Cannes Lions Press 2015 Grand Prix, “Never Stop Riding” (illustrator Arthur D'Araujo)

The Cannes Lions Press Grand Prix for 2015 has gone to “Never Stop Riding”, a campaign hand-drawn by Brazilian illustrator Arthur D'Araujo for The Public Bike System of Buenos Aires.

To communicate the new 24-hour availability of the bikes (like many cities in the world, Buenos Aires has a public bicycle system, but until this year, the system was operating only from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.), the campaign uses illustrations to portray the wheels of a bike as partners in a constant chase – a baby chasing a breast, a dog chasing its tail, moths chasing a light bulb, and a squirrel chasing a chestnut.

Each ad incorporates a hand-drawn typeface for the tagline, “The Buenos Aires Public Bike System Now Runs 24/7,” further evoking the movement of a bicycle chain.

Jury president Pablo del Campo, worldwide creative director, Saatchi & Saatchi, Argentina noted that the Grand Prix stood out for its freshness, originality and, ultimately, creative bravery, “There were other great ideas that we loved, but we thought that this one was the most challenging and farthest away from the comfort zone.”

Illustrator’s website: https://arthur-daraujo-ntqd.squarespace.com

Hennessy unveils new Limited Edition by Shepard Fairey

Following releases with the Os Gêmeos, Kaws and Futura, Hennessy continues its Artist Bottle Series with a new collaborative bottle of their V.S. cognac with legendary street artist, Shepard Fairey. He designs his own custom labeling for a limited run of bottles.

Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer activist and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. 

The threat of a lawsuit from Titan Sports, Inc. in 1994 spurred Fairey to stop using the trademarked name André the Giant, and to create a more iconic image of the wrestler's face, now most often with the equally iconic branding OBEY.

Fairey became widely known during the 2008 U.S. presidential election for his Barack Obama "Hope" poster. The New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl called the poster "the most efficacious American political illustration since "Uncle Sam Wants You".

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston calls him one of today's best known and most influential street artists.

For more details: http://www.hennessy.com/us/collection/Shepard-Fairey/

MILTON GLASER (graphic designer & illustrator of MAD MEN's 7th and final season's poster)

Mad Men’s 7th season begins on April 13 on AMC.

Milton Glaser (born June 26, 1929, in New York City), co-founder of New York magazine and the mind behind the "I Love New York" logo, among many other iconic designs, who — probably more than any graphic designer of his generation — forged the sophisticated, exuberant advertising look of the late 1960s, has taken the look he gave to Bob Dylan and passed it on to Don Draper.

Above: the "I Love New York" logo, designed by Milton Glaser in 1977

“Big Nudes,” Milton Glaser’s 1969 poster for the main gallery of the School of Visual Arts.

Above: poster included in the Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits album in 1967

Above: Milton Glaser, 2014

Milton Glaser said his concern was trying to make work that suggested a late-1960s feel without pillaging his own late-1960s feel. “I haven’t been working this way for 30 years or so,” he said.

Above: recent works by Milton Glaser (logo & packaging for Brooklyn Brewery, and "Fruit of Labor", 2014 exhibition at the Santa Monica Museum of Art) 

Above: extract of "Ten Things I've Learned", by Milton Glaser.

The Mad Men's poster reads like a sly reappropriation of his past, a shaggy explosion of color, flowers and Art Nouveau curves on top of which is the by now familiar back-of-the-head silhouette of Don Draper with his arm extended over a chair and a cigarette in his hand. What first reads as abstraction resolves into a profile of a woman’s face, the spire of the Chrysler Building and a glass into which wine is being poured.

Above: Mad Men's 7th  & final season's promotional poster

Above: The graphic designer Milton Glaser, left, in his Manhattan office with Matthew Weiner, the creator of “Mad Men”

This is not the first time Matthew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men, has enlisted the help of artists from that era. For season 6's promotional poster, which pictured two Don Drapers, almost in a Jekyll-and-Hyde scenario, Weiner sought out Brian Sanders, an artist whose work on mid-century promotional ads was relatively unknown, but remembered by Weiner from his childhood.

Read more on Brian Sanders' work for Mad Men on this blog: link

More details on Milton Glaser: 

. The New York Times met on March 6 2014 with Glaser and show creator Mattew Weiner : link
. Milton Glaser's website: link
. TED talk, 1998, "using design to make ideas new": link 

Jean Philippe DELHOMME, Illustrator of the Cool

Born in Nanterre, France, in 1959, Jean-Philippe Delhomme’s father was a surgeon who painted landscapes at weekends, and his grandfather an accomplished painter who became the first 'Creative Director' of Lancôme, before creative directors were invented, serving the brand for many years.

Jean-Philippe Delhomme studied animation at L'Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, graduating in 1985.

He has been working as an illustrator since the mid-Eighties.

In the early Nineties New York department store Barney's launched an advertising campaign in which Delhomme's gouache illustrations were depicting types resembling Barney's style-conscious customers. The campaign was a huge success, extending to billboards and animated television advertisements across America.

In the mid-Nineties, Delhomme directed animation advertisements for Saab. 

In 2010, Delhomme began an ongoing collaboration with Maison Kitsuné, his style fitting perfectly with the brand’s world and spirit: a touch of elegance, some good manners and a pinch of humour.

In April 2013, his latest work for brands celebrates the 40th anniversary of Ligne Roset’s iconic seat, Togo.

Jean Philippe Delhomme’s influences:

His influences are more in the both popular and poetic work of illustrators like Savignac than in painters and caricaturists like Daumier : “I liked the work of people like Savignac, a great poster designer from the ’50s. His work is like a song you might hear on the radio; it’s popular, and at the same time there’s something poetic, light and joyful. Daumier was also a really great painter. But he was forcing, insisting on things. I am less insistent. People might get it or they may not. It’s amusing for those who get it, and they are not unpleased that others don’t. I base my work on subtle details and things that are fragile.”

Savignac & Daumier illustrations: 

Delhomme’s everyday work is more to be compared with the work of a photographer than an illustrator.

“The life of a photographer interested me very much. Most illustrators stay in the same room all day. When I started working as an illustrator, I decided to do it more like a photographer, to travel, meet people and get inside different worlds.

Delhomme's website & blog: http://www.jphdelhomme.com/