Check out this great collection of German movie posters. The gallery runs right up to the present day, although I obviously find the older ones far more interesting. Over one thousand German language posters, including teasers, dating back to 1918. Enjoy.
Via Martin Klasch.
You know what makes me smile? The fact this guy has a package of himself in his pocket. A great example of the so-called Droste Effect; a package within a package within a package. More examples here.
Via Box Vox.
The University of Georgia College of Agriculture has put together a wonderful online collection of vintage peach crate labels. Check it out right here.
Via Bobby Sattler.
I realize I may be in the minority here, but I've always found some aspects of Mardi Gras to be a bit creepy. These old logos, from the Flickr account of lumis, don't do anything to dissuade me. The top one is for The Order of the Myths, the oldest Mardi Gras association to still parade in Mobile, Alabama. The bottom one is for The Infant Mystics.
Things Magazine has a really nice collection of vintage Pelican books, broken out by decade and year, starting in the 1930s and going through the 1980s. Lots of good visual inspiration to be found here.
Via BobbySattler.
Check out BibliOdyssey for all of your eclectic book art needs. The above wall charts date back to around 1910-1912. Lots of other cool images over there, so start digging around.
Via Martin Klasch.
Check out this vintage order form for Eames chairs. It's both functional and beautiful. Smart and stylish. Note the subtle use of that second color. The Eames Office folks date this form to around 1951. According to them, the chairs are referred to as "Zenaloy" as a nod to Zenith Plastics (who worked closely with Eames for many years).
Via Bobby Sattler.
Posters by Josef Fenneker (1895-1956). I picked out the spookiest examples in honor of the season. (Man, Fenneker really knew how to capture the essence of mysterious yellow-faced men.)
Via Martin Klasch.
Check out this massively impressive Flickr set of matchbook covers from the 1950s and '60s. I especially like the eastern European examples in this international collection. Boy, I really have a fondness for this kind of "throwaway" graphic design. Some truly beautiful pieces.
Via Whole Lot of BS.
Check out this great flickr set comprised mostly of package design from the 1950s and '60s.
Via swissmiss.
I'm a sucker for old Federal Art Project posters. As part of Roosevelt's New Deal program to put millions of Americans back to work, the FAP employed more than five thousand out-of-work artists.
Think about it. You're an artist in a time when even the most menial job was nearly impossible to find. All you want is a paycheck so you can feed your family. To use your God-given creative talents must have seemed like such a luxury and blessing.
Yet the FAP wasn't just about handouts. It was run by people who truly believed good art and design can enrich the lives of all Americans (a radical concept in the 1930s, when art was primarily for the rich). Poster designers, and other artists all over the country, were pushed to not just create, but to create excellence. I think it shows in so many of the posters.
The three FAP posters shown here are available for purchase from the Juniper Gallery as fine-art giclee reproductions (printed on a variety of archival papers in several sizes). Check out the other available prints here. As you can see, Juniper Gallery is also where you can purchase wonderful vintage photos from Shorpy. Great stuff.
Looking for a little design inspiration for your next project? Check out this collection of vintage Russian book jackets (1917-1942) at the New York Public Library Digital Gallery. What an amazing resource. There are 656 pieces in this collection alone. So many other digital collections to explore here. Enjoy.
Via The Denver Egotist.
The lesson: Bad design kills careers. Isn't that right, Ken?
Find more at the Museum of Bad Album Covers.
A supreme achievement in clean amusement. Or so says Switchblade the Clown.
Canada's only tented circus. A big selling point in November, I'm sure.
Second greatest? And yet somehow I still think they're lying.
"Darn, I miscounted the letters. I'll add a star and hope nobody notices."
Sure, those other guys have the only tented circus. But our clown has eaten more children.
Come one, come all and bear witness to the World's Largest Ego!
Check out the whole collection right here. Via Quipsologies.
If you like vintage design and illustration, take a moment to check out Golden Age Comic Book Stories. I was instantly sucked in by the billboard design above. It's an unpublished concept created by the United Advertising Corporation of New Haven, Connecticut sometime in the 1930s. (I don't know about you, but if a fifty foot skeleton man is waiting at the corner, I'm stepping on the gas.) I spent quite a bit of time today looking through the archives and enjoying old science fiction magazine covers and comic book pages. Then I found this pulp fiction cover from 1936.
I guess she should have slowed down at the corner.
Via Drawn.
Check out this fantastic Flickr set of 19th century nautical design from pantufla. Lots of great visual inspiration here. I got lost in this set of images for a long, long time.
Via Boing Boing .
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