Arkitip 012, 013 by Geoff McFetridge and Mark Gonzales

From Linda's days as a designer in NYC, 2002, found beneath a stack of Grand Royal magazines in a drawer we never open. The Geoff McFetridge issue came with some iron-ons and a couple of pins, and the Mark Gonzales issue came with a mobile. The last post about Portfolio magazine running their 1950 issue with a young Irving Penn and younger Richard Avedon reminded me of these, as I'm sure years from now these two will be icons. (Maybe not quite of the Penn/Avedon echelon, but you get the idea.)

Among the tons of awesome things the two have done, here are a couple of favorites:
 Geoff McFetridge's "Things I make for my daughter", from Apartamento Magazine #4 (click for the Sight Unseen article)



and Mark Gonzales skating around a German museum, to the tune of Coconut Records' "West Coast":

... also a more recent favorite of McFetridge's is his in-store display walls for Target- check out the wonderful Al Jaffee-esque illustrations from his sketchbook:
http://abullseyeview.com/inspiring-the-guest-geoff-mcfetridge-creates-art-for-target/

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Al Jaffee's Architectural Triumph

From Mad magazine, January 1974. As with Al Jaffee's "If Kids Designed Their Own Xmas Toys", this is one of his genius spreads that I saw in my formative years and always think about when some new project comes along. It was reprinted in a Mad Special in 1980, but other than that I don't think it's anywhere, and it's too awesome not to share.

related: 

http://warymeyers.blogspot.com/2010/12/wary-meyers-plastic-crumpled-paper-ball.html

http://warymeyers.blogspot.com/2010/12/pen-ink.html

http://warymeyers.blogspot.com/2011/02/wary-meyers-installations.html

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What, me worry?

Alfred E. Newman painting found in a Los Angeles garage 10 years ago (photo in situ). Painted by Wanda Witczak, 1969. The notation next to MAD reads, "I did, your highness!".

related>

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Mad Man

Growing up, Mad magazine played a major role in my brain's development. An avid reader, letter writer, and paperback orderer, I can remember times with my mom at the grocery store checkout excitedly putting the newest issue on the conveyor belt and hoping it didn't slip into the crack at the end before the lady could grab it (this is how my dad told me Abraham Lincoln died, except on an escalator), and then making sure it was protected un-crimpedly between boxes of Freakies and Count Chocula, only to be taken out, read aloud, laughed at and folded-in when we got to the car. 

A seminal point in my Mad development came in 5th grade during our class' paper drive, when I found a bundle of old Mads that someone had dropped off to be recycled- older ones, which I'd never seen before! This was also probably also the first time I asked myself, "Why would anyone get rid of this?", a question which would reward/haunt me to this day.

In this bundle, which I asked our teacher if it was okay to not recycle (and somehow I think she said yes but that I should write an IOU to President Carter, or something) there was the single greatest article I'd ever read, written and illustrated by the great Al Jaffee, entitled, "If Kids Designed Their Own Xmas Toys". Seeing it was like a revelation-  one could draw something, and then make it- exactly the same. It was like a ten year-old's mind-blowing "introduction to design".  While in this epiphanal state I packed up all the issues in my French horn case and couldn't wait to get home -even though this meant carrying my French horn out in the open, which made it easy prey for a couple of older girls who liked to grab it, blow into the mouthpiece and then threaten to pee into the bell. 

So, our book is filled with sketches as well as photos, and whenever I drew a project (most projects being based on "why would anyone get rid of this"...), while not using the exact same concept (or at least documenting it that way), the Mad article and Al Jaffee's genius were always somewhere in my mind. So thank you, Al Jaffee. 

Related: Al Jaffee from Graphic NYC, and The New York Times. 

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