Pablo Lara H

Mid-century modern Illustration

2024-02-05T14:09:00.013-03:00

Bauhaus & Art Deco & more

have been since I was a child fascinated with this minimal style in illustration, because I watched Mr. Magoo and other cartoons made at that time (50s, 60s, UPA mostly) and japanese anime. So I invite you to a short trip to Mid Century Modern Illustration (and design).

MCM Definition:

Mid-century modern (MCM) is a movement in interior design, product design, graphic design, architecture and urban development that was popular in the United States and Europe from roughly 1945 to 1969, during the United States's post–World War II period. [...]

The mid-century modern movement in the U.S. was an American reflection of the International and Bauhaus movements, including the works of Gropius, Florence Knoll, Le Corbusier, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.(Wikipedia).

MCM Sources:

According to Creativebloq, the direct sources of the MCM are:

“ The striking geometric modes of Russian Constructivists like El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko

Bauhaus school graphic designers, such as László Moholy-Nagy and typographer Herbert Bayer

The advertising poster works by Kurt Schwitters, an artist more commonly associated with the Dada movement.”

Design Trend: Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design and Beyond by

Marc Schenker adds another source:

https://creativemarket.com/blog/mid-century-modern-graphic-design

“We can’t look to this style without understanding what big design trend immediately came before it. In this case, it was Art Deco, that machine-influenced, geometric style that was at once simple and excessive.”

I chose the Art Deco style to redesign my own website. So I created illustrations based in monochrome red or pink on a yellow background, with birds, men and a typeface based on this style (STF Yunque).

Check this super entertaining video by Pete Beard about Art Deco illustration featuring: Julius Klinger, Lucian Bernhard, Ludwig Hohlwein, George Barbier, Erté (Romain de Tirtoff),

John Held, José Carlos, Fortunato Depero, René Magritte, Einar Nerman, Edward McKnight Kauffer, Joyce Mercer, Dorothy Lathrop, Vladimir Lebedev, Frank Newbould, Tom Purvis, Leo Marfurt, Roger Broders, A. M. Cassandre.

https://youtu.be/hYOXbzJvesI?si=mVm1YXPt7WaCqHm7

MCM Design

For some context, I am displaying designers and illustrators from the Mid Century American Illustration.

MCM Designers List:

On the book “The Moderns: Midcentury American Graphic Design” by Steven Heller and Greg D’Onofrio they lists MCM designers divided in Homegrown versus Émigrés ( https://themodernsbook.com/ ):

Émigrés (18)

Josef Albers, Walter Allner, Herbert Bayer, Alexey Brodovitch, Will Burtin, George Giusti, György Kepes, Leo Lionni, Herbert Matter, Erik Nitsche, M. Peter Piening, Cipe Pineles, Ladislav Sutnar, Fred Troller, George Tscherny, Massimo Vignelli, Dietmar R. Winkler, Rudi Wolff

Homegrown (45)

Saul Bass, Lillian Bassman, Lester Beall, Peter Bradford, Robert Brownjohn, Jacqueline S. Casey, Chermayeff & Geismar, John and Mary Condon, Donald and Ann Crews, Richard Danne, Louis Danziger, Rudolph de Harak, Louis Dorfsman, Ray Eames, Gene Federico, S. Neil Fujita, William Golden, Morton Goldsholl, Charles Goslin, Irving Harper, E. McKnight Kauffer, Ray Komai, Burton Kramer, Roy Kuhlman, Matthew Leibowitz, George Lois, Herb Lubalin, Alvin Lustig, Elaine Lustig Cohen, John Massey, Tomoko Miho, Reid Miles, Charles E. Murphy, Georg Olden, Tony Palladino, Paul Rand, Alexander Ross, Arnold Saks, Arnold Shaw, Louis Silverstein, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, Alex Steinweiss, Deborah Sussman, Bradbury Thompson, Lance Wyman

