Hello! I wanted to share an artist that I recently discovered with you. I was immediately drawn to Nathaniel Russell’s ‘Fliers’ (which is now a book!) because it reminded me of party posters from when I was in college.
I always admired the street art flair that seemed to naturally be part of the photocopied paper signs and fliers that students created to spread around campus. This was the 90’s way of advertising an event. This was, of course, way before street art was a thing that we celebrate on the internet (because, yeah, the internet had just started). It was also before the illustrative trend of wonky hand lettering. I feel like we were either trendsetters way ahead of the curve, or I am officially old enough now to have things go out of style and then come back again.
My favorite was a slightly sadistic (though no animals were ever harmed) annual party called ‘Shoot the Dog’. Fliers would be all over campus with images of a very sheepish dog looking into the barrel of a gun (fake) – and the caption, ‘If you don’t come to this party, we will shoot this dog.’ I wish I had the foresight to save some of those fliers for creative inspiration. Do students still make fliers like this, or has social media pre-empted that?
Our fliers looked a lot like artist Nathaniel Russell’s collection of fake fliers – though not nearly as clever. This one is my favorite.
When I was a very little kid, my grandparents had a toy poodle named Pierre. (I know, right?) Looking back as an adult, I’ve never really understood the grandparent/ Pierre thing. I think they were probably good dog parents, but they are really not dog people. I’ve always been a bit perplexed by that one. Vive La Liberte, Pierre.
If you are as charmed and inspired by these as I am, you can see more at Nathaniel’s website. Or buy his new book.
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