Monday, December 30, 2013

Cliff Spohn and the Art of Atari

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A lot of folks my age grew up with Atari. Those brightly-colored, but incredibly basic rectangular graphics flashing across our TV sets sustained our vast attention spans and transported us to different dimensions. If it weren't for the brilliant artwork on the game's boxes, though, we may have had no idea what the actual game graphics were supposed to represent. American painter Cliff Spohn created a great amount of artwork for Atari, and, to be honest, I never knew his name until I saw my friend Sam Smith mention his name as the artist for the Computer Chess film poster. Finally - a name and face to go with all of these gorgeous paintings! Have a look at some of my favorites from Cliff's huge portfolio of work.

Some of his non-Atari work:

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Check out much much more of Cliff's beautiful work over at Fine Art America.

Related: Intellivision Packaging

Friday, December 27, 2013

Philately Fridays: Cuba, 1975

Very simple and fresh stamp for International Day of Children in Cuba, 1975.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

A Christmas Cookbook

From the same team who brought us Booze and Cocina Mexicana comes another brightly-colored cookbook. This one is obviously all about classic Christmas recipes and includes winter favorites like roast goose, turkey gravy, vichyssoise, and pfeffernüsse. Bruce Butte's groovy illustrations are about as late 1970s as you could ever hope for. So on point. Enjoy!

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Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Versatile Vinegar

In 1979, The Vinegar Institute, which is evidently a real thing, released this brochure slash cookbook with a super sour illustrated cover.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

BRIO catalog, 1985

In December 2009, I posted a BRIO catalog from 1980. I just found another gorgeous catalog of the Swedish wooden toy trains and thought I'd post some of the highlights. Enjoy!

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