Example: Saul Bass’s Title Sequences

https://www.artofthetitle.com/designer/saul-bass/titles/

Early-Mid 20th Century American Illustrators

A list of illustrators intersecting the period: Early-Mid 20th Century American Illustrators at Art Cyclopedia. There were different styles in illustration in those years, so keep in mind that this is a list of illustrators working in that period, rather than technically MCM style illustrators.

https://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/American-artists-20th.html

Douglas Allen [American Illustrator, born in 1935]

Frank Kelly Freas [American Illustrator, 1922-2005]

Frank McCarthy [American Painter and Illustrator, 1924-2002]

Harrison Fisher [American Golden Age Illustrator, 1877-1934]

James Montgomery Flagg [American Golden Age Illustrator, 1877-1960]

Frank E. Schoonover [American Golden Age Illustrator, 1877-1972]

William Henry Dethlef Koerner [American Painter and Illustrator, 1878-1938]

C. Coles Phillips [American Golden Age Illustrator, 1880-1927]

Joseph Clement Coll [American Golden Age Illustrator, 1881-1921]

Willy Pogány [Hungarian-born American Illustrator, 1882-1955]

N.C. Wyeth [American Golden Age Illustrator, 1882-1945]

Rube Goldberg [American Illustrator and Inventor, 1883-1970]

Frank R. Paul [Austrian-born American Illustrator, 1884-1963]

Kay Nielsen [Danish-born American Golden Age Illustrator, 1886-1957]

James Chapin [American Painter and Illustrator, 1887-1975]

Chesley Bonestell [American Painter and Illustrator, 1888-1986]

Kerr Eby [American Illustrator, 1889-1946]

Norman Rockwell [American Illustrator, 1894-1978]

Alberto Vargas [Peruvian-born American Illustrator, 1896-1982]

Boris Artzybasheff [Ukrainian-born American Painter and Illustrator, 1899-1965]

Fritz Eichenberg [German-born American Illustrator, 1901-1990]

Martha Sawyers [American Illustrator, 1902-1988]

Al Hirschfeld [American Illustrator, 1903-2003]

Terence Duren [American Illustrator, 1904-1968]

Dr. Seuss [American Writer and Illustrator, 1904-1991]

Lee Brown Coye [American Illustrator, 1907-1981]

Stevan Dohanos [American Illustrator, 1907-1994]

John Phillip Falter [American Illustrator, 1910-1982]

Arthur Sarnoff [American Illustrator, 1912-2000]

Arthur Getz [American Illustrator, 1913-1996]

Hannes Bok [American Illustrator, 1914-1964]

Gil Elvgren [American Illustrator, 1914-1980]

Virgil Finlay [American Illustrator, 1914-1971]

Saul Steinberg [Romanian-born American Illustrator, 1914-1999]

Will Eisner [American Writer and Illustrator, 1917-2005]

Jack Kirby [American Illustrator, 1917-1994]

Robert T. McCall [American Painter and Illustrator, born in 1919]

Douglas Allen [American Illustrator, born in 1935]

MCM and Music

Jazz Influence:

When I was a kid and watched cartoons, the MCM styles were always accompanied by jazz music. As it tell us the paper Tom Perchard’s Mid-century Modern Jazz: Music and Design in the Postwar Home

https://www.academia.edu/30347818/Mid_Century_Modern_Jazz_Music_and_Design_in_the_Postwar_Home

“The music’s sonic characteristics were frequently called upon to complement the newly sleek visual and tactile experiences of furniture, fabrics, plastics, the light and space of modern domestic architecture then coming to define the aspirational bourgeois home; an international modern visual aesthetic was reflected back in jazz album cover art.”

“Yet turn the page of this magazine and the diagrams of a new (and ratherwhite) America cede to a reminiscence of old Europe, and one made by way of a provocatively debonair blackness; this was the cultural amalgam that gave mid-century modernism its soundtrack.” (jazz).

