David Airey, graphic designer » Posters

Soirée Graphique

David Airey — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:06:06 +0000

This poster was created for an annual graphic design exhibition in Berne, Switzerland.

“There was no brief or boundaries. After thinking for some time, I figured that a graphic designer faced with no content should create something without content.”
— FELIX PFAFFLI

Spotted after turning a page in Computer Arts Collection (a new six-part title from Computer Arts).

Love the colour. I’d happily hang this one on my wall.

Design (and photo) from the website of Switzerland-based designer Felix Pfäffli.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

International Year of Chemistry

David Airey — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:42:47 +0000

It’s the International Year of Chemistry, and graphic designer Simon C Page (previously featured for his Year of Astronomy posters) has created a set of ten promotional poster designs. He’s kindly offered to send one of you the full set, signed and printed at 13×19 inches.

You can view all the larger images with some descriptive text here in Simon’s portfolio.

Giveaway

If you want to enter the draw for the full set of prints, all you need to do is leave a comment linking to one of your favourite poster designs, created by someone else, on any topic. I’ll draw one winner on Wednesday and update this post when done (notifying the winner by email).

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Update: 16 November 2011
Dave Blackburn was randomly drawn as the winner. Thanks very much to everyone who left comments.

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If you want Simon’s posters in other sizes, they’re available for purchase on inPRINT.

Visit Simon’s portfolio, blog, and Twitter.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design

David Airey — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:44:55 +0000

“…before we worked together, he was a legend in my eyes. His designs, for film titles and company logos and record albums and posters, defined an era.”
— MARTIN SCORSESE

Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design is the first book to be dedicated to one of the greatest American designers of the twentieth century. Produced by Jennifer Bass (Saul’s daughter) and Pat Kirkham, and published by Laurence King, it made me happy to have the postman deliver this one.

The following paragraph is quoted from the press release. It’s followed by a few snapshots of the content and a short film showing the print process.

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Saul Bass (1920-1996) created some of the most compelling images of American postwar visual culture. Having extended the remit of graphic design to include film titles, he went on to transform the genre. His best-known works include a series of unforgettable posters and title sequences for films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Otto Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm and Anatomy of a Murder. He also created some of the most memorable logos and corporate identity campaigns of the century, including those for major companies such as AT&T, Quaker Oats, United Airlines, and Minolta.

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Studio portrait, the Bronx. c. 1931

Tone Poems of Color (album cover, 1956)

Manufacturers National Bank (selection of ads, 1960-61)

San Francisco International Film Festival (seventh festival poster, 1963)

Frank Holmes Laboratories, Inc. (trademark, 1954)

Ceramic tiles (sculptured tile designs, 1957-58)

Playhouse 90, CBS (opening sequence, 1956)

The Man with the Golden Arm (poster, 1955)

North by Northwest (title sequence frames, 1959)

Psycho (title sequence frames, 1960)

Celanese (trademark and style manual, 1966)

Saul with staff members (Bell System identity, 1969)

Here’s a brief insight of the Saul Bass printing process.

1,484 illustrations
290 x 258mm
440 pages
Hardback

If you’re a designer of any kind, this is one book you don’t want to miss. Very happy to have the postman deliver it, looking forward to reading the corporate identity section in particular.

Purchase Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design from Laurence King or:

on Amazon.com
on Amazon.co.uk
on Amazon.ca

Related:
Saul Bass logos: then and now, on Logo Design Love

More recommended reads: A few good books.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

some prints

David Airey — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:42:18 +0000

www.someprints.com sells prints by the Manchester-based accident of various shapes and colours Graphic Nothing. Graphic Nothing is the pen/mouse name of Gary Andrew Clarke.

He was born and raised in a 1970s Leicester (middle of England, middle of nowhere). Early ambitions to become either an entomologist (insects), paleontologist (fossils), space ship model maker or astronomer never quite happened.

So he studied graphic design in Leicester and Manchester (BA Hons, that sort of thing).

During the 1990s and 2000s he worked in the Manchester music industry, performing graphic design and web design. He won a few web awards — for Portishead & Twisted Nerve Records.

He lives in Manchester, or rather Stockport. He likes biscuits.

He also kindly offered a free A2 print of your choosing to four lucky readers.

Paste a link in the comment thread to a photo of “your desk now” and I’ll randomly draw four winners on Friday (updating this post and sending you a ‘winner’ email). I might also publish your photos with a link to your website in an upcoming blog post.

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Update: Friday 29 July
Happy to announce Karinya, Luis Nunes, William Btight, and Samantha as the lucky four. You’ve each been sent an email with instructions for collecting your free print.

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Lovely prints, Gary.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

Guinness for Strength

David Airey — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:02:36 +0000

Love these vintage ‘Guinness for Strength’ posters, but don’t think the message would fly nowadays.

Nothing captures that ‘surprise’ moment like a hat off a head.

Please leave a comment if you can help with attribution.

These Guinness TV ads from years gone by are also worth a shout.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

Year of Astronomy poster design

David Airey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:00:26 +0000

Simon Page is a self-taught graphic designer from the UK with an emphasis on typographic art, illustration and geometric design.

A few months ago he produced a series of posters for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA) campaign. Here’s a selection along with Simon’s commentary.

“I thought that designing some posters would be a good way to promote me and the [IYA] event. I was lucky enough to have the IYA contact me after seeing my designs. They wanted to use them for the campaign.”

“This one is based heavily on the sixth and biggest planet in our solar system—Saturn. Saturn has a prominent system of rings which consists mostly of ice particles, recreated using a number of equally-spaced ellipses. I have chosen a perspective that gives a feeling of approaching the planet from below.”

“This design incorporates planets half in shade and half in the sun. Rather than create a standard illustration I attempted to make something more geometric and eye catching whilst retaining the retro space feel.”

“The circular lines are indicative of gravitational forces around a planet. The thickness of the circles show the strength of the gravitational force and decrease in thickness as you move away from the centre. I find myself getting lost when I look at it. There is something quite intriguing about this design which I never intentionally added.”

“This was the original design I created. Some awesome feedback encouraged me to design a series. I’m not sure what really inspired me to create this piece in the beginning. I think I can credit some of it to Tron and the grid that the light cycles race on.

“One aim was to recreate some sort of infinite effect using lines appearing to go back to the horizon indefinitely.”

Simon also shared a few websites and designers he finds inspirational:

Websites

FFFFOUND!, Smashing Magazine, Flickr, Abduzeedo.

Graphic designers

Alex Trochut (type illustrator), James White (colour spectrum poster designer), Joshua Davis (programming based designer).

The full series of International Year of Astronomy 2009 posters are available for purchase via: Graphic design by Simon Page.

Published on David Airey, graphic designer

FAB Creative Excellence Awards

David Airey — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:05:40 +0000

There are just two days left to enter 2009′s FAB Awards (Food and Beverage Creative Excellence Awards). Now in its 11th year, the FAB Awards has taken entries from clients and agencies in over 60 countries around the world. Here are some of my favourites from 2008.

“The only international Food and Beverage Awards, recognizing creative excellence in the Media: Integrated Campaign, Digital Media, Print, Packaging Design, Press, Poster, Radio, TV / Cinema, Radio, Direct Marketing, Sales Promotion.”

Lactofree (health foods and dairy products)