1 comments about Starstruck: Vintage Movie Posters from Classic Hollywood.

1. Mr Resnick's passion has created a collection of movie posters that reflect the creativity and quality prevalent in marketing movies in the golden era. The collection has been carefully thought out and the narrative brings us insight into a time when studios, writers, directors and stars brought us high quality entertainment of infinite variety. The graphic artists who created the marketing materials should also be lauded for their exceptional work. I appreciate Mr. Resnick's recognition of this work as an art form.

5 comments about Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion.

1. First off, the book is huge! It is well laid out and documents the poster periods and movements well. It is a great inspiration for art styles and concepts as well as informative. My only small criticism is with the poster identifiers at the bottom of each page. The credits are numbered, but there are no corresponding numbers by each poster. So it just takes a little longer to identify them visually. A minor issue. But the quantiy and quality outshine any lay out issues the book may have.



2. Art of Modern Rock features some incredible art drawn from great artists and is a must not just for a rock aficionado, but for an art enthusiast, an artist, a designer or even a writer. The tremendous amount of variety and unique and powerful imagery makes looking through this book a great pleasure.



3. I've had this book for several years now and this is my all time favourite art book, and I own far too many to even be considered in the realm of normal. The Art of Modern Rock is a huge book (almost 500 pages) and the art diverse and inspiring. I just love this book!!



4. I purchased the Art of Modern Rock online for my son and his wife for Christmas. I usually have a difficult time finding a gift I think they will like. They have a rock band themselves, and my daughter-in-law is also interested in art, so I gave this book a try. Not only did they love it, but they are in it! I wish now that I had opened it and looked through it before I mailed it to them. I was pleased with the book, and the service from Amazon is always excellent!



5. This is one of the greatest books I've read in the last ten years about rock posters. All kind of rock music is here. If you really like rock'n'roll music, you must get this one.

4 comments about Modern Dog: 20 Years of Poster Art.

1. Great samples of poster art, but many of the images are small. Aside from the introductory essay, the book is thin on copy. On the other hand, most of the posters selected speak well for themselves. I bought Modern Dog along withNew Master's of Poster Design: Poster Design for the Next Century, and New Poster Art. As a group, I think they represent modern poster design well.



2. As a graphic designer and fine artist I found this collective of poster design to be both inspiring and extremely funny. It's refreshing to see such a creative design studio not taking itself too seriously while at the same time doing work that is both timely and powerful. The joy of loving what you do shines through on each page. Bravo Modern Dog.



3. I am a professional freelance artist who specializes in poster design, and I found this book to be a wonderfully inspiring collection.
   
   No two posters look alike; each have their own distinctive feel and approach and the stories behind them are equally interesting. I had never heard of Modern Dog before, and now I wonder where they've been all my life.
   
   A throughly solid art book, I wish it had been twice as long!



4. This is a very entertaining book from a group of very talented designers at Modern Dog. I heard the founders of Modern Dog being interviewed by Debbie Millman= and thoroughly enjoyed listening to the Modern Dog story. I highly recommend this book to all fans of the protest poster, and hilarious graphic communication.

2 comments about History of the Poster.

1. This book is mainly a pictorial of 291 poster designs from the very late 1800's up until the late 1960's. There are many great and important examples found in this book, both well and lesser known posters are showcased. Some parts of this book could described as egotistical going into the 50's and 60's as there are many Müller-Brockmann works shown; however, I found this to be quite relevant with Swiss design of that time being so revolutionary. Then again I am a great admirer of his work. Additionally, the writings throughout the book are quite enlightening and are not too heavy to read. The printing quality is great, examples are large, shown in full colour and printed on very nice stock. The creator's name, size, year, type of reproduction, and descriptions of the purpose are included for each poster. One of the pro's to this book was the inclusion of these very brief descriptions. A very good piece of information to include in a design collective as it is essential in order to judge whether or not a piece of design is effective; something a few overrated books on identity could use (e.g. Los Logos).



2. This new edition of History Of The Poster by Josef Muller-Brockmann (1914-1996) brings back into print a seminal work originally published in 1971 and which has been regretably out-of-print for many years. Despite its name, History Of The Poster is not so much a straightforward historical narrative as it is a fantastic gallery of posters used for politics, propaganda, advertising, and art throughout history. A tri-lingual book in English, German, and French, History Of The Poster contains a brief introductory essay then reveals almost three hundred posters in full color, followed by an afterword remarking on present and future trends. A unique and welcome new style of artbook.

4 comments about Design for Victory: World War II Poster on the American Home Front.

