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Modern Dog: 20 Yearsof Poster Art

At some point during the late 1990s I saw Modern Dog’s poster work for the first time, and it then became a consistent recurrence to see it again and again in design annuals, year after year. What impressed me the most wasn’t the actual work but the indomitable breadth of styles and approaches that they were able to work in. Nothing looked the same twice, and everything had a sensation of being scraped at the last minute from resources unbeknownst to anyone living outside Seattle or not last-named Chantry. I’ve always enjoyed their work, but I never knew why. Maybe it was “peer pressure” that I had to like it, because everyone else did. But much like the work of Art Chantry, Aesthetic Apparatus or even Peter Saville I never quite “got it” — meaning, the visual references or choices appeared arbitrary, or simply chosen for their coolness, or as an inside joke funny only to a handful of people — even if I enjoyed looking at it. Of course, that is my problem not theirs, and there is always a good reason behind everything when you have a chance to hear these designers speak or read their monographs. With the publication of Modern Dog: 20 Yearsof Poster Art — chronicling the poster work of the firm founded by Robynne Raye and Mike Strassburger in 1987 — I’m relieved to know that, in fact, some of these assumptions on my part are true, but also that there is a story to be told behind almost every poster (and there are 226 of them in the book) and that each story illuminates a different aspect of what it takes to be a graphic designer.

Divided in five sections — Theatre, Events, Social Issues, Self-promo, and Music, each set up with a hilarious intro (e.g., “Music: When we create music posters, we always familiarize ourselves with the bands we’re promoting. We listen to their music, look at their pictures, read bios and interviews, as well as check out their Web sites. Then, when it’s time to get busy, we crank up the Motörhead and design.”) — 20 Years showcases beautifully reproduced posters that (most) are accompanied by brief notes describing why things were done a certain way, or the hurdles that were experienced, or sharing stories related to the work… And while this could become painfully boring after, say, 27 posters, the tone of the writing is funny, honest, irreverent, deadpan, and engaging. Something that I found slightly annoying at the beginning but then came around to appreciate, was that each blurb is written from a different point of view: Sometimes it will be Robynne saying “Mike did this as…”, or Mike riffing on Robynne’s work, or it will then change to a collaborative “We did this…”, and sometimes it reads as a detached third-person critic. This gives the book a nice pacing and it’s also an interesting reflection of the dynamic that the duo shares in real-life, talking about each other, interrupting each other, and talking earnestly about their work.

Most, if not all, of the posters can be seen on Modern Dog’s web site so if you wanted to save $27.50 you could just browse their work there, but with 20 Years — aside from getting pictures bigger than an inch on screen — Modern Dog has taken advantage of having this monograph published to showcase sketches, photographs of the group as well as a few extended heartwarming (and heartbreaking) stories behind some of the posters. All this while retaining a wicked sense of humor across 160 pages: The cover states “Not canine-related,” the end papers show one-color illustrations of “Dogs we know” in the beginning and “Dogs we don’t know” in the end, there is a gratuitous picture of a deer in a meadow (p. 94), and the back cover is adorned by an endorsement from Dr. Figus Upshaw, an international book authority that proclaims the book to be of interest to anyone “[…] interested in posters or flyers. Or even anyone that uses paper. Including toilet paper.” Dr. Upshaw even has an “Interweb Home.” It’s very rewarding that this book is an extension of the personalities of Robynne and Mike, and does not rest solely on the work to carry the responsibility of making it an enjoyable monograph.

20 Years comes with a foreword by Steve Heller, and two interviews of Modern Dog by James Victore and Rick Valicenti. The introduction is exactly what you would expect from Steve (incisive, concise and informative); James’ interview is far from engaging and the questions, that feel hastily written, verge on beauty pageantry interrogation (e.g., “What do you want to be remembered for?”); while, on the other hand, Rick’s interview is the one that extracts most of the insights from the authors, through a critical, no bullshit, three-way conversation that serves as the most serious assessment of this body of work, which is typically just judged by how cool it looks — providing a satisfying read to the extensive visual content of the book.

The most impressive aspect of 20 Years, for me, is that it reaffirms what I have always admired most about Modern Dog: Their unabashed versatility and lack of concern for establishing a recognizable style that they could milk. Instead, they explore, push, try, fail, and do things their own dogged way. And, best of all, now I “get it.”

Qs / Vol. 16 / April 21 - April 27

The top 15 out of a 22-quip week. Yes, a day late, sorry.

A = Authors | C = Community

A / No. 63 / Joe Marianek / Fake Human Transformers and Real Human Transformers.

A / No. 61 / Joe Marianek / How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Pablo Ferro Font. [via Kottke]

A / No. 58 / Randy J. Hunt / Art > Advertising! If you agree, Eyebeam has a Firefox extention that'll replace ads with art.

A / No. 62 / Joe Marianek / Pixel graffitti IRL!

C / No. 31 / Diane Zerr / Who needs Photoshop when you can get the real thing? 1,000 water bottles on the Salt Flat

A / No. 57 / Randy J. Hunt / "Optima is one of the worst pre-computer typefaces ever designed," says Seymour Chwast. Steven Heller asks Chwast, Bierut, Lupton, Carter, Helfand and too many other typophiles to name about John McCain's Optima over at the Times.

C / No. 33 / Chad K / Just imagine the research that went into creating a name for this company. You have to give them credit for their straight-forwardness. Gotta figure out how to get one in my apartment for those hot summer days. (I think I saw them in the Ikea warehouse.

A / No. 59 / Randy J. Hunt / Hanzi Smatter documents the misuse of Chinese Characters. I'm especially fond of the tattoos. [thanks David Barringer]

A / No. 55 / Joe Marianek / Left Right Up Down Under Over Around In Between In Front Behind In Out And Back Again. Yale MFA Graphic Design 2008 Thesis Exhibition.

C / No. 35 / Colin / Part blatant self-promotion, part research: I'm Designer, You're Client.

C / No. 28 / Kenneth FitzGerald / "Corporate America's most-overlooked environmental crime, and how to stop it."

C / No. 30 / Niki / "This Ain't No Disco is a portfolio of some of the best agency interiors in the world."

C / No. 29 / Rob / Font Bots.

C / No. 32 / Kosal / Fan of type humor? Submit your own typographic jokes.

C / No. 38 / Bauldoff / Helvetica 2.0? Under contract by the Haas type foundry, Team'77 (consisting of André Gürtler, Erich Gschwind and Christian Mengelt) set out to "correct" common issues found in the grotesk typefaces at the time, including Helvetica. Their solution was Haas Unica. This is the 1980 promotional publication by Team'77, outlining the strategy and realization of Haas Unica.

For the complete Vol. 16, please visit

Qs / Vol. 16 / April 14 - April 20

The top 15 out of a 23-quip week.

A = Authors | C = Community

A / No. 50 / Armin / Pretty great, constructive read: "Building Your Portfolio Website: Six Things to Never Do".

A / No. 43 / Armin / I can vouch that the new, 800-page Pentagram Black Book is as awesome as it sounds.

A / No. 46 / Armin / Typesites, "a weekly look at sites that have great typographic design".

A / No. 49 / Armin / What Threadless has done for t-shirts, Hat Head is poised to do for caps.

A / No. 51 / Armin / Commissioned by the city of Miami to paint a Martin Luther King Jr.-inspired mural, artist Serge Toussaint took the artistic liberty of adding Barack Obama next to him — denied, he had to paint over Obama with white primer. [Via Artkrush]

C / No. 19 / Chad K / Forget all those protective skins you can get for your apple stuff dress it up with some laser guided scratches.

C / No. 20 / Jhayne / If after mugs and eyeglasses, you still can't get enough: Pantone stairs.

A / No. 47 / Armin / A look at Matthew Carter's Yale typeface.

A / No. 45/ Armin / Zombie Jackson, Pac Washington, and Wolverine Washington are only a few of the characters you will find in this collection of defaced dollar bills. [Via BuzzFeed]

A / No. 28 / Armin / "The artist behind the iconic 'running immigrants' image". [Via Unbeige]

A / No. 42 / Armin / Send a portrait to Damien Weighill and he will draw a new version of it at Your Face. [Via It's Nice That]

C / No. 17 / Jhayne / The Rather Difficult Font Game. (via notcot)

A / No. 52 / Armin / The Dieline.com goes to Japan and brings back packaging!

C / No. 18 / Rob / This is sad, but the visual element is very stunning. Certainly is something to be said for making statistics into something more real. Time lapse animation of deaths in iraq.

A / No. 40 / Armin / The flip book animation to end all flip book animations, it even has slow motion. [Via Dark Roasted Blend]

For the complete Vol. 16, please visit

New Book Recommendations

I've been pretty irregular about updating our book recommendations, so herewith dear readers are a ton of new additions and, yes, some books might already be a few months old, so we are trying to catch up. The full list can always be accessed here.

Graphic Design: The New Basics by Ellen Lupton

Massin by Laetitia Wolff

Modern Dog: 20 Years of Poster Art by Modern Dog

Vignelli From A to Z by Massimo and Leila Vignelli

Left to Right: The Cultural Shift from Word to Image by David Crow

How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer by Debbie Millman

New Vintage Type: Classic Fonts for the Digital Age by Steven Heller and Gail Anderson

Hand Job: A Catalog of Type by Michael Perry

Graphic Design: A New History Stephen J. Eskilson

Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide by Johanna Drucker and Emily McVarish

AGI: Graphic Design Since 1950 by Ben and Elly Bos

Paul Rand: Conversations with Students by Michael Kroeger

Look at This: Contemporary Brochures, Catalogues & Documents by Adrian Shaughnessy

Logo by Michael Evamy

Type Addicted (The New Trend of a to Z Typo-Graphics) by Victionary

79 Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut

Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Butler

Soviet Posters: The Sergo Grigorian Collection by Maria Lafont

Ethan Bodnar, Underage Designer?

I was recently invited, by the author, to participate in an upcoming book from the jolly group at HOW Books. "My name," started the e-mail "is Ethan Bodnar, I am a graphic designer, blogger, and entrepreneur. My first book is being published by HOW Books and is a collaborative visual book." I initially thought that, well, I just had never heard of this designer, blogger and entrepreneur, and how nice of HOW Books to be publishing his first book. Curious as a racoon, I visited his web site — a dapper-looking one at that — and after a few minutes of sniffing around I realized why I had never heard of Mr. Bodnar: He has not been around the profession too long… well, in fact, despite being a soon-to-be-published author with strong typographic inclinations, he is not a professional designer yet, not even a graphic design student, nope, he is an 18-year-old high school senior. This preceding sentence is in no way mocking, it's authentic surprise and enthusiasm, even more so at Ethan's preternatural conviction to become a graphic designer, which he expresses consistently and adamantly in his blog with joyful eloquence.

It's hard not to think back to when I was 18… I was a lousy high school student and one of the strongest reasons why I went to study graphic design was because I assumed there would not be many written tests or things to memorize, not to mention that I had no idea what to do with typography, nor that it "existed". In contrast, Ethan already has a reading list that rivals that of your typical designer, he can design and program a web site, he grasps the virtues of Helvetica flush left, curates a collection of design-related videos, and, as I mentioned, even has a book deal. (26-year-old Mike Perry eat your heart out!). Called the Grab Bag Book, Ethan's project brings together designers and artists from around the world that are assigned a random project from an actual grab bag that Ethan delves into to determine whether you will be doing a comic book strip, a portrait, a collage, or a number of other activities that hinge on making you do something you would usually not do. I am doing a collage. I hate collages. But, first, I asked Ethan some questions.

Ethan Bodnar, hello.

Armin Vit: "I asked myself whether I truly wanted to become a graphic designer, and the answer was yes." You posted this on your blog recently, it's very rare to find someone so young that is so determined to be a graphic designer, how did you first develop an interest in graphic design?

Ethan Bodnar: I found graphic design through the internet a couple years ago. I started reading blogs and looking at many online design portfolios. The inspiration that the graphic design world provided to me was amazing.

