Fawning Over Flora (or) Man, I Loves Me Some Art History

I thought I'd wield my mighty blogging power and shine a light on the work of mid-20th-century American illustrator Jim Flora. I've sort of been dosing myself on Modernism for a project at work (especially American Modernism, which has a lot more wit than it's dry European cousin, the stuffy Swiss International Style). I really like Flora. I shall be swiping heavily from (as well as Russian Constructivism, Paul Klee and Fernand Léger) him over the next few weeks.

He draws heavily from Surrealism, Dada and Cubism, (aka: "the Holy Trinity") while still making work that is approachable and - more importantly to record companies in the 40's and 50's - marketable, while still managing to inject his work with a healthy dose of good old James Ensor "I forgot to take my crazy pills" pathos. He's like the illegitimate offspring or Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney.

That's a good thing.

As far as record packaging artists go, he's one of the pillars of the field and you can see his fingerprints all over contemporary illustration annuals as well as in the subcultures of urban vinyl and poster art.

There are two books of his art (both of which I am lusting after, BTW), a website dedicated to him and a blog that regularly posts work from his archives.

And that's your dose of culture for the day. Don't it feel good?

Advertising Is Crazy

I was reading in the "Ideas" section over at Veer about the Art Director's Club awards last week and this was one of the winners. Wow. It's quite genius.

Then there's this which my homie Allen, aka "Tenbu" pointed me toward. And let's not forget the yodeling bunny ad that also won at the ADC awards.

It's amazing the amount of surreality they've been able to get away with while selling little brightly-colored candies. The spirit of Salvador Dalí is cackling maniacally while devouring fruit flavored candy and kittens somewhere.

Seriously, can you imagine them pitching these ideas to the board of directors for the Skittles company? I imagine it going something like this:

"So there's this rabbit that sings and this guy trades his Skittles for it because really, who wouldn't want a singing rabbit, but the rabbit won't stop singing and it's really annoying so the guy goes to trade back, but the other guy's just eating the Skittles and the first guy is just standing there with the singing rabbit and he is sad. So, when can we shoot this? Does anybody have any more blow? Is this floor moving? I am hot. Are you hot? It is hot in here."

These guys must be amazingly persuasive to get these weird things produced. Like, "Selling Ice to an Eskimo," persuasive. Like, "Selling Crazy to Tom Cruise" persuasive. Like "Selling Drunk to Lindsay Lohan" persuasive. Like "Selling Creepy to the Transvestite Exterminator" persuasive. These guys are good. Watch out because they may just use their powers for evil and make you do things. Bad things. Like rent Be Cool or shave little Vanilla Ice lines in your eyebrows.

And lastly, in a not-at-all-related item, do not click on this link! Doing so will make you want to claw your eyes out with your fingernails. You have been warned.