Smiles and Tiles

Kenneth Townsend (1931-99) was a British artist and freelance designer 

based in Hastings. His humorous pictures were utilized by various companies

 to decorate pottery, textiles, children's games, and glass trays.

He also illustrated six books, one of which,the 1968 children's book 

Felix the bald-headed lion, was written by him.

The animals on the tiles of the "Menagerie" series are among Townsend's 

most famous designs. There are around 25 different tile designs,

including the ones shown in this gallery.

The games designed by Townsend look delightful, too...

Marble Fun, a scoring game by Merit

Tiles from Remember, Remember, a memory game by Galt Toys.

As you can see, some of them are very similar to the ceramic tile designs.

Townsend's work is still popular and loved by many, especially in Britain. 

Thanks to Hazel Terry for the discovery, and to the members of the flickr group 

"Lovers of Kenneth Townsend's work" for uploading a majority of the images in this post.

Screen Play

These eye-popping silkscreen prints were created by The Little Friends of Printmaking,

a husband and wife design duo based in Milwaukee. Melissa and J W Buchanan have been active

 poster artists since 2003, and have been featured in many publications and won the 2006 Young Guns Award.

Their humorous and super colorful visual language, steeped in popular culture such as cartoons and comics,

may looks deceptively simple, but their approach to silkscreening is both complex and refined. 

If you dig them too, you may buy their prints here, and check out an interesting and funny

 2009 interview on Grain Edit, where you'll find out about their background, working methods,

 like and dislikes, the origin of their name, and more.

Sunday Safari - Haunted House

Theatre poster by Stasys Eidrigevicius, 1990

Willibald Krain, Gerüchte (Rumour) from Krieg, 1916

Illustration by Alberto Martini for The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

Liz Mamont, Nursery

Domenico Gnoli

Dusan Kallay

Francesco Balsamo, Gruppo di gufi in un interno

Pia Valentinis, illustration for Poe's The murders in the Rue Morgue 

Pierre Roy, Danger on the Stairs, 1927, thanks to Weimar

Jaroslav Serych, illustration for Tales of the Uncanny, 1976, and

John Buckland Wright, illustration for Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum, 1932, 

thanks to 50 Watts

Nicola Bailey

 Moki

John Kenn

The Wild Side of Pino

As promised, here is another installment on the wonderful Pino Pascali.

After exploring his adventures in advertising, I am dedicating this post

to the animal-themed artworks that he created between 1962 and 1965.

 Works from the Africa series, mixed media on acetate, 1964

In the same period, Pascali designed this panel for a mosaic at the FAO headquarters in Rome.

See you again soon with Pino's very Pop sculptures!