Then I actually started practicing design, creating posters and websites and more. It just felt good to make something and then be moving throughout my daily environment and see what I designed hanging on the wall.

To create is in my nature.

Desk and desktop.

AV: With such an early commitment and passion to graphic design, does it worry you that once in school or after graduation it may not be all you had hoped it would? Sorry, I don't mean to shatter your dreams!

EB: No not really. I have a pretty good idea of what the next four years in school are going to be like. Right now I am a self-taught designer and to be able to get in-depth and detailed education in graphic design for an extended period of time is very appealing.

As for after graduation, I look forward to being able to work in the industry and continue learning. My only concern is the constraints that working with clients have, but it would appear that by being talented you can still keep your creative freedom and choose what projects you want to work on. Right now I am confident that it will be all that I hope it will be.

Portfolio and academic application.

AV: Speaking of school, you were recently accepted to attend the School of Visual Arts in New York for undergraduate studies. What were some of your criteria when looking for a school to attend? What attracted you to SVA?

EB: Going to school for graphic design and art has a certain feeling about it. To know that I will be creating and learning at the same time is great. When looking for schools I kept in mind location, the amount of students, the faculty, the facilities, and the curriculum. The big question that I would always ask was whether it was a process (focuses on theory of design and how you go about design) or portfolio (focuses on having a book of work to get job placement) school. Process was the answer I was looking for, but still realizing that I need to have something to show for after my education to get a start in the working world.

I am still deciding where to attend next year. The School of Visual Arts was great because of its location in the city and because so many faculty are practicing designers. I was also accepted at Maine College of Art, Art Institute of Boston, Massachusetts College of Art, The Hartford Art School, Maryland Institute College of Art, Virginia Commonwealth University and several others.

AV: What do you think a design education must be for a student graduating in 2012?

EB: In a design education you must first have a solid grounding in process, understanding, and practice. But I think that we must take it further.

Students need to be educated in business so that they can work with clients and run their own design studios. We must be educated in the internet and shown what an amazing community of designers can do together. We must be educated in how to write about our own and others' design work.

I think project based learning is important. I think that we must first work on paper before the digital technology comes into play. I think that, in the end, the most important part is to love design.

Posters.

AV: Over the holidays you posted a photo of some design books you were ready to tackle... Including Debbie Millman's How to Think like a Great Graphic Designer, John Maeda's The Laws of Simplicity and, more recently, you acquired Paul Rand, Conversations with Students. That's not light reading. What do you look for in a design book? And how do you learn about new or existing titles?

EB: In a design book I look for content that motivates my mind to think about design. I look for inspiration and new information. There is something special about books. We get so used to working and consuming design on the screen that it's just good to feel the pages and flip through each spread. Someday I want to walk into the store and walk out with a huge stack of books and just go home and consume them. I also judge book by their covers, I have been told that it's a bad habit but what are us designers supposed to do.

Lastly, those books were really great and you should consider reading them if you haven't already. Debbie Millman has agreed to be in my book, John Maeda is now president at RISD, and I truly regret not ever meeting Paul Rand.

AV: One of the things that impressed me the most about your blog and your portfolio was how careful the typography was executed and treated, as if you had been doing this for quite a few years already. How did you learn to work with type?

EB: Thanks, well most of it comes from experimentation and figuring out what looked good. Then from there I started figuring out what was right and just not what looked good. I read Ellen Lupton's book, Thinking With Type which I refer back to when I am designing.

My design seems to be based very much on clean typography right now and I want to start working more illustrative elements into my work. I use Helvetica, Rockwell, and Georgia too much. Typefaces are very expensive these days. Though recently Adobe and AIGA teamed together to offer a great set of faces to students for a very reasonable price, this is a great move and one that I think was needed.

Typography is all around and by just observing you can learn a good amount. Just make sure you are observing well executed typography.

More posters.

AV: It must be too premature, but what kind of designer do you want to be? Is there a particular area in design you are gunning for? Like corporate identity, or packaging, or web design?

