His work is lucid and technically brilliant. I have selected 3 of Nigel Cox’s art works and you may see the rest on his site.

“Norman Rockwell was a 20th-century American illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell’s works are the Willie Gillis series, Rosie the Riveter, Saying Grace (1951), and the Four Freedoms series.” – Wiki

Do yourself a favor and watch it full-screen (double click on the video once it starts to play).  Its pretty awesome.

Born in a sub-provincial city in China and now living in a treehouse in Brooklyn, Jing Wei makes prints – beautiful prints – delightful prints – prints that tell stories of cute little animal characters – stories that make me smile… Jing Wei hopes to keep making art for people who like the art that she makes…we here at Signature Illustration love her work…

Milton Glaser is one of the most prolific designers of our time. He designed I Love NY, DC Comics Logo and he also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker to mention a few of his  legacies. The below video he talks about drawing and how it makes us look at things in more detail as well as other related thoughts.

Enjoy the video!

Julie Morstad’s work can be thought provoking, whimsical, fun and even psychological.  Simple lines, delicate depths and a great mix of colors make Julie’s illustrations all in all delightful, even charming. I would love to get my hands on one of her prints.

I hope you appreciate these lovely illustrations as much as we did:

Alexandra and Sascha

A lovely song and a great video. It is French and the title, Ce Soir, means: Tonight

On my way to work this morning, at around 8, I came across Nathan Bowen who had been illustrating for at least 1 hour. Now that’s dedication for you! As per Eddy’s comment Nathan has got work dotted around london incl Brick Lane.

In this instance had painted the strips white and then created the set of super urban characters you see below. He said his motivation was simply to make the temporary building wall more attractive. I thought it was great.  (He would pop by here later this week).

This last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Norway – it was a short but sweet trip. We spent our time in the small town of Tofte in a comfortable wooden cabin. Our cabin was neatly placed right next to the Oslo Fijord with an awesome view over the water. Just on sunday I was running through a quite forest which was followed by a lengthily swim in the sea. I could have easily spent couple months there just relaxing and taking my time about my daily sustenance!

I had the time to look through some illustrations and stumbled upon Theodor Ketlesen (April 27, 1857 – January 21, 1914) who is one of the most famous artist in Norway. He was famous for his nature paintings but also for his illustrations of fairy tales, legends and trolls.

Below are some of Theodor Ketlesen illustrations:

S

The author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson, gave birth to Gonzo journalism which is a type of ‘fictional’ journalism. It often includes the reporter in the story and is in the first person. By blending fiction and fact the journalist is able to engage the reader whiles expressing certain facts about a situation. Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic.

Hunter S. Thomas was good friends with a british artist called Ralph Steadman who provided visual representaiton for Gonzo journalism.  Ralph Steadman has won multiple awards and is renowned for his political illustrations, social caricatures, cartoons and also for illustrating a number of picture books.

Below is a collection of Ralph Steadman illustrations:

Hunter S. Thompson with Ralph Steadman Illustrations: A good collection of Hunter’s life

These illustrated prints excite me. Love the colours, love the texture, love the layering, love the depth and love the strange stories these prints tell. Icinori is a project by Mayumi Otero and Raphael Urwiller, students from Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg. Every singe aspect of these prints is hand made: hand printed, hand bound and hand cut- I love that – real beautifully crafted work.

Blogging in a sense is more about exploration then it is about purveying what you already know. It ebbs me on to find new things and what I find I share and then in turn people share their ideas and knowledge about that topic. A similar thing is happening with our Facebook Group, which has been growing steadily. People are actively discussing/sharing their favourite illustrators and artists.

Ok so yes this is how I found Utagawa Kuniyoshi. He was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints. I am aware of Katsushika Hokusai and I have posted about him. What is interesting about Utagawa Kuniyoshi is that I think that there is a correlation to the well known contemporary illustrator James Jean - (note the previous post). 

Here are some of Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s art works:

I thoroughly enjoy the way James Jean takes different organic, physiological, social and emotional elements and with his brilliant imagination mashes them into this wonderful art work. Death defeating life and life defeating death. Social messages illustrated with savvy depth. Ignorant evil. Depicting our struggle through clever metaphors.

You have probably seen some of James Jean’s illustrations if so it’s always worth another look as there are many layers to his art. If you haven’t heard of James Jean you are in for a treat!

Found this today. Absolutely love it. So so fun, it’s great.

Organically soulful pop group with the radiant vocalist Yukimi Nagano are something special. They where in London last week performing at Jazz cafe and despite being the first at the door tickets where Sold Out! 

Little Dragon – Twice is my favorite and topping my personal charts at the moment. The whole album is great. Another song to watch out for is Test which is more upbeat. 

Welcome to Joe Sorren’s world. Joe Sorren originally wanted to be an “art historian and conservationalist. Or a botanist. Or work with horses. It would be interesting to be behind the scenes in politics, at least for a while. Or maybe a studio musician, or invent games, or a … I would rather paint”. And what beautiful, surreal and rich paintings he creates. Joe Sorren currently lives in Arazona with his wife, daughter and son and is a drummer in a band called Sparkleface.

Great Video – Good Song

Winter Gloves – Let Me Drive

I have had a stupendous 2 weeks at work and tonight I lull myself into browsing for illustrations and art – a simpe joy, little effort and a good cup of green tea. This evening I felt Ruud van Empel was a best pick. He is offbeat without any cheap shock, macabre, bazaar or horror themes attached to his work. They are outlandish and curios. Perhaps you could describe the feeling the work emanates as ‘a recollection of an imagined memory’.

Ruud van Empel works and lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

PS:  Donnie I picked ‘Souvenir 2 baby‘ especially for you

Tip: ‘world 17‘ makes for a great desktop BG! 

Laura Marling - My Manic & I

Beautiful Sad – I really like it. 

How much influence did art, the politicians brand and exposure thereof have in the 2008 American elections?

Is there an integral role between art and politics which can guide us in discovering truth or does art and design in politics walk dangerously close to propaganda?

How much does art and design influence the way people think and act? Or is art an embodiment of people’s perceptions implying that the art is in-fact preordained? The logo of a political brand is then a personification of a symbol or in other words the embodiment of the person it represents – similar comments in the video at the end of this post.

To what degree has art and design influenced the way Americans voted in 2008?

With these questions in mind please take a look at the collection of illustrations, caricatures, logos and video’s relating to the 2008 American Elections. You will notice there is more material on Obama which has nothing to do with my personal views. There was simply more of it. For example there were no real variations of the McCain logo like there was for Obama nor where there video’s talking about McCains brand development.

Enjoy: (Click on the images to see fully)

Obama Brand & Logo Development:
An interview with Sol Sender about the Obama logo and the brand that was built.

Sol Sender – Obama Logo Design Part 1 of 2

Sol Sender – Obama Logo Design Part 1 of 2

Other Videos:

This is a video compilation of varies political expressions

Obama And Pop Culture – CBS News

HipHop Scratching Video

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed!