I saw yesterday on the BBC web site that a collection of 150 propaganda posters are up for auction. They were taken to the auctioneers by a relative of a worker who saved them from being thrown out by a print firm.

Auctioneer Roy Butler said  "They are all in mint condition and are a very rare find. I expect there will be a lot of interest from museums all around the country.

"I should think some of these posters may not have even been seen before so they are very special."

He also said he expected each lot of about 10 posters to sell for up to £250.

I know that these are not original paintings, but for something so historic that doesn’t sound like very much money to me, particularly when you see some thoroughly rubbish artwork for sale as posters. It will be interesting to see how much they go for in the end.

What do you think of these posters, worth more than £250 for 10?

I’m not much of sci-fi fan but I love the book and film of I, Robot. In a little homage to both I recently designed a poster of my interpretation. It started life as a little sketch that was much more complicated than what you can see below, but I simplified it, a lot.

To tie in with the release of the animated movie “Up”, Pixar have released a number of beautiful retro style posters by various designers and artists. They are truly a feast for the eyes, and I feel a retro personal project coming on. There just aren’t enough hours in the day at the moment. Or at least enough hours that I can stay awake for. In the meantime I’ll add these to the inspiration pile.

Posters by Eric Tan

Posters by Craig Foster.

Poster by Erik Evans

Posters by Paul Conrad.

You can buy the limited edition prints here for $145 each.

Have you seen other retro posters that you’ve really liked, please share the links I’d love to see them too.

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to “Japfest” at Mondello Park in Co. Kildare. John Fair from Mondello Park asked 20 photographers to come to the track for a photowalk with access pretty much all areas. It was an absolutely great opportunity and a wonderful day. The weather was horrendous even by Irish standards with bouts of torrential and horizontal rain coming down.

Photography-wise I found the weather tough-going to be honest. I got a couple of shots that I thought were ok but didn’t feel like I got any “Wow” shots. Despite that, there was loads of colour at the event and the racing, particularly the drift racing as I had never seen that before, was very exciting. I really enjoyed the social aspect too and the chance to meet up with a lot of people I’ve met through Twitter.

I made up a couple of posters to mark the day too. The racing car in the poster is from a photograph I took in the museum at Mondello. You can see all my pictures and the poster at slightly higher resolution on my pix.ie site.

Mondello Park have tons of different race events going on throughout the year, as well as activities such as off-road driving and track days where you can learn to drive a racing car. (My husband did that a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it.) Have a look at their website to find out more.

And now for a little link love: Check out the following photographers for some great work – they’re all on Twitter too.

Elliott Tucker

Stephen Holmes

John Williams

Treasa Lynch

Ryan Whalley

Claire Wilson

Kyle Tunney

Kate Southall

Julie

Rory Wallace

Davy Mac

Niamh Redmond

Redmum

Derek McAuley (Twitter link, website with beautiful logo coming soon)

Gillian McEnteggart (Twitter link)

Emmet

Al Higgins

Mike Patterson

Shane Murphy

Thanks to John Fair and Mondello Park for their great hospitality.

If you’re in Dublin and interested in graphic and poster design, there’s a nice exhibition on at the Decorative Arts & History Museum in Collins Barracks. I went on Saturday and really enjoyed it. It’s not a huge exhibition, but there’s plenty more to see in the museum as well as this exhibit.

It’s called “Come Back To Erin” and features a selection of colourful travel and tourism posters from 1908 to the 1970s. This was a period when mass tourism began to develop and also represented a period of great growth in the advertising and marketing industry. Some of the poster images by the Irish artist Paul Henry in particular became best sellers even in the 1920s and became essential images of Ireland and traded internationally.

Dr Séamas Mac Philib, Exhibition Curator at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life said

The exhibition focuses on some of the prime examples of Irish poster art. Famous Irish tourist locations like Killarney, Connemara, Glendalough appear and Dublin too is well represented. Other images are not place-specific but feature familiar scenes of upland well-proportioned landscapes, big skies, lakes and coasts. Of course there are also stereotypical Irish images of thatched houses, ruins, round towers, jaunting cars and friendly natives. The aim was to create an attractive marketing image, presenting Ireland as happily old fashioned, but which could be visited by the most modern means of travel

Entrance to the museum is free and well worth a visit.

I stumbled upon a beautiful collection of posters which were illustrated in the 1920′s and thought you might be interested for inspiration purposes. I love design and illustration from this era and the craftsmanship is lovely. The images and text below are from the Chicago L.org website, where you can find lots more examples.

Designed by Rocco D. Navigato. Navigato presents Wacker Drive in a similar manner as his earlier “Boul Mich” poster.

Designed by Ervine Metzl, this poster, designed in 1923, depicts the Grosse Point Lighthouse in northern Evanston, a landmark in the north Chicago suburb.

Designed by Arthur A. Johnson, “Avoid Street Congestion” was the only poster that actually depicted the “L” itself. The posters made in this program for the elevated, North Shore Line, and South Shore Line rarely showed the trains of the carriers, except on a few posters. The version of the poster shown here is a reprint done for the Loop Centennial and Chicago Transit Authority by Poster Plus. The original, of course, did not mention the CTA®; The bottom originally read “Rapid Transit Lines, Fast…Reliable”.

What do you think? Is this an era of design that you find appealing?