I discovered Ernst Haeckel's illustrations by doing some research about "Art Nouveau", a movement in the history of Art characterized by organic, especially floral and other plant-inspired motifs, as well as highly stylized, flowing curvilinear forms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I particularly like this movement and I'm amazed by Ernst illustrations, they are so detailed and subtile. He was a scientist and an inspiration for many artists from the "Art Nouveau" period.

Funny bat faces below. I would be scared if they were my friends.
All illustrations comes from the book "Kunstformen der Natur".

The National

Do you know a band called "The National"? It's an indie rock band from New York and they've collaborated with Sufjan Stevens on their album "Boxer" (2007) below. Matt Berninger, the singer has a deep voice - perfectly accompagned with beautiful instrumental arrangements. It's melancholic, dark and beautiful. You should listen to their songs "Fake Empire" - "Mistaken For Strangers" and "Start A War" from the album below.

They've also released an EP in 2008 "The Virginia EP" which comes with a documentary called "A Skin, A Night" and filmed by Vincent Moon, the creator of the amazing music platform "La Blogosphere". This EP is a little gem. Check the beautiful "Whithout Permission" song on your Spotify. This song is puuuure beauty!


I find their album cover absolutely beautiful - in line with the dark and pure atmosphere of their songs.
I saw them at Elysee Montmartre, maybe 4 years ago. Really good.

Jason Munn & the indie rock bands

Castanets album cover designed by Jason Munn and released on the Asthmatic Kitty label. A band you must listen to and an independant label you must discover. This album cover reflects perfectly the atmosphere of this album, cold and dark like a morning in Winter.

Sufjan Steven's gig poster designed by Jason Munn. I'd say these posters (on the top) reflect very well the music of Sufjan Stevens. His music is a bundle of instruments and orchestration. On stage he plays with 5 to 10 musicians and he's also part of the Asthmatic Kitty label.
But you can maybe listen to his songs: "Sister Winter" by looking at that poster or "Chicago" by looking at the next one (the clouds) which demonstrates something celestial. 2 completely different songs, one dark, one dynamic and positive like these two posters.

Conor Oberst is another very talented kid known to be part of the band named "Bright Eyes". We can imagine the musician with the hat on the poster playing some nice folk songs and telling us stories coming from his life and imagination...

I find Jason Munn's work so well composed, minimalist but with strong images. He nicely plays with the colors, the typography, the icons. The results is poetic and modern.

He started a design studio in 2003 "The Small Stakes" and his work is mostly focused in independant music. His posters became a fixture in the local independant music scene.

Reza Abedini

Persian Type and Typography-2003-100*70cm offset

Dream of Dust-2003-Film poster-100*70cm silkscreen

Victim-2005-Installation group exhibition-100*70cm offset

Reza Abedini is an iranian graphic designer famous for his modern persian typography.

He often use a limited but strong range of colours, with photography for an austere and bright effect and combines modern and traditional themes in his work, commisionned by multiple cultural institutes.

Oded Ezer, between art and typography

Oded Ezer, type and logo designer from Israel creates brilliant latin and hebreu 3D typography. It reminds me at some point Gaetano Pesce, with these organic and fascinating shapes that he creates. He also has some very nice logos in his website.

Maxime Buechi

Maxime Buechi is a designer, editor and tattoo artist from Lausanne. He published an unique magazine named "Sang Bleu" which is a bundle of art, fashion, writing, photography and tattoos. The mock up is minimalist and avant-garde.

Gaspar David Friedrich