“Yet at the same time they articulate a thoroughly contemporary modern visual patterning that was centred on the organic and biomorphic. Especially popu-lar in American graphic design – these forms appear in the work of designers like Paul Rand and Alvin Lustig, and also on the mid-decade jazz album cover work of Paul Bacon and Reid Miles – organic designs spread across materials in the early-to-mid 1950s…”

Characteristics of the MCM:

From the article, Design Trend: Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design and Beyond by Marc Schenker on the Creative Market website, a list of characteristics:

https://creativemarket.com/blog/mid-century-modern-graphic-design

“ Minimalism

A rejection of ornamentation for the sake of ornamentation

Conservative

Classic

Clean lines and angles

Fluid movement

Usability (“form follows function”)

Experimentation with materials (the use of traditional, non-traditional, and even contrasting materials)

Geometric influences (curves, angles)

Multi-purpose use

Colors: neutral, bold and vibrant”

MCM Color Palettes

MCM Color Palettes (at Youworkforthem)

https://www.youworkforthem.com/blog/2020/07/01/exploring-the-elements-of-midcentury-graphic-design/

Color Palettes: “... the 1950s embraced a lot of vibrant palettes while the 1960s gravitated to more earth-toned hues…”...”If you’re looking to evoke the 50s, you might try pairing combinations of lemon yellow, sky blue, fuchsia, mint green, or poppy red. For more 60s-inspired designs, you’ll probably lean toward more earthen combinations like muted red and sunset orange, jade or olive green, tans and browns, rich mustard yellow, and yes… even the “dreaded” avocado.”

MCM Color Palettes (Creativebloq)

https://www.creativebloq.com/features/mid-century-modern-graphic-design-a-designers-guide

“Colour palettes from the era aren’t uniform. They vary from in-your-face, nursery schoolish primary and secondary tones (reflecting the fine art around the era, such as the work of Piet Mondrian); to more earthy combinations of olive, paprika, and gold; to more chintzy patterning of mint green, fuchsia and turquoise.”

MCM Typography

Typefaces: Anzeigen-Grotesk / Neue Aurora IX - Alternate Gothic

https://fontsinuse.com/uses/33008/a-millionth-anniversary-mailing-card-for-meri

MCM Typography (at You work for Them)

https://www.youworkforthem.com/blog/2020/07/01/exploring-the-elements-of-midcentury-graphic-design/

Typography: “Bauhaus and Swiss Style are two hallmarks of midcentury type. Utilitarian sans serifs reigned in the mid-1900s, bringing classic type designs like Futura, Helvetica, Univers, Frutiger, and Akzidenz Grotesk…” …Garamond, Century Expanded and Clarendon certainly had their roles to play…”

MCM Typography (at Font In Use)

https://fontsinuse.com/tags/189/mid-century-modern

Some of the typefaces mentioned are:

Antique Olive Nord, Cactus, Studio Feixen Sans, Futura, Monotype Baskerville, ITC Avant Garde Gothic, Basic Commercial, Interstate, Bodoni, Clarendon, Akzidenz-Grotesk et altro.

Check the website for specimens and more typefaces.

MCM Illustration Style (at You work for Them)

https://www.youworkforthem.com/blog/2020/07/01/exploring-the-elements-of-midcentury-graphic-design/

Illustration Style: “... they favored simple lines and brush strokes with a typically limited color palette. Advertisements in particular often captured the idyllic American life with a side of humor, featuring happy people using happy products to enrich their happy lives. This level of optimism and joy was likely an after-effect of post-war America. The economy was booming and people just wanted to move past those dark days and live their lives, looking toward a comfortable and stable future. And they did. Even now, when we watch syndicated reruns of old television shows like Donna Reed or Leave It To Beaver, we’re struck by how simple and wonderful life was… at least on the screen.”

