Brrrrr....it's cold in here

Anyone? Anyone? Bring It On? Someone tell me how that movie came out 11 years ago?!?!?! Ridiculous. Anyway, back in 2011 and WHEN will this horrible cold weather go away? I am soooo longing to lie down on the beach with my SPF 45, some lemonade, and a good book. And who better to visualize my warm weather wishes than my wanna-be best friend Jessica Hische. I am beginning to sound like a broken record with this one, but I swear she is amazing!

This illustration was created for the Wall Street Journal's Summer Book Review. Hische's piece cleverly marries text and image, employing the tiles of a pool as pixel-like units to build the type. And I couldn't help but think, "uh Jessica? This looks familiar....."
 

In the fantastic book, The Poster in History, by Max Gallo, this beautiful poster by Edward Penfield caught my eye. This advertisement for the New York Times, from 1895, illustrates the poster with, get this, a beautiful TILE pattern for the figure, background, AND type treatment. I guess great minds do think alike. This piece is a wonderful example of early Art Nouveau poster design with female subject, the elegant scroll motif, and unusual choice of textural reference. The illustration even tricks the eye (trompe l'oeil) where the newspaper corner extends beyond the frame of the portrait.

**Drop Cap "A" courtesy of Jessica Hische, Daily Drop Cap.