* Although Charlie intended this to be one long post, I'm splitting it into three parts and will present one part each day for the rest of this week. ~ Leif
"SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES, HAVING YOU TO TALK WITH...."
There we go again....back to songs and nostalgia. A great tune nevertheless....going back to Guy Lombardo and others. By the way, I've no doubt inflicted a word-study on 'nostalgia' before on the viewers....but hang in, cats! Age deserves tolerance, or so I'm told, and where else can we get a brief art and English lesson so conveniently? From the ancient Greek, 'nost' means 'a return' or 'to return'. In ancient Greek it means 'pain'. A 'painful return'. Not the way we think of 'nostalgia' is it? Think about it though... if it's a happy memory, you can't go back and and repeat it. If it's an unhappy memory, you can't go back and fix or change it. So much for language lessons! But.... each one of the old proofs has a lesson or two to offer.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Charlie Allen's final CAWS ~ Part 1
This CAWS is an eclectic group... I told Leif they could be called 'also-rans'. Mostly from the 50's. Some, I just didn't want to show anyone... but maybe I've mellowed or softened up. There may be a repeat or two, not sure, and a couple of ads overlooked in the overloaded proof drawer. Nothing outstanding... that's a given.
The first is one of the combo ads for Mercury...
... whereby the car art was generated in Detroit...
... and I was to add figures in a different, more contemporary style.
A strange concept, and the ads look that way.
The second (a repeat?), one of our intrepid 'lady of steel' ads.
This time standing bravely on a freeway shoulder in high heels, admiring a luminous steel highway marker. What a gal!
Next, a PG&E line ad from the consumer series in the 50's. Many have been posted on earlier CAWS's.
For some reason, this one escaped me... I don't think I liked the look of the mom. Or maybe the ball is too large for such a young baby... whatever.
After that, a Koch Luggage ad showing an instrument case designed for the military, strong enough to be dropped by parachute.
Of interest... the B-36... a postwar bomber oddity. A very large, six engined pusher with added outboard jet pods.
I saw one in the air in the late 40's or early 50's....a sight and a sound to behold.
* Continued tomorrow
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is there a book available of Charlie's
ReplyDeletework?
Unfortunately no, jwc. The closest to a book you'll find on Charlie is the collection of his artwork I have archived on Flickr (see link at the end of today's post) and the many posts Charlie wrote on his blog. The link is in the sidebar of this blog.
ReplyDeletethanks, Leif - I've been following the blog for a while and have checked out the Flickr set - you'd think a book was in order at some point
ReplyDeletethanks for these latest posts
A book printed with scans from Charlie's originals would be awesome.And also educational for this reason:
ReplyDeleteCharlie seems to have been equally skilled in so many facets of design; color,composition,line. I've never seen one piece of under par work from him. A true professional.
Thinking about it, I doubt if Charlie would have had many originals as it was generally the case that illustrators weren't allowed to keep their work.
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