MCM Cartoons:

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/what-is-your-favorite-mid-century-modern-designed-cartoon-short-or-series/

1) Rooty Toot Toot (1951)

Black comedy musical animated short film, directed by John Hubley. It was released by Columbia Pictures and produced by UPA. In 1994 it was voted #41 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.

https://youtu.be/ejLWX1Dwn00?si=-3dK14RpEWDSszRa

2) Rocky And His Friends (or the retitled “The Bullwinkle Show”from 1959:

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC television networks.

https://youtu.be/LYNVCm48w6g?si=H5YfOomYtEZxSpdZ

3) Destination Earth (1956)

Destination Earth is a 1956 promotional cartoon created by John Sutherland and funded by the American Petroleum Institute. The short explains the fundamentals of the petroleum industry and how petroleum products enrich everyday life in the United States, as well as the benefits of a free market economy. Designed by Tom Oreb for John Sutherland Productions.

https://youtu.be/E2qpjLyr-FY?si=yoWxbSHYS7zki2W0

4) FLEBUS - Terrytoon filmed in CinemaScope, 1957

Filmed at Terrytoons, directed by Ernest Pintoff. Gene Deitch was the supervising director.

https://vimeo.com/485068762

5) "Mars and Beyond"

"Mars and Beyond" is an episode of Disneyland which aired on December 4, 1957. It was directed by Ward Kimball and narrated by Paul Frees. This episode discusses the possibility of life on other planets, especially Mars.

https://youtu.be/dk7lf2D848I?si=Q9Egqjmll8efIteK

6) "The Ragtime Bear" (1949)

J. Quincy Magoo, better known as Mr. Magoo, is a fictional cartoon character created at the UPA animation studio in 1949. Voiced by Jim Backus. Mr. Magoo's first appearance was in the theatrical short cartoon "The Ragtime Bear" (1949), scripted by Millard Kaufman. His creation was a collaborative effort; animation director John Hubley is said to have partly based the character on his uncle Harry Woodruff, and W. C. Fields was another source of inspiration.(Wikipedia)

https://youtu.be/0y33r9bilw8?si=36HtfeOn0XoVazli

Please, check the article for more references.

On the blog Animation Obsessive you can download a free copy of Cartoon Modern — a rare, out-of-print artbook on mid-century animation.

“Released in 2006, Cartoon Modern is the guide to the so-called “UPA style.” It’s full of art and production insights you can’t find anywhere else. The whole mid-century cartoon movement is here, from UPA to Mary Blair to Sleeping Beauty and beyond.”

https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/our-treat-to-you

Illustrators in the 50s and 60s on video (Pete Beard channel):

Illustrators in 1950s USA and their impact on the twenty first century

https://youtu.be/iP1Xr1hQ1uY?si=zxtsbWRbRWGtEcM2

Citing: Jim Flora (jazz covers), Cliff Roberts (monochrome illustrations), Alice & Martin Provensen (children books), Mary Blair (concept art films, advertising), Eyvind Earle (background art), Abner Graboff (children books).

Illustrators in 1950s Britain

https://youtu.be/F6gQBNcv78c?si=6q77mnwR8CZRX2Z3

Citing: Bill Morden and John Critchlow (Bull Magazine), Archie Dickens & MB Tompkins (pinup artists), Charles Tunnicliffe (Wild life illustrator), Francis Marshall (advertising - gestual), Tom Eckersley (posters) inspired by A.M. Cassandre (Art Deco - typography), Abram Games (poster design), Hans Unger (poster design), Ronald Searle (cartoonist), Rowland Emett (cartoonist and kinetic sculptor), Karl Giles(cartoonist Daily Express), Norman Thelwell (cartoonist), Robert Stewart Sherriffs (Caricaturist and cartoonist), Edward Heinz (caricaturist), Frank Hampson (comics), Ken Reid and Leo Baxendale (cartoonist), Donnell McGill (postcards), Arnold Taylor (cartoonist), Sydney Jordan (cartoonist), Arthur Ferrier (cartoons), Andy Capp (cartoonist, The Mirror), Harmsen van der Beek (children books), Peggy Fortnum (children book, Paddington bear), Edward Ardizzone (children books), Eric Fraser (monochrome, engraving like), Edward Bawden (pposters), Barbara Jones (children books),

Please check Pete Beard channel for more references on illustration about every historic period!