1. This is a good book about the sort of propaganda the people on the home front were on the receiving end of during WWII. There are a lot of clear pictures of old posters with explanations and some production details as well. By modern standards, some of these posters are pretty crude, and some are even cringe-worthy, but it is important to remember that they were effective 70 years ago because the target audience for these posters were not bombarded with information to the extent we are today, with TV and online content.
   I enjoyed this book from a historical perspective, as well as from a design persective - if you want inspiration for a retro-looking poster, you could do a lot worse that use some of these posters as inspiration.



2. This beautifully designed small coffee table paperback is the perfect guide thru US WW2 patriotic industrial and gov't posters. Yes, sometimes one may have felt "Big Brother" is watching, since these artistic posters decorated the walls of factories, building sides, and seemingly near everywhere during the war years. The message invariably was "Be A Nurse", "Help the Troops", "Contribute to the effort", and most important "Don'T SHIRK ON THE JOB..MAKE EVERY MOMENT COUNT FOR THE BOYS OVERSEAS!" Of course similar posters were designed and displayed by all combatants, and their messages were all near identical. The postwar industrial posters are also noted, and they were definitely childish at worst, compared with the noble and heroic aspirations sought in the best of the War Posters!



3. "Are you doing all that you can?"

   That simple question, asked in a popular WWII, finger-pointing poster, captures the patriotic spirit that pervaded America.

   Posters, according to the authors, deserve credit as "the ideal agent for making war aims the personal mission of every citizen." Further, "Poster campaigns aimed not only to increase productivity in factories, but to enlarge people's views of their wartime responsibilities." Rockwell's enduring classic images, The Four Freedoms, illuminate this ideological trend.

   How did wartime posters inspire military recruits, help increase domestic production, and sell war bonds during WWII? What were the different strategies used by government agencies to promote American ideals, self sacrifice, and gas rationing to a scared and confused public? Which advertising methods and artistic techniques worked best? Why?

   This concise, colorful guide examines the power, poetry, and politics of American WWII posters in five thematic chapters. Delving beneath the surface of over 150 colorful posters, the authors showcase and analysis the zig-zag evolution of wartime posters.

   Personally, I found chapter three (Art, Advertising, and Audience) to be a fascinating summary of vigorous debate among message makers. How should the war effort be framed? Is it a struggle for truth and democracy against terror and fascism? Is it a battle for survival? Should the focus be on personal fears, national achievements, or heroic freedom fighting?

   George Gallup, later of pollster fame, urged posters be designed to appeal to "the lower third" of the population. Other analysts warned that the Office Of Facts and Figures early communication efforts were too abstract and contained too much information. "It would be wonderful indeed if the psychological war could be fought on an intellectual basis," warned two critics "if the American people who will win or lose this war were so educated and conditioned that we could bring them understanding on the terms we all prefer. But, through no fault of ours, they unfortunately are so educated. And in pitting the strategy of truth against the strategy of terror, we cannot stop to educate - we must win a war. We must state the truth in terms that will be understood by all levels of intelligence. Further, we must dramatize the truth." Powerful images soon replaced statistics in posters.

   The considerable efforts to coordinate wartime messages across departments also generated vigorous debate. Eventually, the newly formed Office of Wartime Information identified six basic propaganda themes for general information programs: The nature of the Enemy; the nature of our Allies; the need to work; the need to fight; the need to sacrifice; and Americans and our ideals.

   This visually appealing book also carefully examines the proliferation of wartime posters, full of patriotic messages, created by non-profit organizations, unions, and corporations. The last chapter, Postwar Aims and Private Aspirations, focuses on the impact of Sheldon-Claire company posters celebrating the middle class home, the traditional nuclear family, consumerism, and free enterprise. It also features a haunting gas mask poster produced and distributed by Kroger Grocery store chain.

   The epilogue, the weakest section by far, argues that the change in postwar workplace posters reflected a more condescending air toward workers, explicit anti-union messages, and the renewnal of industrial conflict between management and labor. This thin section seems both out-of-place and a disjointed conclusion.

   Design for Victory, despite this somewhat weak ending, should satisfy the curiousities of graphic designers, artists, historians, and scholars interested in advertising methods and persuasive communication.




4. Anyone intersted in the graphic stylism, the stark imagery, the sometimes disturbing and sometimes hilarious generalizations made in American Propaganda during World War Two should check out this book. It contains many posters that I've not seen in print before, but unfortunately leaves many others out. From an academic, historical perspective the documentation and historical explanations for the U.S. propaganda machine are too brief. Still, the poster reproductions are fantastic, mostly in color. I would also reccomend Anthony Rhodes "Propaganda: The Art of Persuasion" for a look at other countries' propaganda from the same time period.

2 comments about Mardi Gras Parade of Posters.

1. Reviewed by Irene Watson for Reader Views (02/10)
   
   I've never experienced such a wonderful collection of colorful, unique, and memorable posters as I have in Andrea Mistretta's "Mardi Gras Parade of Posters." Each poster glistens with precise shades of brilliant, dazzling, and luminous colors that come through the medium used. From airbrush and acrylic, and from pastels to collage, Mistretta brings to life the feelings, events, and emotions of Mardi Gras.
   