EB: Right now, I am not completely sure. Web design doesn't seem as exciting as it did a couple years ago. I never like how they call it corporate identity. Most people who need identities designed are not "corporate" businesses. They are organizations, small businesses, schools, local brands, and initiatives. I think that I would like to work with designing promotional materials and branding for events, designing type, environmental design, book design, and packaging.

AV: Are you looking to work on your own or be part of a collaborative design firm?

EB: Once I graduate I would like to work as part of a collaborative design firm and continue my education by learning from others that I would work with. I have heard that it is not the best idea to start off on your own right away because there is still much to be learned by working with an established design business.

However, eventually I would like to work on starting my own collaborative design firm.

I don't think I want to spend my whole life being your normal designer. I would like to take design thinking and apply it to other areas. I will use the power of creativity and design to have a positive impact on the world. Coming up with new ideas and new ways to solve issues and problems. It is my belief that creativity can solve anything.

One more poster.

AV: And, lastly, a more philosophical question. How do you perceive the influence of design around you, both as a young citizen and as a designer in the making?

EB: It is well known that design is all around us as we move through the everyday environments in which we work, play, and live.

However, I think that there is design behind the simplest interactions we have. Whether it be how the handle of you coffee mugs fits your hand, the paperclips on your desk, the piece of metal you hang your coat on, or the design of the chair you are sitting in as you read this. What message is portrayed through these everyday objects?

It is a sad realization when you figure out what you don't see. Slow down as you move busily through life, there is much you are missing. Take a moment and observe what your senses are taking in and process it a little bit longer. Observe the well designed. Take note of the poorly designed. Have a look at the beauty and aesthetics that may hide below the surface.

Be sure to stop and smell the design. Chances are you may just like what you smell, or in this case, what you see.

AV: Thanks for your time Ethan, and good luck.

Self-Promotion: Opposites Attract '08

Last bit of self-promotion, at least for the foreseeable future. We are happy to introduce Opposites Attract ’08, a four-part series programmed by UnderConsideration and hosted at the Art Directors Club in New York.

Qs / Vol. 16 / April 7 - April 13

The top 15 out of a 29-quip week.

A = Authors | C = Community

A / No. 24 / Armin / Business card for a couples therapist. Clever.

A / No. 29 / Armin / Finally! A reason to link to The Sartorialist: Urban camouflage.

A / No. 31 / Armin / I love it when people spend too much time on silly matters: If Futurama were real. [Via Design You Trust]

A / No. 25 / Armin / Very impressive student work from London-based Rick Banks. [Via Evasee]

A / No. 26 / Armin / Great line of packaging for Lovejoy Vodka.

A / No. 32 / Armin / "This is what happens when u drink & drive" states a vertigo-inducing public service announcement from the Mumbai police department. No word on what happens when you look at the poster. [Via Nice Fucking Graphics]

A / No. 37 / Armin / What a great bottle design for Bulldog gin.

A / No. 21 / Armin / Not sure I would try it, but tossing your camera renders some nice pictures. [Via TolleBlog]

C / No. 13 / Mattus / There're cute alphabets and there're Neighborhood Alphabets.

A / No. 28 / Armin / "The artist behind the iconic 'running immigrants' image". [Via Unbeige]

C / No. 14 / Josh B / The very funny comedian Demetri Martin uses hand drawn infographics to tell his jokes. video here. And another video where uses illustrations to "enhance" his jokes here.

A / No. 30 / Randy J. Hunt / The thesis project of Syracuse senior Heidi Cies is a wonderful survey of social responsibility in design and marketing curricula: Creative for a Cause.

A / No. 38 / Armin / Classic Esquire cover gets the pop starlet treatment. Aside from some cleavage there is nothing worth celebrating here.

A / No. 18 / Armin / Hard to describe: Some sort of black hole/spiral made out of cell phones. [Via Dark Roasted Blend]

A / No. 33 / Armin / A gallery of adult posters from the 60s and 70s. While these may have been gloriously not safe for work back then, you should feel free to peruse them at work. Unless your employer checks your browsing history, in which case you'll be labeled as the office perv. [Via Coudal]

For the complete Vol. 16, please visit