Children books & MCM:

On the article, at Milly Burroughs’s Aiga on Design https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/why-did-so-many-mid-century-designers-make-childrens-books/

“Here [on children books], they were free to explore many of the themes already prominent in the mid-century graphic design world. These included Modernist ideals for living — largely shaped by the Bauhaus school of thinking, and prominent in architecture and design for the home. Nature, bold colors, smooth-lined curving shapes, and the kind of nuclear familial bliss touted throughout the western world as aspirational all defined the aesthetics of an era of peace-time domesticity.”

MCM on Advertising:

“Advertising was, arguably, the definitive place that mid-century modern cartoons took hold. UPA, Storyboard, Playhouse and other studios all worked in TV commercials, spreading their design ideas far and wide.”

(Animation Obssesive, https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/our-treat-to-you

Also check the blog:

https://theadvertisingarchives.blogspot.com/

More inspiration and illustration:

The website Grain Edit, with no posts since January 2019.

http://grainedit.com/2008/09/29/grain-edit-the-year-in-review/

Tumblr blog about mid-century modern illustration:

https://midcenturymoderndesign.tumblr.com/

Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design on @mcm_graphics

Tweets from Theo Inglis @theo_inglis

Why is MCM still trending?

But, why do we still find this style trending and being in use?

On the article Rachele Dini’s “Things of Beauty: The Politics of Postmillennial Nostalgia for Mid-century Design”:

https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2021/06/21/things-of-beauty-the-politics-of-postmillennial-nostalgia-for-mid-century-design/comment-page-1/

“For Freud, the “compulsion to repeat” signified an effort to revisit a traumatic event. It’s not difficult to deduce what traumas we are re-enacting in our endless rebooting of the period 1940-1975—or in our endless rebooting of reboots…”

“A second, related fantasy to which the mid-century drama plays is the lure of the myth of historical progress as a seamless process defined by changing fashions, interior designs, and colour palettes, rather than by conflict, violence, trauma, and death.”

“In 1982, in a talk that would become Postmodernism: The Logic of Late Capitalism (1991), Fredric Jameson diagnosed this “nostalgia mode” as indicating that “for Americans at least the fifties remain the privileged lost object of desire.”

“One of the things I wonder about is the press’s tendency to reduce the popularity of period dramas and mid-century-inspired packaging to a story about people looking for comfort in times of socioeconomic upheaval (9/11; the 2008-2010 global financial crisis; the 2020-2021 lockdown), rather than a tactic straight out of a marketing strategist’s playbook.”

And last, but not least, the

Modern Illustration Archive:

An archive of illustration from c.1950-1975, shining a spotlight on pioneering illustrators and their work.

Modern Illustration is a project by illustrator Zara Picken.

https://www.modernillustration.org/

Finally,

MCM Illustrators and Illustrations examples:

Elizabeth Browzowska from "The Boy Who Wouldn't Eat His Breakfast", Wonder Books, 1963.

https://melaniebiehle.com/2011/12/20111215the-boy-who-wouldnt-eat-his-breakfast-by-elizabeth-brozowska-html/

The Animal Fair Written & Illustrated by Alice Provensen & Martin Provensen

https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/04/25/the-animal-fair-provensen/

Bernice Myers’s Children Books

https://fishinkblog.com/2012/12/21/bernice-myers-talented-mid-century-illustrator-of-childrens-books/

