Issue Sixteen: Leo & Diane
Today's collection is a series of artworks made by creative duo Leo and Diane Dillion. Leo and Diane met at Parsons in 1954, and, following the classic romantic narrative of rivals-to-lovers, were married in 1956. The two went on to work together as illustrators in the worlds of science-fiction, fantasy, and children's literature for over 50 years until Leo's death in 2012. The Dillons' work is distinctively multifaceted, pulling from African folk art, medieval manuscript illuminations, and the psychedelic aesthetic of the time to create bold and layered compositions. Their output is also notable for its depiction of minority groups often left out of the science-fiction canon—a focus that grew out of their experience as an interracial couple first married in a country still 11 years away from Loving v. Virginia.
This issue's featured archive is the Movie Title Stills Collection—one of the first archives I ever fell in love with—founded in 2009 by designer Christian Annyas. Christian's collection is mindbogglingly extensive, featuring films from 1920 to present day (sorted by year, director, country, and typeface) as well as special sections for Film Noir, Westerns, trailers, and closing credits. Outside of beautiful individual moments of typography, the archive is also a fascinating opportunity to walk through design trends over the last 100 years of film; from the dimensional letters of the 1940s to the minimal condensed serifs of the '90s