In honor of the Friday art show, I thought I would post a variety of Bohn advertisements that I've collected over the years. While they aren't all entirely on-topic, they all do focus on form and shape - something you can never learn enough about. ... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Its a shame things didnt really go this way. Not too much today seems to have style for the sake of STYLE..... Thanks for posting, I dont think I'd seen too many of these before.
Retro retouched art....with the invinsible single action Paache!....no photoshop there. heady stuff....... terrific! One of the main reasons you do not see design like this(not style wise) is that the bean counters have taken reign of nearly all companys and profit means more.
I wish I had an ounce of the talent that those guys possessed. Everything was so clean and driven. It really captures the optimism and promise for the future. Forward thinking and just plain god given talent make me stare in aww. I am telling you Ryan, I think that you should have a designer journal. You really have a good eye and a respect for this stuff. Cool Post!!!
Great post! I just love the beautiful streamlined look! Very art deco! I agree with Jeff Norwell. You don't see very man y things like this nowadays-if any! Thanks! =Adrian=
I wonder if you could find some of those in high enough res to print poster sized? that would be some cool art for the house.
Wow - if only things could have gone this way. We (as a global community, not just a nation) have lost touch with aesthetics for the sake of economical function. There are very few products and creations in any field that have the same mystique and purpose and, well, sexiness of designs like these. It is kind of interesting though to note common things like the cruise ship(s) and tractor with the enclosed decks and cab. It kind of makes me think of how our forefathers would have visualized an environment so polluted the air wasn't safe to breathe. Like they were colonizing other planets on Robert Heinlein inspired worlds. Neat doesn't come close. On another side note, a lot of us (even you, Ryan) have had or still have experience as a graphic artist/designer. I don't know about you guys, but I'd give up my computer in a hearteat if I got to work with real paints and pencils and pens on a daily basis. How feakin cool would that be? WIth photoshop and illustrator, everyone can be a "designer" or at least think they are. A majority of us don't have the skills to lick these guys' shoes.
I guess that's the same Bohn compamy that now produces refrigeration coils. I have always loved Art-Deco and "Jet Age" type design.
YES, in a fuckin heartbeat.... ironic how people worked to make more efficient and cost effective tools by going digital, however lots of people i work with, old and young would love to go back to their paints and pencil's. not to say great things haven't been done since computers came into the picture. the powers that be seem to think computers hold answers to their scheduling/budgeting concerns, "Sure we can do that effect, bigger and better than last year, but in HALF the time and HALF the cost!!". computers have irreversibly complicated my life.... poor me! poor us! <bit of="" sarcasm="" there=""> inspiring work for sure, in the not so distant future id like to trade my fulltime computer job for a more artistic one, like matte painting.... a healthy blend of creative freedumbz and technical know how.z... none of my experiences will go to waste. i don't think. </bit>
? WIth photoshop and illustrator, everyone can be a "designer" or at least think they are. A majority of us don't have the skills to lick these guys' shoes.[/QUOTE] Man....you don't know how right you are..... amen.
Man, that is exactly why I use more "traditional" methods of rendering, because I can and folks pay me to. If I was in someone else's studio in more of a production environment, I would have to use the modern methods. Thank God there are fellows like Norwell and Stupski (almost strictly vector), that manage to infuse warmth in there current art!!
Plan59 is some good stuff I have been stealing pics for my desktop for a while. Thanks for sharing the other Bohn pics. New eye candy. ~Ryan~
Well, I trained in "the old school" of tech Illustration. Pencils, french curves, Rapidograph and Leroy pens, proportional dividers, isometric, dimetric, trimetric projection, Badger and Paasche airbrushes with friskit paper and rubber cement. Anyone else remember the smell of Bestine? In 1984 I was working at North American Rockwell on the B-1 project when my bosses gave me a choice. They were bringing in a computer system to do Tech Illustration and needed a guinea pig, a "lead user" to train on it first and help get the bugs worked out before they brought it into wide use. The second choice was to take over the spot of the guy who did all of the high end concept illustrations, though they didn't do many of those in those days. He worked in everything, pencil, charcoal, pastel, pen and ink, watercolor and airbrush. His name was Bob Stelter, nice guy, was a turret gunner on B24s. Well, my head won out over my heart and I went the computer route. I still have most of my drawing tools and my airbrushes. have to get my son through college and set and then it's bye-bye cubicle and hello drawing board and garage. True dat. On my best day I couldn't qualify to clean the paint brushes of someone like Walker or Walter Dorwin Teague. Kurt O.
