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This poster was designed in 1968 by the then ‘enfant terrible’ Alan Aldridge for Andy Warhol’s film Chelsea Girls. I know it’s very un-PC in this 21st century, but for all that, I still like it. And it has to be compared with this earlier 1967 work by the American Illustrator Tomi Ungerer...
for his own moving card. Plagiarism or great minds and all that?
This is Elia Kazan. He was one of America’s greatest film directors.
He started his professional life as an actor, working in theatre for eight years. In 1932, he joined the Group Theatre, where he met Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler – the principle architects of the American version of the Stanislavski discipline of acting.
Konstantin Stanislavski
In 1947, along with Strasberg, Kazan co-founded the Actors Studio.
Elia Kazan in front of the Actors Studio in New York City circa 1950s
This was to become America’s premier acting school developing a variation on Stanislavsky’s ‘method’, a highly naturalistic style of self-expression in performance. Many of America’s greatest actors, past and present, have passed through its doors.
Paul Newman in class at the Actors Studio in the 1950s
And Marilyn Monroe around the same time
Kazan had a passion for exposing the social and personal issues that concerned him. His first film of note in this area was Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) starring Gregory Peck. It dealt head on with the subtle anti-Semitism in America at the time and received three Oscars, including Best Director. Later came A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952) and On the Waterfront (1954), all starring Marlon Brando, a method actor Kazan had nurtured along with the young James Dean, who he directed in East of Eden (1955). He later directed Warren Beatty in Splendor in the Grass (1961).
Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire 1951
Marlon Brando in Viva Zapata! 1952
Patricia Neal and Andy Griffith in A Face in The Crowd 1957
James Dean and Julie Harris in East of Eden 1955
Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty in Splendor in The Grass 1961
He was very much an actor’s director, drawing
out astonishing performances, 21 of which led to Oscar nominations and 9 wins.
In his own life, Kazan received two best director Oscars for Gentleman’s
Agreement and On the Waterfront.
Gregory Peck in Gentleman’s Agreement 1947
Eva Marie Saint and Marlon Brando in On The Water Front 1954
But not all revered Kazan. He was heavily criticised for testifying before the Congressional Committee in 1952. Nicknamed ‘the witch hunt’, it was headed up by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Kazan ‘named names’ of people and friends who might have little or no connection to the Communist Party, the dreaded enemy of the United States. Among the people he named were Lillian Hellman, Dashiell Hammett and Clifford Odets. Many were blacklisted, destroying their careers and ruining their lives. In 1999, when Kazan received a lifetime achievement Oscar from the Academy, many of the audience protested and others refused to clap him on the night.
Kazan reciving his Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1999
But, for all that, he has left a magnificent
body of films well worth watching.
James Dunn in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 1943
Do look at his earlier A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943), which verges on sentimental but is a delightful film with a wonderful performance from James Dunn, for which he won an Oscar.
Peggy Ann Garner in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Haliee Sinfield in the Coen Brothers True Grit 2010, looking remarkably similar to Garner above
Below are three stills from Walt Disney
Animation Studios' Paperman. It is a
perfectly formed and beautifully crafted short.
Created by animator John Kahrs in his debut animation. Produced in
black-and-white using new techniques that seamlessly merge computer-generated
and hand-drawn animation together.
Paperman is doing the rounds with
Wreck-It Ralph, the new, big
budget, John Lasseter production. But for me this little black and white number
steals the show. It is a real delight.
This is John Sewell…
Born in 1926, he was a key figure on the British graphic scene in the 1960s.
His work was included in 17 Graphic Designers, which was published in 1963 and was the precursor to D&AD – a rare find if you can lay your hands on a copy.
Sewell studied at Hornsey School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art. In 1954, he became the first graphic designer to be employed by BBC television to take charge of on-screen graphics. He also directed a few experimental films, which have been recently released on DVD by the BFI:
Above two frames from Everybody's Nobody (1960) directed by John Sewell. The bottom image clearly shows Sewell's fascination with graphic abstraction, something that was to dominate his later print work.
But for me it is Sewell’s later publishing work that I have found most rewarding. His dynamic low-tech approach, using vibrantly coloured paper cut-outs, letterpress print and simple textures, gave his work a distinctive style.
Not only did he design many book jackets and covers but he also designed identities for independent bookshops, Better Books and The City Bookshop, both now long gone.
Better Books was started by Tony Godwin in Charing Cross Road, He also ran Bumpus Books and the City Bookshop in London. In 1960, Godwin joined Penguin Books and rose to Chief Editor. He set about updating the editorial and design policies. He hired Germano Facetti in 1961, who created a new cover design system with the grid layout. Goodwin also hired Alan Aldridge who pushed for a more radical cover designs. Godwin established the Penguin Modern Classics and The English Library series.
This is the original Better Bookz in 1967 (with a 'z') and later changed. The frontage design looks like a Sewell creation.Photograph by Simos Tsapnidis.
Better Books at 94 Charing Cross Road, London in the late 1972 which features Sewell's fascia graphics. ©/Photo: Richard Friedman, Oakland.
Sewell's cover for Design Magazine 1967
The following run of Penguin covers from the mid 1960’s Writing Today series really crystallises his distinctive graphic approach:
This delightful bookmark was sent to me recently by reader Anna Rolfe
Sewell died in 1981 at the young age of 55.
This is by Swiss designer/illustrator Celestino Piatti (1922 – 2007). In the 1960s and 70s you couldn’t open a copy of Graphis magazine without seeing his work.
He was a prolific book cover designer, being responsible for most of the German publishing house, DTV’s covers for three decades.
Poster designed by George Mayhew 1965. George was a member of the design group, BDMW Associates. In their short time together in the 1960's they produce some wonderful work and George was the undisputed king of the graphic poster...
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