electric, IBM and American Airlines among others. He also designed book jackets for Doubleday. As Steven Heller writes, "Troller helped popularized Swiss New Typography... the Swiss approach, influenced by the Bauhaus school of the 20's, relied on stark photographic imagery, bold sans-serif typefaces and primary colors in unfettered compositions. The object was to communicate logically, vividly and without ambiguity... Mr. Troller's personal variant of the style was characterized by the manipulation of geometric forms, jarring juxtapositions of large and small types and visual puns formed from the fonts themselves." Fred Troller was also a design educator and taught or lectured at Cooper Union, the School of the Visual Arts, and Rhode Island School of Design. He also served as chair of the division of design at Alfred University. The Troller Archive was donated by Beatrice Troller in 2005 and includes a vast amount of material ranging from sketches, mock-ups and proofs along with final printed projects including book jackets, promotional materials, packaging and posters. Heller, Steven." 

http://library.rit.edu/gda/designer/fred-troller

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/24/arts/fred-troller-71-champion-of-bold-graph...
http://montagueprojectsblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/daily-book-graphics-46-fred-...
http://grainedit.com/2009/04/06/corporate-diversity-swiss-graphic-design-by-g...