After a long year of working on this, we are nearly done! The fantastic graphic design artists have taken my thousands of photographs of vintage tiki bar ephemera and turned them into dynamic works of art. These things you have seen in the Book of Tiki, Tiki Quest, The Bum’s books and now the wonderful Tiki Modern. So, to simply photograph some very rare mugs and drop them on a background would be, well, already done and semi-boring. The real tiki geeks would dig it if I had the uber-rare items, but most people would not. So, I challenged my artists to do something fun, and creative with these images, and I think they have. Plus, all calendar images were approved by Ms. Swanky who, though she fully understands the tiki aesthetic, is not enthralled with it like I am. She understands a more broad perception that will make this calendar appeal to us tiki freaks, and the general freaks too.
If you look at the calendars in thte kiosk at the mall, you will find they all fall into a few categories:
- Images of things, i.e. Dogs, Cats, Babes, Hunks
- Art, i.e. Ansel Adams photos, Picasso paintings
- Cartoons, i.e. Dilbert, Farside
- Still Lifes, i.e. staged kitchen cooking scenes, islands, etc.
What we have done with this calendar is combine several of these styles. We have photographs of things, as in postcards, swizzles, mugs and menus of classic tiki bars. Mixed with images of thatch, tapa, etc., blended with custom artwork, and put together into a new image, which is a sort of “still life” of tiki that is more than a sum of its parts.
Quite simply, it is unlike any calendar I have ever seen, both for its subject matter, and especially for its design.
So, head over to the new website and get the only 2008 calendar that matters!