Art of the Modern Movie Poster 3 - Saul Bass

I came to know this famous American graphic designer through my favorite movie Vertigo. The the eye of a vortex perfectly catches the essence of the film. This books presents more of his wonderful designs. I'm really impressed with his extraordinary visual thinking and sense of humor. He definitely created a whole new language for movie poster which has a strong influence on today's design such as the Burn After Reading poster.

Saul Bass is also well known for making the title sequences for many great films including works by Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese.

Art of the Modern Movie Poster 2 - Hans Hillmann

One of my favorite European designer in the book is Hans Hillman from Garmany. His version of Bresson's masterpiece Pickpocket is the best I've seen. His works presents different styles based on the theme of each film, for instance, the enigmatic image for Buñuel's surrealism and the comic abstraction for Lubitsch's satire To Be or Not To Be. His recent work has focused on book illustrations.

Cake of the Day!

Rexie's favorite all-natural ice cream cake reached its largest size today!!

Meredith Monk

I'm listening to the CD Volcano Songs these days and was intrigued by the minimalist and haunting quality of the music. Then I found out more about the musician Meredith Monk: a composer, performer, director, vocalist, film-maker, and choreographer. I always admire people who have multi-talents and blur the boundaries between different art forms. In her own words: I work in between the cracks, where the voice starts dancing, where the body starts singing, where theater becomes cinema. Many of her vocal works are very innovative: pure voices rather than lyrics or instrument construct a complex and emotional music peice.

I'd like to check out more of her works including the two films made by her: Ellis Island and Book of Days. There's a documentary about her on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Xj3ID-ybw
I also found an interview with her on NPR last year - Meredith Monk: Of Posterity and 'Impermanence'

Art of the Modern Movie Poster 1 - Roman Cieslewicz

The book Art of the Modern Movie Poster is a remarkable collection of post-WWII movie posters from all of the world. It introduces to me many great poster designers esp. those from Eastern Europe. Since most posters were designed for art films, I also found many interesting movies to check out.

The book starts with Polish movie posters, also in my opinion the most riveting part. The Polish style was so avant-garde at that time, reminiscent of Russian Constructivism. My favorite designer is Roman Cieslewicz (1930-1996). Born in Lvov, Poland, he spent most his life in France where he worked as art director of Vogue, Elle and Mafia. Rather than using movie scenes or star portraits, he developed a unique movie poster language which is abstract, metaphorical and emotional.