   Mistretta's work is flashy and loud, making each poster unforgettable. She has gathered all the posters in a series as well as included many that are no longer in print and allowed us to savor each one.
   
   This book, "Mardi Gras Parade of Posters," is a work of art in itself. Any Mardi Gras enthusiast will cherish the collection and create a special place on the coffee table for enjoyment by all. Needless to say, I'm impressed with Mistretta's work!



2. Vibrant, dazzling, impressive . . . anyone who even looks at the cover of this book will be instantly wowed by what they see and even more so when they open the covers. Andrea Mistretta, like many artists, had a wealth of talent, but her pocketbook was rather bare. She knew the poster market in New Orleans was growing and perhaps someone might be interested in her painting, "Mercredi des Cendres." It had been a labor of love and she "penciled, painted, airbrushed, mixing techniques" and added special touches to her heart's content. The surreal product was one that captured the essence of the Mardi Gras, but a young struggling illustrator "a thousand miles away" from the enchanting art world of New Orleans had little chance of succeeding.
   
   Andrea sent a Polaroid with her friend, Karen. Perhaps she could sell the painting for her, but instead received an unexpected call from Miss Margarita Bergen, proprietress of Bergen Galleries. "Dahling, I would like to do a Mardi Gras poster with you." This unexpected turn of events would bring her fame and, au contraire, the magic of her artwork would bring New Orleans alive on her posters. The nineteen eighties were kind to both the city and Andrea Mistretta. The spirit of the city was captured in these posters, so beautifully reproduced in this book. In this book the reader gets a fascinating look into her technique and can actually see the step-by-step creation of the king and queen of the krewes. In addition to the full color posters there are reproductions of the three black and white series posters. You'll also get to see some "playful artwork," advertising posters (Miller, Heineken and Amstel), The Serigraph, and reproductions of the United States Postal Service stamps.
   
   This is one of those rare books that will WOW you from the first page to the last. I've seldom seen a book with such liberal use of color. Each and every one of them could be easily framed and hung on a wall. Andrea briefly discusses the history behind each poster. The name of the poster, the technique, size and date are included. We get a glimpse in some of these of Andrea herself and her affinity with New Orleans and her life in general. I especially enjoyed reading about her poster "Band of Angels," and the comment she made that "it was truly celestial beings that led me and allowed my spirit to ascend beyond this poster with a very special project." You'll have to read the book to get the entire story, but in the meantime, laissez le bon temps rouler . . . let the good times roll when you browse this mesmerizing book!
   
   Book received courtesy of Pelican Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

5 comments about Art of Noir: The Posters And Graphics From The Classic Era Of Film Noir.

1. I recommend this book.
   Rich in content and very-well done.
   A collector's item.



2. The book has an excellent selection of art from the Noir period. I love every single page better than the last!



3. "The Art of Noir" is a big, beautiful book of 338 posters and lobby cards for crime films 1940-1960, plus a handful of later films. All the film noir greats are here, from A-list films to Poverty Row, though not every film represented is strictly "noir". "The Art of Noir" is 14 1/4" x 10 1/8" -too big even for oversized book shelves- but the results are stunning: Hundreds of full-page posters in bold, eye-popping color, along with a handful of 2-page spreads and some 2-to-a-page layouts. I could not overstate how great these posters look, and author Eddie Muller has made them more fascinating with informative captions and short essays. Each poster is captioned with the film's title, year, and studio, the size of the original poster, a brief analysis of the poster's style, and a little about the film.
   
   The posters are divided into six chapters, each with an introduction by Muller. Chapter 1 introduces us to the distinctive styles of different Hollywood studios. Chapter 2 takes us on a tour of film noir poster art around the world, with examples and explanations of how artists abroad altered or redesigned the posters for their markets. Chapter 3 focuses on thematic and iconographic elements in the posters. The icons are guns, racy women, and automobiles. The themes include bad cops, private eyes, and femmes fatales, among others. Chapter 4 showcases posters that feature the prominent stars of film noir, 9 actors and 9 actresses, with an introductory essay for each. The art of Chapter 6 is organized by writer -not only the famed Hammett, Chandler, and Cain, but also prominent noir screenwriters. Chapter 6 features the films of prominent noir directors and cinematographer John Alton.
   
   American and international posters are featured throughout the book. I had not seen foreign film noir posters before, and scrutinizing the posters and comparing the styles turned out to be a source of nearly endless fascination. Foreign artists departed from the bold color and lurid poses of American posters but created art from their own culture's perspective that is no less striking. "The Art of Noir" will absorb fans of film noir or poster art for hours. I am reviewing the hardback edition of the book, so I cannot comment on the reproduction quality in the paperback edition. But the color and sharpness in the hardback are excellent, on slick, white paper. This is Eddie Muller's best book yet.



