"Give It Your Best!"

I recently acquired this poster Give It Your Best! designed by Charles Coiner. It's a bit beat up and torn. But considering it's from 1942, it's still in good shape. 

 

Commissioned by the Office of Emergency Management in 1942, this poster was intended to boost war production. This poster was one of the production incentive images for factories. By joining motto and flag, it is simple yet effective in its design.

 

"When the administrator of the National Recovery Act (NRA) was dissatisfied with designs presented by Ayer, Charles Coiner himself designed the Blue Eagle symbol that is closely associated with the NRA.He also conceived the Red Feather emblem of the Community Chest. During World War II, he designed war and civil defense posters; an offset lithograph of one with the slogan Give It Your Best! for the Office of Emergency Management is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art."

 

 

Two posters by Victor Moscoso

My recent acquisition, two posters Rites of Spring / The Cloud andSiegel Schwall Band, Miller Blues Band by Victor Moscoso from 1967.  

Here and here are two more examples of Victor's work from my collection. 

Victor was born in Spain. After studying art at Cooper Union in New York City and at Yale University, he moved to San Francisco in 1959. There, he attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where he eventually became an instructor.

Moscoso's use of vibrating colors was influenced by painter Josef Albers, one of his teachers at Yale. He was the first of the rock poster artists to use photographic collage in many of his posters.

Professional lightning struck in the form of the psychedelic rock and roll poster for the San Francisco Hippy dance halls and clubs. Victor Moscoso's posters for the Family Dog dance-concerts at the Avalon Ballroom and his Neon Rose posters for the Matrix were to bring his work international attention in the Summer of Love, 1967.

Within a year, lightning would strike again in the form of the Underground Comix. As one of the Zap Comix Artists, Moscoso's work, once again received international attention. Moscoso's comix and poster work has continued up to the present and includes album covers for musicians such as Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Herbie Hancock, and David Grisman. He also created art for use on t-shirts, billboards, animated commercials for radio stations (for which he received 2 CLIO's) and more.

 

 

Comic "The Medium is the Massage"

My new comic for the A.C.2020. (After Covid) series. This one is a visual pun on the title of the most famous Marshall McLuhan's book The Medium Is the Massage. 

Why is the book title “The Medium Is the Massage” but not “The Medium Is the Message”? Actually, the title was a mistake. When the book came back from the typesetter, it had “Massage” on the cover as it still does. The title was supposed to be “The Medium Is the Message” but the typesetter had made an error. When Marshall saw the typo he exclaimed, “Leave it alone! It’s great, and right on target!"

Another interesting piece of information about this book is that Quentin Fiore, the designer of the book shared the cover billing with Marshall McLuhan. 

 

Here is the link to a witty post about this comic by Steve Heller in The Daily Heller. 

You can see more of my A.C.2020. comics here.

 

Cover of the first edition of "The Medium Is the Massage".