Childrens' Stories

Less is more is the best way to describe the inspired poster work of Christian Jackson. These could just have easily been produced as a series of book cover designs. Simply beautiful!

Festival of the Book Poster

Missed out on the 2011 Montana book festival, but caught the poster on a recent visit to the Exile Bibliophile site. Host Benjamin Clark tells me it was designed and illustrated by Joana Yardley. I just want to be inside this Montana poster, and reading by alpenglow beside the lake. Very dreamy! 

The Theatrical Posters of Nicolay Pavlovich Akimov

The theater posters of Russian designer Nikolay Pavlovich Akimov (1901-1968). He was an experimental theater director and stage designer, art director, painter, book illustrator and graphic artist. I have little notion what any of the posters actually say, but his type layouts are quite inventive and theatrical for that era. Read more about Akimov and his work at the great Ephemera Assemblyman and see a whole lot more of his posters on the Leiris202 Flickr site.

Russian Advertising & Entertainment Posters

Napolean's Invasion, 1931, by Khodasevich Valentina Mikhajlovna

Let's Get Food Program into Life!, 1989, by Ulanov Oleg
Aleksandrovich

5 Year Plan of the Sugar Industry, 1933, by Bulanov Dmitrij
Anatol'evich

5 Year Plan of the Public Catering of the LSPO (Leningrad Union
of Consumer Societies), 1931, by Bulanov Dmitrij Anatol'evich

Budgets, 1988, by Bukheevy, S.N. Bulkin, and E.A. Mikheeva

A Laureate of International Competitions, 1975,
by Dobrovinskij Evgenij Maksovich

B. Brecht. Mother Courage and her Children, 1978,
by Tsvik Efim Semenovich

All the USSR Writes With the Furthers, 1929, Unknown

Take Care of Birds, 1978, by Karakashev Vilen 

Surenovich and Levshunova Lilija Jakovlevna

At the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy.
The Nature Protection Pavillion, 1975, by Karakashev Vilen Surenovich

All the People Smoke the Cigarette Box,
Mosselprom, 1928, by Zelenskij Alexander
Nikolaivich

9 March 1945, 1969, by Evgenij Abramovich Kazhdan
1922-1984

Aeroflot, 1973, by Evgenij Abramovich Kazhdan 1922-1984

A Flea, 1927, by Kustodiev Boris Mikhajlovich

From the Museum of the Russian Poster.

Body Type

Type and endearing poster designs by Ryan Ferrer. Available in limited editions at Citizen Scholar's supermarket store. 24x36" 

The Olivetti Typewriter

In 1911 Olivetti produced Italy's first typewriter. One hundred years later we continue to celebrate the Olivetti typewriter and the designers who smartly promoted them. Why can't more companies embrace design on this level? Bring back the poster!

1953 Olivetti Lettera 22 poster by Raymond Savignac.

1952 Olivetti Lettera 22 poster by Giovanni Pintori.

1950 Olivetti Lexikon 80 poster by Giovanni Pintori.

1957 Olivetti booklet cover designed by Giovanni Pintori.

1969 Olivetti Valentine poster by Ettore Sottsass.

1973 Olivetti poster by Walter Ballmer.

1964 Olivetti poster by Walter Ballmer.

1953 Olivetti Lettera 22 poster by Paul Rand.

1952 Olivetti Lettera 22 poster by Paul Rand.

1953 Olivetti Lettera 22 poster by Egidio Bonfante.

1962 Olivetti Lettera 22 poster by Giovanni Pintori.

1950 Olivetti poster , unknown.

1912 poster for the first Olivetti M1 typewriter, by Teodoro Wolf Ferrari
and featuring Italian poet Alighieri Dante at the typewriter.

:: See far more Olivetti images at SFMOMA and on ninonbooks photostream.

The Great Poster Wall of China

When Worlds Collide, and exhibit of large-scale photos by Beijing artist Wang Qingsong, one of China's most highly regarded contemporary artists. Now showing at the International Center of Photography museum in NYC until May 8th. Great work filled with irony. See the online exhibit here. 

Boekenweek Revisited

The Netherlands have such a rich heritage of the book and printing and hold them both in high esteem. Nearly every year since 1932, the CPNB or Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek (the Collective Promotion for the Dutch Book) organizes a book week, or Boekenweek to promote Dutch literature and reading. The entire country observes this literary festival for 10 days in March, with debates, book signings, author readings, a Book Ball, children's book events and even a commemorative postage stamp. What a lovely concept! The 2011 Boekenweek just ended on Saturday, so start planning for a visit next March maybe. 

The posters designed for the event this year were by Van Wanter Etcetera who collaborated with the fine art printer Souverein to create a series of 3D author book portraits called the Written Portraits. The 4 Dutch authors portrayed in the 3D books are Van Gogh, Anne Frank, Louis Vann Gaal and Kader Abdolla. The team at Souverein used original book pages for the text inside the portraits as a poetic salute to each of the four authors. 

For the 75th anniversary of Boekenweek last year, a commemorative postage stamp was issued for the event. As you can see below it is actually a small book with a short story included. The book which can be detached was designed as an actual appendix for the book written by Joost Zwagerman titled Duel. Zwagerman was invited to specifically write Dual for the coinciding event, Boekenweekgeschenk (Book Week Gift) where a prominent author is asked to write a book to be given by bookstores to customers purchasing a set amount of books in the Dutch language. I have no doubt this all requires a great deal of planning and logistics on many levels, but celebrating the book for one week each year is nothing compared to all the pleasures we get in return from books. 

Below are some past posters from Boekenweek. The first is designed by Wim Crouwel. The 2nd is a poster for the Boekenweek Dubutant Ball. Designer unknown, but from Jar Geerlings Flickr set. The poster of the dog with an identity crisis is from Designpolitie. If anyone knows the authors of the remaining posters, I will gladly post them if you get back to me here. 

:: Props to Cerebral Boinkfest for the Boekenweek lead and some of the images!