Filed Under: "science"

Illustration detail, “What is Automation,” Collier’s magazine, March 16, 1956. The optimistic take: “Automation has been heralded by some as the threshold to a new Utopia, in which robots do all the work while human drones recline in pneumatic bliss.” There was a counterbalancing pessimistic view, but in observance of the current summer heat wave, we’ll stick with the sunshinier forecast.  We’re still looking forward to consumer helicopters with open-air cockpits.

Spot illustration, promotional brochure for trade journal Electromechanical Design: Components and Systems, 1957. Flora illustrated a number of covers for the monthly from 1957 to 1960.

Partial illustration, “What is Automation,” Collier’s magazine, March 16, 1956. Pull quote from the layout: Automation has been heralded by some as the threshold to a new Utopia, in which robots do all the work while human drones recline in pneumatic bliss. The complete two-tiered illustration—half-utopian (above), half-apocalyptic—was reproduced in our second anthology, The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora.

Untitled tempera on board, 1964, reproduced in our second book, The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora (Fantagraphics, 2007). Though ten years separate the works, certain elements are reminiscent of the 1954 RCA Victor LP Shorty Rogers Courts the Count.

Detail, cover illustration, “Human Engineering: Tailoring the Machine to the Man,” Research and Engineering magazine, February 1956. We reproduced the entire illustration here. Pure blacks are missing from the detail, an enlargement of a scan of a worn cover. Copies of R&E in any condition are difficult to find, and the original art has not been located.

Page from 1957 sales brochure for Electromechanical Design magazine. Flora illustrated an unknown number of covers for this (now long-defunct) monthly. In the 1950s and ’60s, he was often a go-to artist for science-related journalism, as evidenced by his work for Research & Engineering magazine.

Untitled acrylic on board, ca. mid-1960s. This modular work echoes illustrations Flora provided for the covers of Computer Design magazine during the 1960s and ’70s. We’ve yet to determine whether this painting or an adaptation actually graced a CD cover. If not, this blog post might represent its first public exposure (we haven’t reproduced this work in any of our Flora anthologies to date).

Pretzel-making machine, spot illustration, Research & Engineering magazine, September 1955, marking Flora’s debut in this short-lived monthly. The cover art is credited and the interior illos unmistakably reflect his whimsy, but no art director is listed in the masthead. Starting with the combined October/November issue Flora is ID’ed as art director, a position he held thru August 1956. An extensive gallery of Flora covers and interior illustrations from R&E was reproduced in The Sweetly Diabolic…

… this time to a distant galaxy. Or maybe just down the block to the Moon. The genre-surfing Seattle combo has once again (third time) licensed a Jim Flora illustration for a cover, their new 7″ vinyl release Agendacide. The above element derives from the April 1963 cover of Computer Design magazine. Previously the band’s John Ewing licensed images for the Reptet’s CDs Do This! and Chicken or Beef. This helps carry the Flora mid-20th…

Feature illustration, “A Long-Playing Medicine”LIFE magazine, June 10, 1957

Spot illustration, Research & Engineering, April 1956

Illustration, “The Challenge of Frontier Products Development”Research and Engineering magazine, cover detail, July 1956