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Flags are generally pretty boring. Certainly National flags are. There are exceptions to the rule, but the usual striped colours are dull to look at. I guess they need to be easily recognised from a distance. Personally the Jolly Roger has always been my pick o’ the bunch, but it’s a rogue naval flag that represents pirates, not a representative cultural icon for a country.

If it’s not two or three bands of colours, then it’s a scattering of stars, or a coat of arms, or a mascot of some description. Where’s the real artistry? They’re nothing to write home about. I suppose there’s some clause on some ancient papyrus that states the “rules of a national flag’s design”. But as I said, there are exceptions to the rule. But not many.

So here is selection of current National flags from around the world that I find pleasing to my style of eye. There’s no xenophobic prejudice here, this is purely based on what I find a cool and attractive combination of colour, line and pattern.

Some of these flags I've liked since I was a boy. I've always found the combination of Germany's black/red/yellow very appealing. The Stars and Stripes have always looked good too. As has Japan's rising sun and Canada's maple leaf. But my favourites would have to be Albania's black coat of arms and Montenegro's golden coat of arms, both in a sea of red (Seems red is the prevalent colour for flags). I really like the juxtaposed lines of Greece's cross and stripes and the Mediterranean-esque colour. I like the dragons of Wales and Bhutan. Of course, one can't forget Nepal's outside the square design. Hats off to them for being so unique, it's a shame the flag is not recognised, so in essence it's inclusion here is a little controversial. But hey, I always root for the underdog!

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movie posters VI - horror!

September 11th 2008 01:17

There’s something about horror movie posters that tickles the hairs on my spine. Perhaps not quite as much as those exploitation movie posters, but still they provide me with a smile and maybe a dangerous glint in my eye.

I’ve picked posters from back in the day, nothing from the here and now. The don’t use the same approach to graphic design these days, it’s all bland as hell. Actually calling them “bland as hell” is being thoughtful, more like “bland as your grandmother’s tea”.

I’m not going to spend more paragraphs re-iterating the reasons why I gravitate toward cult classic graphic design, I just fucking love it (if you'll pardon my French); all those lurid colours and crazy fonts, the suggestive illustrations and wayward concepts, often with little to do with the actually movie (which is probably rubbish anyway).

So, bring on the 2-D flesh and blood! Let the artists heads roll! I want red ink in the aisles! And their bones crushed to make erasers!

Oooo! I feel like a little boy in the magic shop! So many deliciously macabre and darkly colourful delights here! I'm a vampire at heart (staked or not), so I do love the Vampire at Midnight and Dracula Has Risen From His Grave posters. The Deathmaster poster is fantastic though, as is Battle Beyond the Sun. And I have a crimson wet spot for Astro Zombies ... I can see that one on my bathroom wall. I've just noticed there's an animal/insect theme running through my selection. I'm a bit of an arachnophobe, so the posters for The Fly and Kingdom of the Spiders give me a heebie-jeebie perverse thrill! As does the poster for Great White, but I'm sure that one goes without saying!

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movie posters V - exploitation!

August 22nd 2008 00:21

I’m back with my favourite post material: movie posters. But this time I’ve streamlined the selection (to be precise I’ve ruffled the edges). Yes, I’m a dirty rough trade pervert at the best of times, despite my professed love of the clean and smooth aesthetic. As much as I like my slick and polished cineaste graphic design, I also get my groove on to the low riders, the grunge design concept of grindhouse flicks.

To be brutally honest, the art work for the B-grade (and admittedly to a lesser degree the Z-grade) movies is often far more provocative and striking than the mainstream dross, especially during the heyday of the exploitation movies; the late 60s and through that particularly fantastic decade of cinema, the 1970s. The just don’t make ‘em like they used to!

Filmmakers were pushing the boundaries of good taste and the envelope of common decency, producing some of the most outrageously decadent and thoroughly reprehensible movies ever made. The movie posters would attempt to reflect this to lure the dirty mac brigade in off the sidewalk and into a decrepit auditorium to watch some cheesy schlock horror or a sleazy flesh fest.

Now, apart from the odd maverick who attempts to rear their head a little higher than the rest to make something tough and uncompromising (and might just have it lopped off!), most so-called “exploitation” movies are safe enough to take your grandmother along to … providing she’s got her tongue pierced and is wearing a leather girdle under her petticoat.

So here are some tarnished golden oldies to get you all hot under the collar and sticky over.

Fury of the Succubus aka Satan's Mistress

You gotta love those titles! Tight Skirts Loose Pleasures! Sexual Apocalypse! Vicious Lips! Ha! Bring it on! My "clean" favourite winners here are the Fury of the Succubus poster and the (High Priestess of) Sexual Witchcraft. But I also really dig the Spanish flick El Caminante (aka Traveller), there's something boldy unapologetic about that illustration. The Virgin Witch poster has a deep sensual eyesore allure too, but at the end of a long hard night you can't go past Russ Meyer's buxom babe, heh heh.

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movie posters IV

July 29th 2008 04:54

I love my shlock’n’trash, and I love mixing it with my art culture. I get a perverse sense of pleasure slumming with the high brow, lying in the gutter and gazing at the stars. Cinema brings that kind of dynamic and diverse thrill.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, time moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around you might just miss it. Hang on, that's a movie quote. I meant to say I've said it before and I'll say it again, I especially love graphic design. Movies provide such wide range of styles when it comes to movie poster art work. So here, fourth time around, I’ve selected foreign designs for English-language films as well as foreign films and the proverbial exploitation and the arthouse. I little indulgence for everyone.

