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Gorgeous Pharmaceutical Ads from 1930s France

By Caroline Stanley on

Who knew an advertisement for a urinary vaccine could ever be described as stunning? Spotted by the always fantastic 50 Watts, this collection of vintage ads from 1930s was scanned from the pages of Ridendo, a medical and humor magazine distributed to French physicians. Modern pharmaceutical companies should take note; we find these beauties a lot more eye-catching than most of the drug ads that we see today — not to mention persuasive. Click through to check out a few of our favorites from his stash, but don’t blame us when you’re suddenly craving a Serenol. … Read More

Art

Wonderful Posters Inspired by Classic Fairy Tales

By Caroline Stanley on

Just last week we looked at the disturbing early versions of some of our favorite fairy tales — we’re talking gruesome stories that make the Brothers Grimm look lighthearted, chock full of stuff like blindings, sexual misconduct, and baby eating. In her ongoing series La Ligue, New York-based illustrator and graphic designer Hae­jeon Jes­sica Lee gives classics like Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast a visual treatment that, while absolutely delightful, taps into the extremely dark nature of the orig­i­nal source mate­r­ial. Click through to see the trio of foldable posters that Lee has created thus far, and check out her website for even more illustrated goodness. … Read More

Design

Vintage Illustrations from a Midcentury Soviet Dictionary

By Marina Galperina on

Behold the amazing, illustrated Soviet Trade Dictionary, discovered by Retronaut. Honestly, those of us with chronic Soviet design nostalgia are used to seeing works like this on propaganda posters, but they usually come with a banner of “Available at Your Local Co-op!” Now then, proceed to immaculate, perfectly stylized pages of many different sorts of record players, road bike models, cigarette holders, stylish black shoes, and… Persian carpets, naturally. Among other typically Soviet objects of interest are wooden khokhloma-print dishware and a variety of champagne glasses, the famous Soviet Champagne bottle lingering just behind, lest you forget. And that crane made of strange, porous metal sticks? Well, it’s mechanical and fully functioning. Soviet Legos win. Clearly. Try and find that at your local thrift store, champ! … Read More

Art

An Alliterative Apocryphal Alphabet to Dazzle and Delight You

By Emily Temple on

If you’re looking for a way to teach your child the alphabet, we do not suggest Nathan O. Marsh’s Alphabet Apocrypha. However, if you’re someone who thrills at wordplay or enjoys clever comics overflowing with devilish detail, we couldn’t recommend anything better. Marsh’s in-progress alphabet/web comic, which we spotted over at io9, is a brilliant and sometimes poignant satire of — you guessed it — traditional children’s alphabet books, and like many satires, it is much, much more fun than the original. After all, why have bouncing baby bunnies when you could have bastard badgers and butt biting barracudas over on breakneck bluff? That’s what we thought. Click through to see a few of our favorites (so far), and then be sure to head on over to Marsh’s website to see more, peruse close-ups, and even buy your very own prints. … Read More

Art

Intensely Detailed Drawings of Secret Rooms and Complex Mazes

By Emily Temple on

Our favorite art is that which expands infinitely off the page, infecting our minds and inspiring imaginary additions for days. Canadian illustrator Mathew Borrett’s incredible, mysterious drawings of mazes within scraps of building, secret compartments within secret compartments, and locked away rooms, which we spotted over at Beautiful/Decay, do just that, sending our minds in as many directions as their shifty hallways. After all, these surrealistic depictions of buildings might as well be metaphoric depictions of mind… or maybe not. Think on that as you click through to see some of our favorites from the series, and then head on over to Borrett’s website to check out even more of his work. … Read More

Art

Exquisite Bohemian Fairy Tale Illustrations by Artuš Scheiner

By Emily Temple on

We can always count on our friends over at 50 Watts to introduce us to gorgeous vintage illustration from around the world, so it’s no surprise that it was there that we stumbled over the sublime fairy tale illustration work of Artuš Scheiner, a Bohemian artist working in Prague at the turn of the century. If you can believe it, Scheiner was a completely self-taught financial clerk, who began drawing as a hobby — if only our own hobbies turned out so well. Click through to see some of our favorites from Scheiner’s extensive body of work, and then head here to see many more. … Read More

Art

Brilliant Illustrations of Break Dancers in Motion

By Emily Temple on

We don’t get a lot of time to practice our breakdancing here in the Flavorpill offices, so we can’t help but appreciate French artist Florian Nicolle‘s sketchy-but-precise diagrams of dancers in motion, which we recently spotted over at Visual News. Not only does Nicolle capture the speed and finesse of dance in his drawings, he takes a scientific view, jotting down calculations — the exact angle of the back bend, torque, jump height — alongside his illustrations. Just don’t use them as a how-to manual. Click through to check out Nicolle’s breakdancing drawings, and then head on over to his Behance page to see close-ups of the action. … Read More

Art

Preview Adrian Tomine’s ‘New York Drawings’

By Emily Temple on

In Adrian Tomine’s New York, strangers in two passing subway cars connect, or next door neighbors bashfully turn away from each other, children gaze wistfully at the cityscape or cautiously at its streets, people are all alone, yet inevitably, irrepressibly connected. Tomine’s New York Drawings, which hits bookstores early next week, collects a decade of illustrations, sketches, drawings and, perhaps most recognizably, covers of The New Yorker in a beautiful single volume. We’ve picked out a few of our favorite illustrations (the first slide is this writer’s favorite cover of The New Yorker, bar none) after the jump. Click through to get just a taste of this great book, and if you happen to be in New York next week, you might consider stopping by to see the artist on October 2nd at McNally Jackson – otherwise, catch him at another stop on his tour. … Read More

Art

Allyson Mellberg’s Beautiful Illustrations of Strange Deformities

By Emily Temple on

Who knew surreal deformities could be so, well, cute? Allyson Mellberg’s work, which we were recently turned onto by Hi-Fructose, manages to be both grotesque and sentimental, both discomfiting and relentlessly twee. All of her work draws on the strangeness of nature — sea urchins, coral, fungi — but in Endogenous, Mellberg’s newest solo show, which recently opened at Galerie LJ in Paris, the artist has also been inspired by her recent experience with motherhood. Click through to see some of our favorites from the Mellberg’s new collection, and if you’re as enchanted as we are, head here to see more of her work. … Read More

Art

Portraits of Power Animals by Andreas Preis

By Emily Temple on

People may joke about their power animals (or they don’t joke), but it’s true that we humans ascribe various qualities and strengths to our animal friends, whether we see them as the embodiment of certain attributes or just blessed with really awesome skills. Andreas Preis, whose work we recently spotted over at Visual News, illustrates these animals, along with the word he thinks they embody, in a series that is charmingly reminiscent of those cheesy motivational posters you see in classrooms — if they were made of stained glass and hanging on the rough walls of animals’ dens, that is. Click through to check out Preis’s Alive series, and then be sure to head on over to his website to check out more of his work. … Read More