Wild Woods
ZEBRA’S are already some kind of fantasy beasts, with its dazzle paint hide. Put the animal in a temperate forest and you got a surreal picture. The British painter George Stubbs did it in the year 1762 when he made this oil painting. Stubbs was…
House + Pantheon
JUST look at this house. No, now you are looking at columns and pediments. The house is inside the Romanesque folly. Giuseppe Garibaldi, the famous Italian military and political figure, once stayed at this wooden shack. He is considered to be the father of Modern…
Three Of A Kind
THESE three men are sweating like pigs. The realistic illustrations belonged to a Japanese advertisement campaign. I bet is was for beer. If you look like that you sure can use a cold one. Illustrator Shiro Tatsumi painted the three with acrylic in 1980. …
Bold Eagle
THE strict principles of graphic design formulated by the Swiss School also apply on coat of arms and family weapons. A normal weapon looks like this. But the aversion for ornamental elements led to creation of minimal crests like the ones below. Not surprisingly, three…
Well Said
THIS pole stands on Tonel Beach in Portugal. It is weathered like a golden lock of Patrick Swayze in Point Break. The pole also has the same motto as Bodhi and stands were there are cliffs on both sides…
- features -
Here I Am, Tank Man
SOMETIMES a person can play the media without even knowing it. You just have to be at right place, at the right time. Take for example ‘Tank Man’ aka ‘Unknown Rebel’. The man was doing his groceries on June 5, 1989 in Beijing when he decided to cause a traffic jam involving a column of Type 59 tanks. He was walking on Chang’an Avenue and behind him the student protests on Tiananmen Square took place. At ...
NYC Streets: Berenice Abbott
NEW YORK street photography is almost a genre of itself. The mix of rich and poor, black and white and locals and visitors that walk the streets of Manhattan gave some of the biggest names in photography inspiration to roam the streets. Now: Berenice Abbott. The photographers I already introduced, mostly looked straight ahead. But everybody who has visited the city, knows that when in New York you also look up. Not to see clouds or stars, ...
Design by: Tadashi Ohashi
IT is not uncommon that a graphic designer forms a close relationship with one company. Japanese designer Tadashi Ohashi hooked up with Kikkoman Shoyu, a leading manufacturer of soy sauce. But working for a company in the food industry has its limitations. Ohashi choose to focus on illustrating ingredients that could use the flavor of soy sauce, like fish, but above all, vegetables. It became his trademark. Ohashi (1916-1998) worked as freelancer and other companies also ...
Photographer Shatan about Paul’s Boutique
I like this photo so much, as a kid I pinned it on my wall. It was used for the cover of the album Paul’s Boutique by the Beastie Boys. For years the cd case of my copy had no booklet in it. The photo shows the gritty street corners at Ludlow and Rivington Street in the Lower East Side on a crisp day. The creator of this urban panorama is photographer Jeremy Shatan. He ...
See Through Trunk
AS a kid I frequently visited local car dealers in the hope the salesmen were kind enough to give a seven year old kid their shiny catalogues. First in line was the Audi dealer, and the goal was a brochure from the Audi Quattro. But I also liked the dealers of Japanese vehicles because their catalogues had cool illustrations of cars that never had to pop the hood to show the engine inside. In the early ...