Great illustrations and cool design concepts. The use of air brush, tempera, water colors, and pencils are still not bad media when you want to present concepts that aren't totally constrained by cost or engineering requirements. The best of the young designers may be able to achieve the same spontaneity using computers - we'll see - but I can't. A Ornes
To me the big problem is schools. Turning out designers who can't be bothered with learning how to draw - or any basics for that matter.
How right you are Kevin. I do some portfolio work here and there with kids still in school. It's quite shocking to me how they let the computer "think" for them. That's why we require almost all work here to be concepted in pencil before it ever goes to computer.
Right on brother! Thanks Ryan for posting this. I thought when I was a kid that we would have some of those designs by 2000. We keep going to auto shows where mfgs show their future design concepts but when the years go by not much has changed.As a matter of fact we are going backwards. (mustang,thunderbird,camaro etc) BOBBY FORD
Ryan-- thanks for posting this kind of stuff. Definitely inspiring. I definitely don't know as much history on this stuff as I'd like to... but every little peek into this helps. Gigantor & Kevin Lee, your comments are dead on, IMO. Interesting to here yall talk about the negatives that the computer has placed on illustration work (both on a personal level and on the "industry" as a whole). -- That's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I was an Illustration major in college, and there was only one computer class that I took in school (early 1990's). However, I got quickly stuck behind a Mac as soon as I graduated, and pretty much been there ever since. I know my drawing skills have suffered as a result. Lately, as I've had the pleasure to do some more illustration-based projects, I have found how much I miss traditional media (although I keep trying to hit Command-Z [undo function] every time I make a mistake!). It's been nice to break out the graphite and paper again, even if the computer helped in the final products. The computer does bring some conveniences: I have every color I need, I don't have to wait for ink/paint to dry, etc... and it takes up a lot less space. But fixing mistakes and such is so much easier, that it often becomes a crutch. I better stop typing now or I'll take this way too far.
Don't get me wrong... I LOVE my computer. I remember the days of amberlith and rublith and keyline boards... no thanks. I'd never go back. I have pretty much lost most of my advanced airbrush skills. that's ok though. I'm trying to rejuvenate my painting skills though. The B-24 nose art project was a big step for me.
i love "future technology" art from that era. If there was ever a time that forward thinking was comunicated through wild space age design, it was the fifties. the lines, colors, and overall spirit of the work is a testimate to the times..
Here is great site for some good old artwork of all kinds of stuff, relating to how the future was going to look, seen from the 1930s to the 1970s. (at the risk of going OT).... http://davidszondy.com/future/futurepast.htm
This is kind of a nick-pick, but since this is the topic: The style being shown is not 'Art Deco'. This is 100% 'Streamline Moderne'. 'Art Deco' gets used a lot for any number of styles. It was actually used in a fairly limited period in the late '20's and early '30's. Art Deco has a lot more crystalline forms, repeated v's or fans, long parallel lines, and sharp edges. It can also use circles like port holes. The Chrysler building is Art Deco, as is much of the Empire State. Here in LA the Wiltern Theater is Art Deco in spectacular fashion. Think of it this way: '39 Ford teardrop tail lights are streamline, '40 Ford chevron tail lights are deco. And yes, you can have both elements on the same car. The LaSalles had streamlined bodies with Deco trim, like the chevrons on the front fenders or the side vents on the hood. Streamlining was all the rage in the '40's. Everything from locomotives to fountain pens to toasters were streamlined. Lincoln Zephyrs were wonderfully streamlined right from the factory. The customizers that chopped, shaved, and sectioned Mercs were in fact streamlining them. Just my little rant. Think twice before you say 'art deco', you might actually mean 'streamline'.
From perspective this art defines "style", quite inspiring. Dave ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- '46 Plymouth Business Coupe - Dodge powered '39 Plymouth Business Coupe - this one too!