Art & Design

THE HOBBIT DUST JACKET ARTWORK BY J.R.R. TOLKIEN This is the dust jacket of the classic children’s book, “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is my pocket-sized, 75th anniversary edition which replicates the original first Edition Hobbit cover artwork. The wraparound painting was designed around …

HOW COCO CHANEL DESIGNED HER LOGO Fashion designer Coco Chanel is famous for her timeless designs and her iconic monogram logo that she designed herself. A huge influence on how the fashion of the roaring ‘20s looked, she became a much-revered style icon, known for …

THE WORM & NASA’S LOGO DESIGN On the 1st October 1958, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was founded in the United States. An independent agency of the U.S. federal government, it was responsible for the aeronautics programme and space research. An initial logo …

This is a flipbook which was given out at the premiere of La La Land in 2016. If you play the video above you can see the flipbook in action! The premiere was held on 31st August 2016, on the opening night of the 73rd annual Venice International Film Festival. Only a few of these flipbooks were made but I was lucky enough to acquire one just a couple of weeks ago and I completely love it.

THE JURASSIC PARK LOGO Today we discuss the Jurassic Park logo, from the classic 1993 film, directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the book by Michael Crichton. The story behind the iconic T-Rex illustration is brilliant and it all began with a young, gay, book …

THE JAWS POSTER This piece of design doesn’t really need any introduction. The Jaws poster is one of the most iconic images in cinema history and I’m a huge fan of the artwork.   The original 20” x 30” painting was made by Roger Kastel, …

I HEART NY & MILTON GLASER This is the classic “I Heart NY” design by the great Milton Glaser. Born in 1929, Glaser was an American graphic designer, who’s creations include the I Heart New York logo, the psychedelic Bob Dylan poster and the logos …

AUTOMAT BY EDWARD HOPPER  Painted by Edward Hopper in 1927, ‘Automat’ is my joint favourite painting of all time along with ‘Swinging’ by Wassily Kandinsky.   Automat is a medium sized painting 28 x 36 inches (71.4cm x 91.4cm) and first displayed on Valentine’s Day …

PURPLE FACE & ORANGE FIGURE BY JOHN NICOLL This is a painting of a face and figure by professional artist (and my Grandpa) John Nicoll. It was part of John’s colourful faces phase back in the late ‘80s / early ‘90s. He sometimes painted them …

DODIE’S YOU ALBUM COVER This album cover is from the second album by dodie. Dodie Clark is a singer-songwriter and musician from South East England who began her career on Youtube in 2011, posting original songs and covers. I started following her in 2014 and …

THE MINIMALISM OF OH WONDER ALBUM COVERS Oh Wonder are a singing-songwriting duo from London. Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West together have written 3 albums since they started out together in 2014. They’re now internationally successful and both singer’s voices blend really wonderfully together. …

A BOOK OF GHOSTS WRITTEN BY PAM ADAMS ILLUSTRATED BY CERI JONES This die-cut book is a simple but effective use of die cut shapes on paper revealing things behind to tell a story. It was published in 1974 and I think it still holds …

SWINGING BY WASSILY KANDINSKY “There is no must in art because art is free.” – Wassily Kandinsky This will be quite a short post today as I would prefer you just looked at this masterpiece rather than listened to me ramble on for too long. …

THE CASABLANCA FILM POSTER & THE DESIGNER BILL GOLD In my opinion the Casablanca movie poster is one of the greatest movie posters of all time. Designed by Bill Gold for the 1942 film, it is one of Hollywood’s most memorable posters. It’s a masterpiece …