The Indoor Noisy Book – January 1, 1994 by Margaret Wise Brown (Author), Leonard Weisgard (Illustrator)

https://leonardweisgard.com/

Dahlov Ipcar, 1961- The Little Fisherman

https://societyillustrators.org/award-winners/dahlovipcar/

1958 Abelard Folk Song Book, by Norman Cazden, pictures by Abner Graboff. Abelard-Schuman.

https://wardomatic.blogspot.com/2009/06/art-life-of-abner-graboff.html

Illustrations by Einar Nerman for his Kom Ska Vi Leka (Sweden, 1950)

https://illustratorslounge.com/cartoon/einar-nerman-1888-1983/

Twinkle Loon illustrated story by Robert E. Berry

https://andeverythingelsetoo.blogspot.com/2014/03/twinkle-loon.html

French illustrator and author Alain Grée

https://alaingree.com/freebies/

The Witch next door Norman Bridwell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Bridwell

General Foods Kitchens | All About Home Baking 1963

illustrations by Mary Ronin

http://stickersandstuff.blogspot.com/

Mary Blair

https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/mary-blair/

"The Joke Book" compiled by Oscar Weigle, illustrated by Bill & Bonnie Rutherford (1963)

http://www.myretroreads.com/2020/02/the-joke-book-compiled-by-oscar-weigle.html

"The Romper Room Do Bee Book of Manners" by Nancy Claster, illustrated by Art Seiden (1960)

http://modernkiddo.com/vintage-book-shelf-romper-room-book-of-manners/

https://www.carlemuseum.org/explore-art/story-board/keeping-ed-emberley

The Witch Of Hissing Hill illustrated by Janet McCaffery, 1964

http://www.myvintageavenue.com/2012/10/the-witch-of-hissing-hill-illustrated.html

Karel en mienet written by Mariejte Witteveen and illustrated by Eddy Dukkers, circa 1950.

https://geheugen.delpher.nl/nl/geheugen/view?coll=ngvn&identifier=PRB01%3A036866792&pres%5Bimageindex%5D=6

Ryohei Yanagihara (1931–2015)

https://illustratorslounge.com/animation/ryohei-yanagihara-1931-2015/

The happy little handsaw, illustrated by Milli Eaton in 1955

https://10engines.blogspot.com/2010/04/bookshelf-happy-little-handsaw.html

Le Manege Vivant (c. 1950), which is the French edition of The Marvelous Merry-Go-Round, written by Jane Werner and illustrated by J.P. Miller.

http://grainedit.com/2011/07/08/book-gems-from-the-south-of-france/

I hope you get inspired!

Behind the Scenes

Font in use: Bricolage Grotesque by Mathieu Triay .

Free Wes Anderson Asteroid City Inspired LUTs

2023-04-25T20:38:00.040-03:00

LUTs everywhere!

mmediately upon watching the trailer of the Wes Anderson's Asteroid City I thought two things:

1.- Color Palettes:

Which I already made here

https://blog.pablolarah.cl/2023/03/wes-andersons-asteroid-city-color.html

2.- Colorgrading.

I rewatched the videos about the Wes Anderson cinematography I have already seen and I got two or three more with information about the movie. Also I (unwantedly) knew about a new trend on TikTok with Accidentally Wes Anderson tiktoks.

So,I checked on my previous screenshots of the trailer and began to test some colorgrading. I got a uncolorgraded image on a video by Filmmaker IQ:

https://www.youtube.com/live/zGK17Ot4nTM

He made a short, but interesting study of the color on the film. He described Asteroid City as overexposed and saturated, almost looking like an ungraded footage ("..still looking like a log footage").

Evan Schneider, on his youtube channel, established some hints on the creation of LUTs to replicate the coloring on Asteroid City

"...it actually says that it was shot on Kodak film..."

"...skin tones are pushing a little bit yellow but we can also see here that they're following kind of the teal orange line which is a common thing that colorists and cinematographers do to create natural looking color contrast..."

"...we also have shadows that kind of push into the blue tones..."

"...most of the image is sitting in the mid-tones..."

"...the highlights are quite compressed and they don't really go above 80 or 85 percent[...]pretty compressed highlights things are very smooth in the Highlight roll off..."

