Mad Men & Crazy Critters - Happy Days

I am always drawn to the light-hearted humour and bright color palette of mid-century

illustrated posters. Their simple, playful and optimistic approach to advertising

is exemplified by the work of Hervé Morvan, who along with his friend and competitor

 Raymond Savignac defined the style of French commercial art in the 1950s.

 Refrigerateur Brandt, ca. 1950

Chocolat Lanvin, ca. 1950

Morvan was born in 1917, and after studying in Paris at the Ecole des Arts Appliqués, 

started his professional career in 1934 painting film ads on movie theatre façades. 

In 1942 he created his first movie poster, which was followed by over a hundred more. 

Among them were cinema classics such as The Grand Illusion, Les Enfants du Paradis and Gigi. 

In 1945 he took as assistant the young poster artist Léo Kouper, and the two collaborated

 until Morvan's death in 1980. Morvan started to design advertising posters in 1949, and soon

 attracted major clients including Perrier, Bally, Gitanes, Esso, Evian, Danone, and Vittel.

He abandoned the Art Deco inspiration and realistic portraiture of his early works in favour of

a more modern approach featuring stylized and funny characters painted in bold primary colors.

In 1961 he was awarded a gold medal at the grand prix de l'affiche Martini for this ad.

Cartouches Rey, 1967

In the same year Morvan created the first in a series of lovely posters 

featuring children for the campaign Jeunesse au plein air.

Morvan was a prolific artist who worked until the end of his life, 

and his poster production totals over 500 pieces, including a series

of lion-themed ads for the Lyon International fair.

In the 1950s he also illustrated a series of children's books by Jean des Vallières.

Take a look at them over at Ribambelles & Ribambins.

L'Animal dans la Décoration

The color of autumn leaves reminds me of this beautiful folio created by M. P. Verneuil at the height

 of the Art Nouveau's ornamental frenzy. Verneuil was one of the most talented pupils in Eugène Grasset's

 Parisian atelier, and executed many designs under his direction for the 1896 portfolio

La Plante et ses Applications Ornementales. One year later he produced his own series 

of 60 lithographic plates containing hundreds of decorative depictions of animals 

and dedicated it to Grasset, whose realistic, detailed and romantic style clearly inspired him. 

 

Thanks to the New York Public Library for the gorgeous scans.

Gagarin

After flies, earthworms, and ants, another funny Russian video featuring little creatures.
This animated short was created by Alexjij Kharitidi at Second Frog animation group.
It won awards at Cannes, Annecy, and other major festivals, and was nominated 
for an Academy Award in 1996. Many thanks to Irina Troitskaya for sharing it with me! 

Pino's Playthings

Pino Pascali was an important Italian artist and sculptor (I'll explore this side of his work 

in a future post) who also worked extensively in advertising. He was born in Bari in 1936

 and moved to Rome in 1955 to study at the Academy of Art. In 1958 he started a long 

and fruitful collaboration with the animator and producer Sandro Lodolo,

 which ended abruptly when Pascali died in an accident at the age of 32. 

These were the years when Carosello, the first advertising format introduced by Italian state television RAI

in 1957, was its most popular show. Some special rules contributed to make this daily evening show

 a family favorite especially loved by children. Firstly, in each advertising spot the sales pitch was confined 

to 30 seconds at the end a humorous sketch which lasted almost two minutes, and the product name

 could only be mentioned in this final segment. Moreover, each spot would go on air only once, forcing 

the creative teams working for the various companies to constantly create and produce new stories, 

most of which were conceived as episodes in a series. Lodolo and Pascali worked together 

on numerous animations for Carosello, including the one above for ice cream manufacturer Algida. 

It's one of the episodes written and designed by Pascali and centered on Salvador the Matador 

and his fights in the arena against a variety of crazy bulls such as Arista il Trasformista

 (unfortunately I haven't found any other videos of the innovative spots created by Pascali). 

Pascali was an exuberant and sensitive man who approached life and work with spontaneity and freedom, 

simplicity and endless imagination. He loved the creative process, and considered his work a form of play.

With the same childlike spirit he continuously experimented with new ideas and materials in his art 

and played games and tricks on people with his artist friends. Pascali was also a reckless driver, 

and his passion for speed came to a tragic ending when he crashed his motorcycle in a roman street.

Scottish terrier, 1963

Pascali was very fond of animals, and often featured them in his advertising works and sculptures. 

All the drawings and sketches in this post were created in the early sixties for various advertising and

 animation projects, and they were made available online thanks to the Pino Pascali Archive 

established by the Contemporary Art Gallery Frittelli in Firenze.

In the Garden of the Mind

I imagine that many of Animalarium's readers are already familiar with the celebrated

 German illustrator Olaf Hajek, but I couldn't resist posting some of his works.

I can't get enough of these luscious paintings, so unique and

full of life, color and artistic inspirations!

Most of these images were created for numerous corporate and editorial clients.

For more info, check out the interesting interview on Sprayblog and the video 

posted by Gestalten, which last year published a monograph on Hajek's work.