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Film

Surprising Early, Alternate Versions of Iconic Movie Posters

By Jason Bailey on

Movie posters, as we’ve discussed before, are a tricky business, and a great movie poster must serve many functions: it must capture the essence of a movie, it must be aesthetically pleasing or interesting in itself, and it must sell the product in question. Unsurprisingly, the quest for that balance can result in reworking, re-imagining, and revisions galore, which is why the new Daybees online exhibit The Iconic Movie Posters That Never Were is so fascinating. In it, the designers behind some of Hollywood’s most memorable posters share their early drafts and alternate versions of classic posters; check them out after the jump, alongside the final drafts that became part of movie history, and visit Daybees to learn more about their creators. … Read More

Design

The Internet’s Funniest Band T-Shirt Parodies

By Tom Hawking on

A hilarious T-shirt design has been making the rounds on the Internet over the last couple of days — it’s the iconic radio wave landscape from the cover of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, emblazoned with the words, “What is this? I’ve seen it on Tumblr.” The shirt is the work of one Adam J. Kurtz, a New York City-based designer, and you can pre-order it here. As you wait for your purchase to arrive, here’s a selection of similarly amusing takes on iconic band logos, album cover art, and T-shirt designs. … Read More

Design

Comic Book Covers Featuring ’80s Post-Punk/New Wave Singers as Superheroes

By Tom Hawking on

If you’re a regular-ish reader, you might remember that Flavorwire has featured the work of a pop culture and Smiths-obsessed Brazilian artist by the name of Butcher Billy a couple of times over the last few years. Well, he’s back, and this time he’s designed a series of faux comic-book covers featuring ’80s post punk/new wave singers (including Morrissey, of course) as superheroes. They’re amazing. Obviously. … Read More

Architecture

20 American Mansions Fit for Jay Gatsby

By Tyler Coates on

While The Great Gatsby is filled to the brim with powerful symbolism, houses play a particularly important role in defining F. Scott Fitzgerald’s characters. Gatsby himself built a gigantic mansion at West Egg that purposefully looked classical, giving the illusion of long-standing prominence. Fitzgerald based Gatsby’s mansions on many real-life homes (including the now-demolished Beacon Towers and Land’s End, which both stood on Long Island’s Gold Coast), but there are a handful of castle-like mansions on the Eastern Seaboard that would be perfect for a number of lavish, Gatsby-style… Read More

Design

Clever Posters Chart the Colors in Famous Novels

By Emily Temple on

What colors are the insides of your favorite novels? Well, sure, the off-white of a book page — but what about the worlds they create? In artist Jaz Parkinson‘s color charts project, he has created graphic signatures of novels’ visual content, building mini rainbows that correspond to classic works. Needless to say, there’s a lot of red (blood) and white (milk) in A Clockwork Orange, and miles of black in McCarthy’s The Road. … Read More

Design

Terrifying Vintage Workplace Safety Posters From the Netherlands

By Emily Temple on

You remember what Mother said: safety first. That way, you can keep yourself from being electrocuted by tiny dragons or suffocated by an exhaust ghost. Or at least that’s what these vintage Dutch workplace safety posters, spotted over at 50 Watts, suggest. The posters, which represent over 50 years of finger-wagging, are mostly terrifying, but each is also pretty gorgeous in its own way — much better than the inspirational or warning posters floating around offices today. A sad kitten and some Helvetica just don’t cut it. Check out some amazing vintage safety posters after the jump, and head on over to 50 Watts or Memory of the Netherlands for more. … Read More

Art

Trippy Paintings of Modern Architecture Saturated With Color

By Alison Herman on

When viewed in black and white, the buildings that artist Paul Davies depicts in his series of architecture paintings wouldn’t seem out of place in Palm Desert. Flat, boxy, and often surrounded by palm trees and pools, his subjects look like textbook post-Frank Lloyd Wright modern design. The twist is that Davies shows these structures in psychedelic patterns and colors. While some works are more outlandish than others, each painting is filled with surreal hues, from electric yellow to sunset pink. The cognitive dissonance between the buildings’ clean lines, which Davies achieves using stencils, and the crazy mix of colors the artist fills in makes for a dizzying yet intriguing viewing experience. Click through for a look at the series, which we discovered via Visual News, and visit Davies’ website to see more of his work. … Read More

Fashion

“Angles Are Attitudes”: Men’s Style Tips From Pop Culture’s Greatest Fashion Icons

By Alison Nastasi on

Brooks Brothers has unveiled its new limited-edition men’s clothing line, created in collaboration with The Great Gatsby costume designer Catherine Martin. Gatsby isn’t the first pop culture project to reinvigorate interest in the distinctive and discerning man of the Roaring Twenties. The gentlemen of Boardwalk Empire and Downton Abbey have recently donned wingtip shoes, white waistcoats, and straw boaters. With the “dreamlike world of pristine green laws and lavish parties” in mind, we gathered great fashion tips from ten cultural icons to learn the secrets of sharp-dressed… Read More

Design

Storm Thorgerson’s Most Iconic Album Cover Designs

By Johnny Otis on

We were sad to hear of the death of British designer and artist Storm Thorgerson earlier this week. Thorgerson was a hugely influential and distinctive designer of album covers — he’s best known for his work with Pink Floyd, but he designed sleeves for all sorts of bands over the years. His style was instantly recognizable — heavily influenced by surrealism, and heavy on visual non-sequiturs that were both memorable and somehow disconcerting, presented with neither context nor explanation, apparently laden with meaning but defying simple interpretation. We’ve collected some of his most memorable designs here as a celebration of his life and work. … Read More

Design

Clever French Literacy Campaign Will Make You Look Twice at Ads

By Emily Temple on

French ad agency DDB Paris recently won a Yellow Pencil (one of the highest awards given by the UK’s Designers and Art Directors Club) for a literacy campaign that cleverly transforms common advertisements into emblems of illiteracy awareness. The ads, which we found translated into English over at the Huffington Post, even fooled us (and we are relatively literate, we assure you) for a moment — that’s how attuned our eyes and brains are to traditional advertising cues. We just glossed right over that huge “Unfortunately.” Check out the award-winning campaign after the jump, and let us know what you think in the comments. … Read More