"...Hue for the green tones which are pushing actually kind of a cool green [...] the greens are pushed towards more of a blue cyan..."

"...it's just kind of like pastelly um I would describe it as like low contrast High saturation very pastel but very saturated..."

"...the highlights push a tiny bit green..."

Evan Schneider made a set of LUTs that he is selling on his website. Check the video:

https://youtu.be/LMgtoNd8eVU

If you watch with attention, you will see the usual oversaturated reds and yellows, and some blue in the shadows and a pervasive Teal and Orange colorgrading. The skins in some parts are redish or orange and in others, like the scene with Scarlett Johansson, the skin looks peachy. There are lots of browns and beautiful light blues and oranges everywhere. The day scenes are super sunny and slightly overexposed with dimmed lights.

Finally I created four LUTs.

1.- Asteroid:

The base LUT.

2.- Bluer Asteroid:

The Asteroid LUT with bluer shades and greener lights.

3.- Junior Stargazer:

This one was made altering the Asteroid one accordingly to the footage of the gas station in the desert video I found on Pexels.

4.- Scarlett:

LUT based on the image of Scarlett Johansson on the window. A little bit greener and muddy for my taste, but it can be useful for colorgrading photos.

The video: https://youtu.be/Jt8NacfezVI

Recommendations for selecting footage or pictures to apply the LUTs.

The youtuber on the channel Imitative Photography, made a video about How To Take Accidentally Wes Anderson Photos. He described in a diagram the key things to consider to create WesAnderson-esque photography.

https://youtu.be/NDMPMftpkW0

These are:

a.- Subject:

Tchotchke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tchotchke

Vintage Fonts.

Eccentric buildings.

b.- Light:

Soft.

Diffused.

c.- Composition:

Symmetrical framing.

Planimetric Staging.

d.- Color:

Pastel shades.

Saturated red/yellow.

Bright tones.

And, the diagram:

Check the Imitative Photography's video for the details.

Also, as today (May 11th, 2023) Wes Anderson is trending, Lukas Lutz posted a prompt to create an image based on Wes Anderson:

[location] in the style of Wes Anderson, neoclassical symmetry, pastel color palette, flat perspective, stagelike location, cinematic framing, hyperrealistic photo, 8k, awa --ar 16:9 --q 2 --v 5.1

( https://twitter.com/lukaslutzAI/status/1656618402201632768 )

We have again some points to follow:

Neoclassical Symmetry.

Pastel color palette.

Flat Perspective.

Stagelike location.

Cinematic Framing.

16:9 aspect ratio.

Last, but not least, there is a video about how to "Replicate Wes Anderson color palette in the color grade" by Color Grading Central on Twitter: @colorgrading

Steps:
1.- Compressed Dynamic Range.
2.- Low Contrast (Inverse S Curve).
3.- High Saturation.
4.- Warm/Color Separation: Cool shadows and warm midtones.
5.- Teal & Orange.

https://youtu.be/08C__HWtOAQ

For more info, you can check this interesting videos of Studio Binder:
The Wes Anderson Style Explained — The Complete Director's Guide to Wes Anderson's Aesthetic
Color Theory and Wes Anderson's Style — Sad Characters in a Colorful World
Wes Anderson Symmetry & Editing Techniques — 3 Ways Anderson Balances his Edits

Here some examples of the LUT applied.

And here you have Rio de Janeiro, but in the style of Wes Anderson:

Recommendations for editing:

I made the LUTs in Photoshop 2023, as a first thing. The cube format can be used in other software.

I am not a professional film colorist, so I am using the knowledge I have with the use of color in Photography.

Second, choose an image or footage following the diagram above.

Lower the Contrast a hundred percent.

Flatten the image (lower the highlights and raise the shadows). Check if the lower contrast looks fine. If not, raise the Contrast till get your desired look.

Apply the chosen LUT. You can lower the opacity if the effect is too heavy for the image.

Check if the modifications are suitable for you.

Depending on the image, maybe you will need to saturate the reds and yellows.

