Mid Century Modern. Print. Illustration. Design. 1950s.

Toot at the sun with this design.

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Mid Century Modern. Print. Illustration. Furniture Design. 1950s.

A new variant on a recent pattern, more 1950s Mid Century Modern coming soon...

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Mid Century Modern. Print. Illustration. Design. 1950s.

I'm exploring 1950s design at the moment and a lot of fun it is too. As I said before I'm going to have prints made for sale [somewhere, maybe Etsy].

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Mid Century Modern. Pattern. Illustration. Design. 1950s.

A variation on semi-circles and squares. I intend to create prints of this sort of work and start an Etsy store. I'll keep you posted!

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Mid Century Modern. Pattern. Design. 1950s.

Mid Century Modern decor was inspiration for this piece. I'm enjoying this series of work at the moment, I have to get back to the animation soon, but as always a new inspiration has come along. The Populuxe era had it all, style for its' own sake and wild and eventually mis-placed optimism for the future. More to come in this vein in the next weeks....

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Black sun, sea and sky. Mid Century Modern. Art.

A recent picture taking inspiration from Mid Century Modern art.

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The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Mad Men. Illustration.

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Tom Rath is one of those company men, one amongst many. A stereotype perhaps, but actually all those clones have their own story to tell.

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Exotica. Kitsch. Les Baxter. 1950s. Safari on Saturn.

Safari on Saturn. The song that Les Baxter should have recorded. Exotica, Retro, Kitsch, there's nothing wrong with any of it as far as I'm concerned, so let's go on "Safari on Saturn".

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Atomic Power. Nuclear. 1950s. Our friend Mr Atom.

When the oil finally runs out Mr Atom may well be our friend. The future is coming and Mr Atom will save us, or will he?

Blokkhed

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Las Vegas, Nevada. Sin City. Atomic Blast. Cocktails.

Las Vegas, Nevada. Personally I can't get enough of that Retro style , not because I think it's kitch, I actually really, really like it. Anything from 1951 to around 1982ish is good for me. Each decade has something to interest me, with this image it's the 50s. Not being around in that particular decade means it is distant enough to be a strange and exotic place for me. I'm gradually exploring some of these things in my work and there's a lot more to look at. So in this case its Las Vegas, Sin City and cocktails while the bombs explode. Imagine it, Las Vegas used to advertise that you could go there and see the Atomic tests going off in the desert, what a selling point!
An excellent book about America in the 1950s is Bill Brysons "The Life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid" , as good a book about a childhood as you'll ever read. I read it a couple of weeks ago in a weekend and it fitted perfectly with the Rock Shore 'Cody Jet' character I'm working on. A naive decade in some respects and no less charming for that, even if there was Cold War and nuclear bunkers were everywhere, but you knew that heroes like Captain Video [never saw this one here in England, but I'm watching the DVD as I write], Casey Jones and Roy Rogers would save us-either from aliens or commies or bandits.
Get yourself an Atomic Cocktail from Slim Gaillard and wait for the wind to blow...

Blokkhed

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HotRods and Horror. "The HotRod from Hell" 1959

The HotRod from Hell. 1959 An Epic/MotoRama production cashing in on the Hotrod, Rock and Roll and horror exploitation genres. This was Rocky in his late teens and trying to get away from potential typecasting as a child actor.
We hope to uncover more imagery from this time and Rockys earlier works in 1950s TV and film appearances-such as: Teenagers from Space [1954], Cowboy Cody Jet [1955]. . .

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Robot, Metal Man, 1950s Sci-fi poster.

Another poster from the "Kid from Space". As you can see it's the second chapter "The Metal Man". Produced by Epic Pictures, the serial was made in twelve parts. Interestingly it stars Chad "Rocky" Shore, the Chad was dropped in the later posters [see previous post]. Actually the previous post shows the poster for the European release-which wasn't in serial form but put together as a full movie, this was quite common to edit together serials to make a complete movie.
This poster shows evidence of ageing, it's dis-coloured and creased. Still a good copy though and very, very rare. It looks like most of the series posters will become available to view in the near future, although a few episodes are missing presumed lost.
There's more material to come from the Cody Jet movies as well as more of Rocky Shore in his other movies in the 50s and 60s.

Blokkhed

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Dan Dare, Hero with a Square Jaw

Dan Dare at the Science Museum in London. An excellent [but not massive] exhibition that looks at the new technological world of the 1950s that Frank Hampsons creation [from the Eagle comic] reflected. I like the optimistic viewpoint that the imagery has. The future was positive-and Nuclear! This was the atomic age and would solve all our problems [ironically with oil shortages it is coming back] Of course it was part of the post-war rebuilding and obviously people were literally starting again after the horrors of the war. The festival of Britain in 1951 was part of that and I love Abram games work for the festival. Dan Dare was a square jawed hero who would become out dated when the anti-heroes of the 1960s came along, but the boys own heroics and Frank hampsons moral standpoint is something that we could do with today. It was a shame that they never made a film of it-imagine the 1950s retro styling, fantastic!
We could do with heroes like Dan now, but they would probably claim Dan and Digby were gay! I suppose we live in a cynical age and heroes are made in shades of grey and nothing is black and white anymore-apart from Michael jackson of course..

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Classic Film Poster "The Kid from Space"

Just discovered this poster dated 1952 and used for the European release [we think]. This really emphasises Motaman and his part in the success of the movie. Its a bit faded and worn but a beauty anyway-very rare, in fact it was thought that none actually existed!
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Rocky Shore is an Alien "The Kid from Space"

Here he is, Rocky Shore a 1950s child actor in his first movie from 1951. "The kid from Space" is about an alien boy who lands on a small farm in the mid-west with his robot friend "Motaman". Rocky stars as "Cody Jet" the space kid and the film shows how Cody fits in [or doesn't] with his neighbours and his new family [who are hypnotised by motaman into thinking Cody is their son].
The film is a classic piece of Cold war sci-fi, looking at the fear and paranoia of the time but it also explores how American society was at that time and shows that maybe we are all a bit weird really and who is to say what is alien and what is not, or as Cody says "Golly jet Motaman but these people are out of this world!".
Believe in Cody Jet, The Kid from Space !
For positive space age imagery look at Chesley Bonestell hed did the concepts, matte paintings and backdrops for Forbidden Planet.
Blokkhed
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