Vintage Vancouver beer labels, from Capilano Brewing Company and Vancouver Breweries Limited, seen this week at auction on ebay, from a seller in Warsaw, Poland of all places. The Capilano Brewing Company dates back to 1934 (note the label is stamped 621+35, my guess indicating 1935) and the second label is a special Jubilee beer for the city’s 50th birthday in 1936 (note the label is stamped 4+8+36, most likely indicating 1936). Vancouver Breweries Limited dates back even further to 1901, and became part of the holding company British Columbia Breweries in 1911, and continued to operate under the name Vancouver Breweries for a good while. Cursory brewery details obtained from the book Brewed in Canada: the untold story of Canada’s 350-year-old brewing industry by Allen Winn Sneath.

Cityscape in Paper, a collage created for the Papergirl Vancouver project by Penelope Harris. Penelope discusses the process involved from start to finish on her blog, providing insights into her innovative recycling of security envelopes.

The PaperGirl Van show exhibited at the Roundhouse this past week, and on Saturday, all the works were secretly distributed throughout the city. Well done, PaperGirls! You can see more photos of their show on their Facebook page.

Wreck Beach cover art by Randolph Holmes in The Georgia Straight, June 19-26, 1975. As mentioned previously, Rand Holmes moved to Vancouver in 1969 where he found work as an illustrator at The Georgia Straight. He would later gain a reputation for his work in underground comix, and was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame in 2005. A retrospective took place in 2007 on Lasqueti Island, BC (covered fairly extensively by BoingBoing) and Fantagraphics published a book of his life’s work in 2010 (video preview). Vintage copy of The Georgia Straight found in a shop in New Westminster.

14 Days at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada’s Evergreen Playground, a tourism pamphlet designed by Ron Jackson, aka Ronald Threlkeld Jackson circa 1936. This is the second Ronald Jackson I’m posting this week because, well, I really like his work!

I converted the folded pamphlet into a mock poster, lightly retouching it and adding the word ENJOY, embellishing the spirit of the poster restoration à la Vintagraph.com (as I’ve done before). Perhaps someone has a cleaner copy somewhere for a nicer scan? Seen at the VPL Special Collections NW Hist 971.133 V22G7862f.

I heard there were some fairly major traffic snarls yesterday on a few of our finest bridges. It’s bound to happen with bridges. Here’s the idyllic depiction, simple black & white poster illustrations from a map called BC Government Lower Mainland Highway Traffic System, seen at the VPL Special Collections, SPEMAPC 912.71133 B8623L 1960. This souvenir map was issued to celebrate the opening of The Second Narrows Bridge, August 25th, 1960.

Early Vancouver Clipart, from the 1939-41 Annual Report published by the Vancouver Tourist Association, from the VPL Special Collections.

From Jacques Barbeau’s book A Journey with E.J. Hughes

Near Second Beach, one of only four linocuts, was produced by E.J. Hughes in 1936. It is an elegant rendering of this secluded beach, with which I became familiar less than a decade later. E.J. aptly contained the intimacy of this seashore enclave. Less ebullient than its counterpart, Bridges on Beaver Creek, the linocut Second Beach captures a particularly refined bit of seashore. The mood is tranquil and serene. Yet it illustrates Hughes’ subtle ability to suggest less to achieve more. He undermines the obvious to generate a distinctive aesthetic atmosphere. He sidetracks an immediate impact to compel a more careful look that delivers the “goods.”

Vancouver Sun Building, a small painted sketch from April 29, 2009, posted by Hyuck Lee on flickr.

ABSOLUT Vancouver by Douglas Fraser, 2009. On November 12, 2009, Douglas wrote on his blog:

…when I received the invitation to create a city themed, and one of a few special city themed labels, this one for the city of Vancouver, I was very excited. As a west coast resident (British Columbia) it’s was great to pay homage to one of the most vibrant west coast cities on the planet. Vancouver has a very contemporary skyline set against gorgeous snow capped mountains. With classic float planes coming and going, connecting the city centre to communities on the neighboring islands, and up the coast. There are bridges that link the city centre as well to the greater area of the more suburban communities. The city has a great blend of natural beauty with a strong urban character based on access to some of the most spectacular scenery around, plus being the gateway city on Canada’s west.

I developed a couple of approaches, but always wanted at least one of those Canadian classic de havilland beaveresque float planes in the image. I developed thumbnails, thought about the quality of life I’ve experienced in Vancouver. Looking at the typography that Absolut has established. The bottle and it’s clean lines with the clear glass canvas had me deciding that a clean vector would marry well with the surface, and look contemporary. The pop-heraldic chevron shape “V” really stuck in my mind. It was on old Vancouver Canucks hockey jerseys. From finding a direction it was about reducing the elements to their primary shapes, and composing the positive & negative shapes inside the “V”. The blue and gold tie into the Swedish heritage of the company, and the provincial colours of British Columbia. Nature, urban, sun from provincial flag, downtown linked to the surrounding communities by bridges, The trees and running trails are there under the bridge, The Classic float plane connects the urban to the mountains, the “V” shape (chevron shape like two raised up arms) , all inside the area of a bottle label. Also I wanted to see the final art screen printed onto the bottle. The more tonal blending, or loose an image was, the more it would be necessary to develop a sticker label which is not what I wanted. ABSOLUT asked me to sign my work, and it would be printed on the bottle with the label. They showed a great interest in respecting me, and my process…

More preliminary sketches and variants of the final design are available on his blog.

Hand screened, hand drawn Show Poster for Wolf Parade in Seattle by John Vogl at theBungaloo.com. The illustration is of Science World, from Expo 86, which is also the name of Wolf Parade’s new album. Seen via etsy.

Poster for DRAWN at Little Mountain Gallery, featuring the Dominion Building by Sol Sallee. The show will include new works by Sol Sallee, Charles Keillor, & EC Salazar July 27 - August 6, 2011. Opening Reception is July 27 7-10pm, in conjunction with the DRAWN Festival in Vancouver.

Details of the Vancouver Pic-Tour map by Don Blood, circa 1955. Distributed by Vancouver Magazine Service Ltd. Seen at the VPL Special Collections, SPEMAPC 912.71133 B65v 1955

Kicking off I Love Transit week, this week’s posts will be transit related!

A short scene from Not Cops (converted by me to GIF format) from an animated short by Sterling Richter, an illustrator and animator based out of Vancouver.

No disrespect to Translink, either! As Transformers has shown us, giant robots can be that way!  ;)

Stanley Park, the map drawn by Peter Hugh Page, from a BCER pamphlet believed to be from the 1940s, post-Lions Gate Bridge. Seen at the VPL Special Collections, NW 971.133 V223sta

Stanley Park, cover image from another BCER pamphlet map with great graphics, believed to be from the 1940s. While the map inside is drawn by Peter Hugh Page, it’s unclear if the cover image can also be attributed to him. Seen at the VPL Special Collections, NW 971.133 V223sta