I’m not sure why, but tickets of all kinds have always piqued my interest and this set may be the best I’ve ever laid eyes on. But forget the tickets, would just love some high-res copies of these photos for framing.
In keeping with my recentcarkick I thought I’d post these vintage BMW ads. The first one — created as part of BMW’s affiliation with the 1972 Munich Olympics — is vaguely reminiscent of Otl Aicher’s posters. I’m assuming this was no accident. It’s also a big enough file that you could probably get a pretty good print out of it off a nice inkjet (click image to view full size). I really wish more vintage posters like this were available in higher resolutions. With most of this advertising stuff, the owners of the copyrights have no intention of ever printing them again, it’s a shame they can’t be reproduced and enjoyed by more people.
Some Otl Aicher 1972 Munich Olympics pins. There is nothing better than green with that deep aqua-marine (top pin in particular). If I had these I would wear a different one every day on a short sleeved white button up shirt with horn rim glasses. Speaking of the ’72 Olympics, Spitz is still the champ in my book based on stylealone.
This Otl Aicher-designed Olympic poster is from Blanka. I see them linked on FFFFOUND all the time but I really don’t know what they’re all about. At first I thought they were an agency but now I think they’re just some sort of design shop with all sorts of cool stuff that is never in stock. At any rate, it’s fun to look at the pictures; they have an extensive archive of vintage poster prints.
Hoffman-La Roche commissioned this ad featuring photography by René Groebli for the anti-anxiety drug, Esanin. At first glance I really didn’t grasp how amazing this composition is. If you really study it you’ll see some incredible typography and layout. I love the image, the various faces blending to create these almost psychedelic colors is very striking. Those crazyGermans, why do they have to be so good? You’re making us all look bad.
Ever since I saw his great 2007 Holiday Card on I’ve been waiting to see more from Gavin Potenza. When I awoke this morning this nice little birthday present waiting for me on FFFOUND. I love the concept and I love the fact that it’s purely a design exercise, which is very fitting considering the name of his site (exploratorydesign.org). As I say in my workshops, that’s when most people will do their best work, when there is no spec, no client, no parameters other than your own. Just you, your imagination, and your tools. As he says on his site, this piece was inspired by Otl Aicher, one can’t really go wrong with that kind of source.
It’s minimalist, reserved design like this that intrigues me more and more these days. To me, modernism is about taking all your ideas about color and type and form and expressing them in the most efficient way possible, which I think is the very core of what we are all trying to do as designers. Also, stamps are awesome, I collected them when I was a kid…along with my obsessive hoarding of any other printed material I could get my hands on. Unfortunately I only had access to boring American stamps so it got boring real quick.
Caught this on the way out of the subway on my last day in Tokyo. Not quite an Otl Aicher caliber piece, but good nonetheless. (caveat: I color corrected it a bit to give it a more muted vibe….couldn’t resist)
Part of a series of posters from ’72 Munich games by Otl Aicher. I’ll post some more examples in the coming weeks. These must have had a very modern feel when they came out, the colors certainly contrast the prevailing palettes of the time.
