Christian Jackson's Minimalist Children's Posters

These have been making their way across the Internet but I'm reposting them because they are so beautiful and clever. I'm posting my three favorites here but you can see the full fifteen at Visual News or Buzzfeed. Artist Christian Jackson's site can be found here, but I'm taking the broken link to the poster page as a sign that he's been overwhelmed by orders already. Perhaps check back in a few months?

Paris vs New York

I might be late to the game, but I LOVE these prints by French graphic designer Vahram Muratyan in which he cleverly compares Paris with New York. So vibrant. So cool.

(I do, however, have to admit that I would love to see someone do something like this with a non-glamorous town and make the locals proud. Fuquay-Varina, NC anyone? Can I hear it for Hoboken, NJ? Even with other - less popular - world capitals would be awesome).

Images via Paris vs New York blog and shop.

arts for transit

"Astoria, Queens" by Barbara Friedman (1995)

I love these vintage NYC transit posters (are they vintage if they're from the 90s?). I remember seeing these up in the subway stations back when I lived in NY and loving how different they were from one another as well as reflective of their respective neighborhoods. Glad to see you can buy them now to celebrate your own favorite New York neighborhood!

"New York Harbor" by Richard Bosman (1994)

"Park Slope" by Gregory William Frux (1996)

"Long Island City" by Ann Schaumburger (1996)

"Soho Neighborhood" by Stephen Johnson (1997)

the centerpiece

We still don't have a crib. Or a changing table. Or just about anything else for Sweet Pea's nursery nook. But the one thing we do have is a print of this Dumbo poster. It's the Polish version of the 1941 Disney movie and it's just plain lovely. Because of its existence, I've convinced myself that now everything else will fall perfectly into place. How could I be wrong when I'm beginning with such a sweet illustration?

Tom Eckersley's post office

Tom Eckersley was an English poster artist who designed lovely and bright posters for a broad range of advertisements and public service announcements. My favorite posters are part of the series Eckersley made for the General Post Office in the 1940s. Don't they make you want to pack your packages much more carefully?

all images via the University of Arts, London

National Poetry Month

 via poets.org

It's April which means that aside from taxes, Easter, and pollen - this month is all about poetry! Yep, it's "National Poetry Month" and to celebrate we thought we'd do a poetry-themed post every Monday.

Here's the first - a free poster! I know that Ms. Lorelei just blogged that you can get a free poster in honor of "Children's Book Week," but a good idea is a good idea and so... click here to get your own Elizabeth Bishop-inspired poetry poster before they run out.

P.S. Though this year's poster is free, you can buy posters from previous years for only $5 bucks. Sadly, my favorite, the 2005 Emily Dickinson inspired / Chip Kidd designed poster, is sold out. Bummer indeed.

Children's Book Week Poster

The Children's Book Week Poster for 2011 features art by author/illustrator Peter Brown with characters from his book Children Make Terrible Pets. I have blogged about the posters before, but you can have one sent to you from the Children's Book Council and show your support for Book Week or start your very own collection. They simply require a self addressed envelope with 65cents postage and your poster will be on the way.

The Children's Book Council site provides all the information!

movie posters

Artist Claudia Varosio has designed the most fantastic collection of re-imagined movie posters. The pared down, retro look of her cinema prints are just perfect. Ms. Varosio's inclusion of immediately recognizable elements from each film are not only clever, but much more aesthetically pleasing than the actual glossy, commercial posters out there.

If you know a film buff in need of the perfect gift or somebody who wants the coolest dorm walls ever....you need to check out this etsy shop.

All images courtesy of claudiavarosio via etsy

Celebrate....

Children's Book Week!

Image courtesy of Children's Book Council

You must remember it from elementary school (for me the memory includes "READ" posters decorating the halls and free bookmarks!) and it is still around.

"It all began with the idea that children's books can change lives. In 1913, Franklin K. Matthiews, the librarian of the Boy Scouts of America, began touring the country to promote higher standards in children's books. He proposed creating a Children's Book Week, which would be
supported by all interested groups: publishers, booksellers, and librarians. Mathiews enlisted two important allies: Frederic G. Melcher, the visionary editor of Publishers Weekly (the publishing industry trade journal), and Anne Carroll Moore, the Superintendent of Children's Works at the New York Public Library and a major figure in the library world. With the help of Melcher and Moore, in 1916 the American Booksellers Association and the American Library
Association cooperated with the Boy Scouts in sponsoring a Good Book Week. At the 1919 ABA convention, the Association committed to the organization of an annual Children's Book Week. A few months later, the official approval of the American Library Association was also secured during its first Children's Librarians session." - CBC website

I was a total bookworm as a kid and things like Book Week, summer reading lists, and the traveling school book fairs were so exciting to me. Worm or not , however, most of the kids I knew liked Book Week because our elementary school had a poster contest and the winner had their artistic venture displayed in.....the cafeteria! That was school-wide celebrity, the bigtime. I never made it there, but I'm not bitter. Now, I love seeing the art selected every year for the National Children's Book Week poster, such as the image above by illustrator Ian Falconer. I also recently discovered that for simply the cost of postage you can get your very own Book Week poster. What a nifty collection to start- my request is already in the mail.

This week I'll be celebrating more than my free poster. I will be participating in the Book Week program at my local library, being grateful that someone recognized children's books can change lives and created a whole week about just that.

Reason to love rain (#1)

One of the prettiest films I've ever seen is the French musical "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964) directed by Jacques Demy (I just the other day made the connection that Demy was married to Agnès Varda). Rich with yellow and pinks and constant rain. Is there anything more romantic?

"Selecting A Reader"

First, I would have her be beautiful,
and walking carefully up on my poetry
at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,
her hair still damp at the neck
from washing it. She should be wearing
a raincoat, an old one, dirty
from not having money enough for the cleaners.
She will take out her glasses, and there
in the bookstore, she will thumb
over my poems, then put the book back
up on its shelf. She will say to herself,
"For that kind of money, I can get
my raincoat cleaned." And she will.

by Ted Kooser

A sampling of "Umbrella" posters:

I like these as a pair. Because of the blue and musical notes.

Hello yellow. Notice how 3 of these posters are of the exact same image? Her umbrella, his arm.

I love the vertical lines, as rain, in these two.

And why not make it a double feature with that other soggy, but vibrant musical - "Singin' in the Rain" (1952)?