4. Film noir is a fascinating field with a deserved faithful and ever widening audience. Eddie Muller scored impressively with "Dark City Dames," a study of the women of film noir with intimate portraits of such notables as Jane Greer, Marie Windsor and Ann Savage.

   Muller returns to a familiar theme here and achieves mightily in two respects, with glossy pictures which practically jump off the page at you, giving one a feel for time and place, as well as being a part of the scene, along with a text providing valuable information on the memorable films being showcased.

   San Franciscan Muller is one of the genuine authorities of the genre. He has a real feel for the world of darkness beset by flashing neon lights, smoke-filled bars, detectives in trench coats, and dangerous women.




5. A feast for the eyes! Gorgeous NOIR poster repros and interesting factoids highlight this weighty tome. Fans will swoon, and the casual viewer will have his/her interest tweaked. As a NOIR poster/lobby card collector, this book is an essential library addition, because I need to occasionally check out pictures of posters I'll sadly never be able to afford(!)

1 comments about Vietnam Posters: The David Heather Collection.

1. You will like this book but if you are a scholar or a serious collector you may be a little disappointed. This is a coffee table book not true scholarly analysis. The essay at the front of the book is little more than fluffy description of key historical periods providing some context for those unfamiliar with the historical events.
   
   The 4 chapters (War & Peace, Uncle Ho, Everlasting Spirit, and Tomorrow Begins Today) break up the collection into distinct parts but don't provide much meaning. There is way too much we love uncle Ho and way too little of subjects like Social Evils, Condom Usage, 2 Child Policy, and Corruption. This book wasn't even published under the auspice of the Vietnamese government with blessing of censors. Why stick to such the sappy flag waving and dedicate so much space the "we love uncle ho" stuff.]
   
   From an academic perspective this book comes up short compared to a truly scholarly undertaking like Political Posters in Central and Eastern Europe 1945-95. This book is completely lacking any nuanced analysis of the social context, collective symbols, historical influences, and other interpretations. There is so much space in the poster arrangement that there surely was some space to explain some things about its meaning. Even if the introductory essay itself was stretched out into the poster arrangement to provide context it would have been more interesting.
   
   From a collectors standpoint this is somewhat of a letdown. A crucial error was made in not including the artist's attribution and year with each poster. This book does follow the common poster arrangement like the Tranh Co Dong Tuyen Chon (Propaganda Poster Collection) 1996 put out by the Ministry of Culture and Information Fine Arts Department. But at least they included the Artist and Date if not the English and French translation of the slogans.
   
   The Date information is very important in understanding the context of the poster. Consider a poster image of the governments agenda even images of uncle Ho may be viewed considerably differently by the youth of 20047 vs the youth of 1975. This book displays the posters from 1975 alongside those from 2004 with no distinction. Only careful study of the artist signature or the campaign dates can one discern the period.
   
   Further details on each of the pieces would be of further interest to serious collectors. To their credit the publishers very faithfully rendered the images of the posters right down to the gnarled corners where we can see the poster was retackled up the wall several times. Some of the pieces are clearly printed posters. Others, I am guessing, are original art work. And clearly some are block prints. These are all gritty details that collectors would like to know.

5 comments about 60 Great Sci-Fi Movie Posters (Illustrated History of Movies Through Posters, Volume 20).

1. This book does not waste time with personal opinions. The absence of informations however is fully compensated by a precious selection of posters. I only dislike the generous space that was gived to Flash Gordon movies, but I understand that their fans will appreciate it. I thoroughly recomend this beautiful book. It is only a little slim.



2. cool book to own if you're a fan of classic sci fi movies, all the posters are now full page, my only gripe is that some of the posters were scanned from folded posters and you can see the creases, surely they could've gotten better posters especially for some of the not as old movies like Star Wars & ET, or they could've at least edited out the creases in Photoshop



3. War of the worlds, This Island Earth and Star Wars! Every big name movie or B-movie poster you could think of. And a few I've never heard of. Only one point away because some of the posters look like they were unfolded after being left in somebody's basement for a dozen years. Surly they could have found better copies or used computers to take out the flaws. But still, its cheap and holds a lot of poster images, so I really should not complain. Can't help but love the half naked women. Many of which were not in any of the films. Just there to hook the people.



4. With the exception of the more recent movie posters, I thought it was a fairly good collection of 54 classic science fiction posters.



5. All of Bruce Henderon's books are worth a dozen times what he sells them for; flawless, stunning reproductions of great movie posters. Buy them ALL! this is my favorite, though.

No comments about 60 Great Horror Movie Posters (Illustrated History of Movies Through Posters, Volume 19).