Milton Glaser for Seventeen Magazine

I try not to collect too much paper ephemera, but I couldn't resist this 1967 Seventeen Magazine with Twiggy & a kitten on the cover. I got it for 50¢ at a garage sale a few months ago, but yesterday was the first time I really looked through it. Inspired by Tadanori Yokoo's work, I was considering cutting it up to make a collage until I saw these Milton Glaser illustrations.









Glaser is best known for his iconic Bob Dylan poster and the legendary I ♥ NY logo but he's created what seems like thousands of other illustrations, typefaces, album covers, book covers, etc. Hearing him speak is really inspirational.

Tadanori Yokoo

From wikipedia:

Tadanori Yokoo (born 1936) is one of Japan's most successful and internationally recognized graphic designers and artists. His early work shows the influence of the New York based Push Pin Studio (Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast in particular) but Yokoo himself cites filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and writer Yukio Mishima as two of his most formative influences. In the late 1960s he became interested in mysticism and psychedelia, deepened by travels in India. Because his work was so attuned to 1960s pop culture, he has often been (unfairly) described as the "Japanese Andy Warhol" or likened to psychedelic poster artist Peter Max, but Yokoo's complex and multi-layered imagery is intensely autobiographical and entirely original.

(These scans are from the ever-inspiring blog "A Journey Round My Skull." I highly recommend taking a gander at his flickr page and blog for more illustration and graphic design sweetness.)


Also of note is the Two LP picture disc "Opera from the works of Tadanori Yokoo" by Toshi Ichiyanagi which Mutant Sound has made available, and describes as:

"...an unique amalgamated mixture of lysergic demented psychedelic assault-like stunt rock, a aural whirlwind filled with acid folk ramblings, tape collages, field recording excerpts, radio commercial snippets, roaring jet engines, electronic music excursions into the vast unexcavated canyons and dungeons of your mind, squealing sound fragments of frogs mating in a nearby pond, drowned out enka escapades, kayokyoku excursions into no mans land, Takakura Ken nasal singing, spoken word fragmentation bombs by Kara Juro amongst others, traffic noises, sonic sound clusters of blistering fuzzed out psychedelic mayhem, stratosphericstatic electronic hissing, radio news broadcast flashes, vintage electronic tape music escapades, chirping cricket orchestras in a distant backgroundand so much more non-adaptive and deranged sonic activity."

(Jordan, I'm going to recommend it to you without even giving it a listen.)

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

photo of Tadanori Yokoo

♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

I can't gather much about this, but I love this too:
Tadanori Yokoo & Bohemians ビッグバンダナ TATOO FRONT & TATOO BACK

Miller Goodman

It's lucky I don't have kids. I'm afraid I would spend way too much money on toys that they wouldn't be allowed to play with. Children's toys should be simple, colorful and safe. And if you have to pay $100 for a set of blocks in order to fulfill those standards, so be it.


I love the ShapeMaker and PlayShape wooden blocks by Miller-Goodman. They remind me of a bunch of different things I like: the wooden toys created by Alexander Girard, AJ Fosik's rad spirit creature heads, designs by Paul Rand + Charlie Harper, Mary Blair's It's a Small World Ride, and 60's Scandinavian dishware.

This animation is pretty darn cute too:



More at the ShapeMaker Flickr pool + PlayShapes Flickr pool and at their shop.

Girl Crushin'

Yé-yé was a style of pop music that emerged out of France and Québec in the early 1960s. It was France's answer to British invasion and American girl groups.

I love British Invasion.

I love American Girl Groups.

I love cute sweet sexy French women.

I love yé-yé.







I really want to find Francoise Hardy, The "Yeh-Yeh" Girl from Paris or on vinyl for less than $25.00. Keep your eyes out for it won't you?

Links for more:
Blow-Up-Doll
Yé-Yé Girls
Yé-Yé Land
Les Chanteuses

Update:
Wow. I just searched for The Yeh-Yeh Girl from Paris again, and my friend's amazing podcast came up! He's going to give it to me, so you can stop looking. heh. Thank you Daniel!

Braniff

I can't sleep. So I'm having popcorn in a pyrex bowl and a ginger ale and reading about the fantastical world of Braniff Airlines. Boy, I'll tell you what. One of the most thrilling things in life is discovering something you knew nothing about, but that has been there your whole life.
How is it possible that I've never even heard of Braniff?

I discovered them while researching my new favorite designer Alexander Girard. His work brings my hand to my chest with a deep sigh. I wish I could make it to the SFMOMA to see the exhibition of his works.

Girard's design for La Fonda del Sol in New York City is absolutely incredible. He wasn't just the interior designer - he singlehandedly invented a distinct atmosphere for the restaurant. He designed everything- the tables, dishes, glassware, napkins, salt shakers, signs, menus, matchboxes, ashtrays and uniforms. As far as I can tell his only collaboration was with Eames who designed the chairs.

I kinda just can't even stand it - how much I love his stuff. It encompasses so much of what I'm drawn to - he's a modernist, but it's softened with colorful Mexican folk art, a passion for bold color, simple shapes and typography, a Swedish design influence, wooden toys, hearts! (mary blair-ish too, see below) It's just so sweetly joyful. I love love love it! Apparently so much so that I'll have to wait to post about Braniff. The birds are chirpin' and I gotta get to work!