Swank Modern Design

Eyegasm! The Art of Thai Movie Posters

2012-01-02T14:44:00.001-08:00

We're kicking off 2012 with a landmark pop culture exhibition coinciding with the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Eyegasm: the Art of Thai Movie Posters collects together some of the most beautiful, rare and eye-poppingly lurid movie posters ever created. Eighteen utterly unique graphic designs for films such as Apocalpyse Now, Tron, Dr. No, as well as Asian horror and fantasy movies are on display.

Click here to preview Eyegasm.

A Mary Blair Xmas, Everyone!

2011-12-16T08:08:00.000-08:00

Our holiday crafting project. Inspired by the artistry of Mary Blair and the Charlie Brown Christmas tree lot. (photo courtesy of Swankster, Rhonda Wong). Click here to see more holiday treats holiday exhibition.

Unwrapped: Monoprints by Jeff Abell

2011-12-01T07:53:00.001-08:00

Art: a most excellent Xmas gift. Click here to preview our upcoming holiday exhibition.

Inside Swank Modern Design

2011-11-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

Take a tour of Swank Modern Design in the opening episode of Palm Springs Grand Tour 2011 with host, Greg Osborne, of Gay Getaways TV.

Happy Día de los Muertos!

2011-11-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

2011-10-08T09:08:00.001-07:00

Memory Object

2011-09-24T07:28:00.001-07:00

Even if you were too young to own a Sun Porsche in the 1970s, you could put on your Orange Mint flavored Sea & Ski Lipsaver and drive your Datsun to the nearest Beachboys. An iconic American brand that has vanished from the future we live in. An iconic plastic tube full of summer vacation nostalgia. Classic.

2011-07-22T19:06:00.000-07:00

Asian modern Khmerchitecture embraces exhuberant cast concrete breezeway blocks, Vann Molyvann accordion roofs, Angkor kitsch plaster reliefs, mid-century modern battlements, Euro-kitsch neo-classical fixtures, gratuitous pediments and horror vaccui iron gates (Phnom Penh).

Looking Swanky

2011-05-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

Just finished: the facelift on our 1958 Palm Springs mid-century modern ranch studio/gallery with 15 tons of black lava rock and crushed black glass.

Memory Object

2011-04-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

Even if you haven't seen one in 40 years, this magic copper wand can bring back instant memories of sitting around a kitchen table, dipping hard-boiled eggs into glass ice cream bowls filled with vinegar-scented colored dyes rehydrated from tiny tablets; and the eggs, slowly drying, standing upright in holes punched out of the cardboard kit box; and sometimes-smeary decals or crayon resist doodles. Someone out there designed and patented this simple, specialized, and magically unforgettable human tool.

2011-03-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

2011-02-03T09:08:00.000-08:00

Plan now! Palm Springs Modernism Week, Feb 17-27: films, lectures, cocktails, and tours, from trailer parks to Frank Sinatra's estate. Plus, the opening party for our new exhibition, Desert Mod, on Feb 18, 5-8pm.

This former Howard Johnsons turned Denny's, is now reincarnated as the flagship restaurant of the hipster Ace Hotel in Palm Springs. The floor-to-ceiling windows have been hung with Land-of-the-Giants macrame and beads, but we love the googie roofline supported by mid-century rockery.

For more images from our exhibition, Desert Mod, head over to Swank Modern Design.

2011-01-19T11:30:00.000-08:00

2011-01-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

Incense, peppermint, rosemary and thyme. Mattel fed the heads of the children of 1969 with this Peter-to-the-Max zodiac fortune telling set, Mystique Fortell Cards. Mixing day-glo colors with graphics appropriated from medieval woodcuts, and tapping into youth fascination with all things occult and Kreskin, it remains an exemplar of classic 60s pop design. Among its definitive prognostications: "far out behavior" and "pickup by a flying saucer."

For more vintage pop tripiness, head over to Swank Modern Design.

