Gorgeous matchbox design from Emilio Gil's Graphics Pioneers blog

Date
26 September 2014

We’re suckers for a bit of nostalgia here at It’s Nice That and this blog by renowned designer Emilio Gil provides it in gratifyingly regular doses. But to suggest that Emilio’s archive is just a way of getting a fix of retro imagery is to do it a disservice as Graphic Pioneers; Spanish Graphic Design 1939 – 1975 does much more than that.

Emilio’s blog is an insightful and informative tribute to the “brilliant professionals who altered the visual culture of the Spanish Civil War in a society not particularly receptive to understand that the design was also an art form.”

In a context of economic austerity, cultural conservatism and international isolation, these visionaries “worked for decades in difficult conditions to manifest all the potential and talent that materialised in their magnificent work.”

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Pepe Cruz Novillo: Matchbox Design for Fósforos del Pirineo from Emilio Gil’s Graphics Pioneers blog

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Pepe Cruz Novillo: Matchbox Design for Fósforos del Pirineo from Emilio Gil’s Graphics Pioneers blog

As founder of the Tau Diseño studio Emilio has a fearsome design pedigree (he also studied New York School of Visual Arts under Milton Glaser, James McMullan and Ed Benguiat) and both his curatorial eye and ability to contextualise the creative he is writing about are top-quality.

The blog’s a treasure trove for anyone interested in the graphic arts and everyone will have their favourites, but as it’s Friday it felt right to focus on this simple, fun and colourful Fósforos del Pirineo matchbox design by Pepe Cruz Novillo from 1968.

As Emilio writes: “The designer justified the use of geometric compositions as illustration motives for these matchboxes in the desire to find his own language within the world of illustration of the time, where many artists were working with paper architectures. In illustrating these small objects Cruz Novillo achieves the definition of what for him has been true throughout his career: To design is to create.”

Above

Pepe Cruz Novillo: Matchbox Design for Fósforos del Pirineo from Emilio Gil’s Graphics Pioneers blog

Above

Pepe Cruz Novillo: Matchbox Design for Fósforos del Pirineo from Emilio Gil’s Graphics Pioneers blog

Above

Pepe Cruz Novillo: Matchbox Design for Fósforos del Pirineo from Emilio Gil’s Graphics Pioneers blog

Above

Pepe Cruz Novillo: Matchbox Design for Fósforos del Pirineo from Emilio Gil’s Graphics Pioneers blog

Above

Pepe Cruz Novillo: Matchbox Design for Fósforos del Pirineo from Emilio Gil’s Graphics Pioneers blog

Above

Pepe Cruz Novillo: Matchbox Design for Fósforos del Pirineo from Emilio Gil’s Graphics Pioneers blog

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

Rob joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in July 2011 before becoming Editor-in-Chief and working across all editorial projects including itsnicethat.com, Printed Pages, Here and Nicer Tuesdays. Rob left It’s Nice That in June 2015.

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