April 15th, 2006
It’s common for advertising, packaging and posters from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s to be copied, quoted and commented on in contemporary design work. Stores like Old Navy just love to go retro with their fashions and promotions. 
The always luxurious, elegantly geometric and often gaudy work of the 1920’s has, in my opinion, been overlooked as a source of direct inspiration. The recent surge of intense and layered ornamentation in illustration does share elements with the work of artists like Erte; however, it is not a tribute or throwback time of the flapper. Here’s a smokin’ new product line from Blue Q (masters of freakishly fun packaging) that looks like it was pulled straight from the era of the bob. Continue ...
Grail tees, by Peter Ross, have maintained their “it” item status. I thought at 80 bucks or more a pop that success for the company might be short-lived despite the obvious appeal of their products. The reason for the high price point, and one of the draws of Ross’s fashions, is the customization process. Each shirt or sweat pant is printed with graphic/s, and made unique with paint and bleach splatters. It can’t hurt Grail’s business that the skull, their main motif, aside from their logotype, is enjoying a moment in the spotlight. Traditionally associated with punk and Grey’s Anatomy (the famed medical illustrations; not the TV show), drawings of this essential human structure are enjoying a mainstream moment.
It tauts itself as “New Art for a New Medium” and part of the pursuit of “Art for Everyone, Art for Everywhere.” It’s Start Mobile, John Doffing of Start Soma’s new product.
Doffing set up Start Soma in 2003 to bring art to everyone by focusing on exhibiting the work of emerging and underground artists, and by keeping prices reasonable, claiming on his website that 95% of the pieces are under $1000. His next idea, a quite fabulous one, was the Painted Rooms Project