Merry Retro Xmas! DIY Light-Up House Ornaments

2010-12-16T10:48:00.001-08:00

Growing up in the early 1960s, we had a mid-century Christmas ornament set of miniature houses, delicately dusted with glitter snow, that would light up from the inside when tree lights were inserted. Resting on a pillow of glass "angel hair," or hung on the branches of a tinsel-strewn pine tree, I would stare at them obsessively like a pajama-clad Gulliver. Now you can craft your very own retro Xmas versions, pictured above, in either "butterfly roof" Alexander home style or traditional cottage style. Just print out Swank's free design template (includes pre-decorated and blank versions for advanced crafters). Paste onto thin card stock. Cut out, score, and fold. Decorate with colored tissue paper behind cut-out windows and doors. Use a pin to punch light holes onto trees and cactii. Glue together onto base, add roof and chimney. Add liberal sprinklings of clear glitter or micro glass beads to the exterior. Gently push Xmas light through the hole in back. Gloria in Excelsis! -- the Little Dreamer Boy

2010-11-20T06:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T08:38:00.001-07:00

This large, hand-drawn pen and ink production art for a vintage Halloween party supplies catalog is on exhibit in our Palm Springs gallery.

For more spooky holiday treats, head over to Swank Modern Design.

SHAG the Store opens in Palm Springs

2010-05-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

SHAG The Store is opening May 8 in Palm Springs at 725 N Palm Canyon Drive. It promises to be filled to the tiki-topmost with brilliant work, like the print entitled Zombie above (only $110!), and mucho merchandise from the talented Grand Poobah of Googie graphics.

1971 E. K. Fernandez Carnival Ride Tickets

2010-04-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

If you were a kid in Hawaii in the 60s and 70s, this was our version of Disneyland's E Tickets. E. K. Fernandez traveling carnivals would set up at different high schools, parking lots or fairgrounds on a regular circuit. If you wanted to ride the bumper cars, shoot some skeet or grind some sugar-crusted malasadas, then you needed these pre-paid ticket coupons we called "scrip." These particular tickets are from the 1971 50th State Fair, of which the rides were only part of the extensive exhibitions and attractions. Unlike the small E. K. Fernandez traveling carnivals, the 50th State Fair was large enough to attract international sideshow carnies and famous freaks. But the local carnivals were staples of our teen-aged landscape. Does anyone remember The Old Mill fun house? This was The Haunted Mansion, local-style: a dark walk-through with padded rubber floors, colored lights, and skeleton scares that were always more imagination than reality. Woe to the kid who ran out of scrip. -- Keone Goss

For more freaky tiki Hawaiiana, hele on over to Swank Modern Design.

70s Swinger Tiki Idol Bubble Blower of Don Ho

2010-03-03T14:42:00.000-08:00

A wacky, and slightly scary, memento from my childhood in Hawaii. Don Ho was, to us kids in high school, everything that was tacky and touristy about Waikiki. Best buddy and progeny of Hawaiian music royalty, Joe Moe, gave it to me as a laugh. Twist Don's head off, squeeze his powder blue leisure suit, and up pops a soapy ring so you can blow - what else! - tiny bubbles. Mic in one hand and drink in the other, plus puka shell choker, it's an exemplar of 1970s-in-the-islands. Of course, I came to appreciate Don Ho once I grew up and embraced the international pop culture impact of his singular career. My mother, who always vowed "lips that touch wine shall ever touch mine," became an ardent fan when Ho brought her up on stage to serenade her with a kiss...twice. Years later, I was thrilled to witness his widow performing a witchy, drunken, memorial hula on stage at the Waikiki Shell at the Cazimero brother's May Day concert. A group of gigantic, Tongan transgenders next to us screamed "Make 'A', make 'A'" as she fell on her okole three times. Bottoms up, Don! -- Keone Goss

For more freaky tiki Hawaiiana, hele on over to Swank Modern Design.