A little trick is to raise the Vibrance ( sometimes, a lot).

Finally, I used footage from Pexels and Pixabay for the video of the edited material. Check the links if you want to compare the original footage with the colorgraded one.

Also, I created a Kofi page if you want to support my work.

https://ko-fi.com/pablolarah

Behind the Scenes

1.- Font in use: Ultra by Astigmatic .
2. Download 4 LUTs inspired by Wes Anderson's Asteroid City.

2.1.- Asteroid:

2.2.- Bluer Asteroid:

2.3.- Junior Stargazer:

2.4.- Scarlett:

Download

Alternative Link:

Download

3.- Credits for music, footage and images:
3.1.- Music:
Everything feels new: https://pixabay.com/music/beats-everything-feels-new-15241/
Author: https://pixabay.com/users/evgeny_bardyuzha-25235210/
Passion : https://pixabay.com/music/upbeat-passion-127011/
Author:https://pixabay.com/users/alexiaction-26977400/
3.2.- Footage and Images:
Red rollers image: https://www.pexels.com/@rodnae-prod/
Gas Station footage: https://www.pexels.com/@rickyrecap/
Jumping African men with red dresses image: https://www.pexels.com/@kureng-workx-2546437/
Pastelly hot-air balloon footage: https://www.pexels.com/@shvetsa/
Woman with yellow dress and man with green jacket images: https://www.pexels.com/@yaroslav-shuraev/
Handsome red hair man with woman in a field footage: https://www.pexels.com/@ron-lach/
Aereal view of water tower in a field footage: https://www.pexels.com/@e-james-merl-421916742/
Camel with a red flower image: https://www.pexels.com/@digitalbuggu/
Woman with camel footage: https://www.pexels.com/@pavel-danilyuk/
Woman with robe walking in the desert with umbrellas footage: https://www.pexels.com/@pavel-danilyuk/
Aereal view of lighthouse in the sea: https://www.pexels.com/@kindelmedia/
Handsome male couple covered with red fabric in the desert: https://www.pexels.com/@cottonbro/

Wes Anderson's Asteroid City Color Palettes

2023-03-31T20:45:00.015-03:00

Annual Junior Stargazer convention.

he new Wes Anderson movie "Asteroid City" premiered its trailer this week.

Asteroid City is an upcoming American science fiction romantic comedy drama film written, directed and co-produced by Wes Anderson, based on a story by Anderson and Roman Coppola. The film follows the transformative events that occur at an annual Junior Stargazer convention in 1955. It features an ensemble cast that has been described as being "larger than most other Anderson films that are ensemble in nature."

The trailer:

https://youtu.be/wSyn-kVmM_M

Starring

    Jason Schwartzman
    Scarlett Johansson
    Tom Hanks
    Jeffrey Wright
    Tilda Swinton
    Bryan Cranston
    Edward Norton
    Adrien Brody
    Liev Schreiber
    Hope Davis
    Stephen Park
    Rupert Friend
    Maya Hawke
    Steve Carell
    Matt Dillon
    Hong Chau
    Willem Dafoe
    Margot Robbie
    Tony Revolori
    Jake Ryan
    Jeff Goldblum

All the images in use from the trailer of the Wes Anderson film, Asteroid City.

Behind the Scenes

1.- Font in use: Ultra by Astigmatic .
2. Download the 14 color palettes in different formats (Color Schemer Studio, SVG, Expression Design Swatch, WPF Resource Dictionary, Silverlight XAML, Adobe Swatch Exchange, ACO, AI, GPL, HTML or everything in a zip file), at Colourlovers

Download PDF

3.- Or download everything in a zip file:

Download

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Website	Pablo Lara H
Email	hello@pablolarah.cl
Linkedin	Linkedin
Get a Quote	Get a quote

Website	Pablo Lara H
Email	hello@pablolarah.cl
Linkedin	Linkedin
Get a Quote	Get a quote