Calendar time

It's calendar season!

This image is by Thomas Baas, part of a recent exhibit of calendar illustrations.
Now extremely prized and very hard to come by, these calendars were produced every year for about two decades by Alain Lachartre, an illustrator and graphic designer and founder of the legendary agence-atelier Vue Sur La Ville.

Images are by an all-star cast of illustrators (over 200 of them, all told) including Loustal, Marc Boutavant, Benoit Jacques, Gary Baseman, Pierre Le-Tan and many others.  It was an open assignment with the only condition being that the calendar itself had to be incorporated into the illustration. With wonderful results!

Originally presented last summer at Cité de l'Architecture in Paris, I was able to see it recently at the gallery at Parsons Paris art school.  I look forward to seeing more of the offerings here in the coming season...

Also: Camilla's calendar is now available.  As we all know!

Arche Kinder Kalendar is a gorgeous calendar filled with poetic images resulting from an exhibit organized by Internationale Jugendbiliothek, gathering together 150 of the best illustrated poems for children. They have chosen twelve of them for this calendar  (via Topipittori).

National Public Radio's 2011 calendar has a dream team of illustrators creating images for it, including Matte Stephens, Jeremy Holmes, heads of State, Lab Partners and many more.

The Tolkein calendar has images by Dutch artist Cor Blok, originally created in 1960.  Both modernist and child-like, they are inspired by Blok's take on the Bayeux tapestry and applied to the imaginative universe of J.R.R. Tolkein.

Finally, for those of you who love owls, here is a free downloadable and customizable calendar, featuring artwork (yes, of owls!) from 30 different illustrators.  From My Owl Barn.