Now I’ll shut up and let you do the “Oooo”-ing, “Aahh”-ing, and "Isn't that clever?" and "Oh, so provocative!"

Wow, there's some seriously good art work in this selection. I don't know how to choose favourites (although obviously I love them all). But I gotta say, reaching for the stars it's the Red Sonja and the G-Force poster art which just scream out sensational. The sleaze in me smiles wickedly at the Boarding Gate poster, while the Nude for Satan (the title alone) is pure erotic-nightmare allure. And then The Birds just says, wahey, I bet Saul Bass never thought of that! Oh, but I really, really like the Boris poster art for The Sword and the Sorcerer and Southern Comfort has a great 70s feel (even though the movie was released in 1981). But I can't forget the original Spanish poster for Tacones Lejanos (High Heels). Like I said, very hard to pick favourites.

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movie posters III

November 30th 2007 01:31

This category is possibly my favourite. It’s such a rich and rewarding experience searching and discovering, and re-discovering the weird, wild and wonderful world of movie poster graphic design and artwork.

I’ve indulged my more lurid tastes this time round, hell, I’m a lurid kinda guy! Exploitation and seedy genre flicks, the sexadelic and the futuristic, the macho posturing and the foxy allure. There’s so much room for experimentation and for pushing the boundaries of good taste. And therein lies The Rub.

Sometimes it’s the artwork that does cross the line from what might be considering ‘”classy” unto something that is deemed “crass” that actually makes for a more interesting movie poster image, especially if it captures the essence of the movie more succinctly than something trying only to suggest or hint at.

I’m a sucker for strong and vivid use of figures and faces and bold and creative use of typeface. I think you’ll find this represented solidly in this selection. And a touch of the provocative too, just for good measure.

Often foreign (ie non-English) artwork is more left of centre, even more abstract than the original Western (or Hollywood) design. For example the Polish poster art for the movie Alien, which, let’s face it, is downright strange. But then, hey, the movie is called Alien, so the graphic designer must have interpreted the title literally. I'm all for creative freedom!

I see ol' craggy-faced Charles Bronson features twice, now he was a well-used poster face in the 70s. But what about my favourites here, apart from the fact that I love them all, I guess if I had to whittle it down to a top three, I'd single out Forbidden Planet, High Plains Drifter and To Live and Die in LA. But hey, that was difficult ... the poster for Deathrace 2000 keeps staring me down!

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record covers II

September 23rd 2007 23:25

There was always gonna be a second installment of this post, and no doubt a third and fourth and fifth. Let’s face it, there are more record covers out there than there are hot dinners, or should I say hot lunches (see movie posters II).

Of course for every sensational record cover there’s one that just looks wrong. There can be the intentionally wrong, and then there’s the wrong wrong, y’know, just bad concept, bad photography, bad artwork, bad lettering, etc. But I’m certainly not here to dwell on the terrible record covers

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movie posters II

September 21st 2007 04:33

I’m returning to the (film) scene of the (graphic design) crime. I couldn’t keep away. I love the look of classic and cult movie posters, especially those from the 60s and 70s. There are many exceptions to the rule, but on the whole these two decades were a particularly inventive and novel period of movie poster design.

Graphic designers don’t use illustration nearly as much as they used to. Too often the movie posters of today use plain head shots all in a pretty row. It’s damn bloody boring. Still, I’d be a hypocrite if I continued to moan, because I do like the use of faces in movie posters, but it all depends on the context

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record covers

August 29th 2007 02:18

Where does one start?! This is probably the most difficult of my posts so far, as the list for selection is huge. But then, as I went through my indispensable book 1000 Record Covers by Michael Ochs (man, has that guy got a collection or what?!), I discovered that my personal aesthetics were represented not nearly as often as I thought they would.

Still, despite the thousand covers in Ochs' pictorial archives, that barely touches the tip of the iceberg. There are literally hundreds of thousands of record covers out there, most of which most of us will never see

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movie posters

August 15th 2007 04:10

I love movies. Not too surprising I guess. I love the visual artifice, the narrative invention, the audience manipulation, the realism and the escapism. I also admire imaginative movie poster art. You don’t see as much of it these days. A lot of poster art, especially that which is churned out of the Hollywood machine, uses homogenised images, a mundane use of text and graphics, and tedious tag lines.

Back in the day – the 50s, 60s, 70s and to a lesser extent the 80s - movie poster art was much more imaginative and expressive, it was also more risqué and provocative. This is a generalisation I’ll admit, but it leans far more toward the rule than the exception

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jokers

July 27th 2007 01:32

A joker in the hand is worth much more in the bush

When I was teenager I came up with a brilliant idea. Forget collecting coins, stamps, dolls, ties, matchbooks, model fucking airplanes … I was gonna collect “jokers”. I was gonna ruin as many packs of playing cards as I could by stealing the jokers from them and displaying them in a portfolio using the face of one to exhibit the joker itself, and the back of the other to represent the generic design of the playing card.

I never followed through. I was too lazy. I collected perhaps a dozen and then realized it was too much hard work, plus I’d no doubt piss too many people off. I wasn’t gonna spend my life searching high and low for obscure makes of playing cards. Fuck that

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