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POLISH COLD WAR NEON - Typography & Design

Artist Ilona Karwinska Illuminates the Past with Captivating Neon Signs
“Ilona Karwinska’s images of communist-era neon preserve a unique and significant moment in Poland’s history.”
—David Crowley, Royal College of Art, London

In 1926, the first neon sign in Poland went up in Warsaw. Popular from the start, the earliest neon signs were made to order—free in design, shape, and color, and significantly influencing other forms of advertising like poster design and typography. Polish Cold War Neon tells the fascinating story of neon in Poland by preserving and celebrating the remnants of this rich and influential history.

Designed and built by prominent architects, graphic designers, and artists in the state-run com- pany Reklama, and overseen by a chief graphic designer of the city. Polish neon signage was renowned for its outstanding technical and artistic qualities. During its peak, Reklama main- tained over 1,000 neon signs in Warsaw alone, whose playfulness and folly stood out in dark and oppressed Poland, ornamenting otherwise drab cities and towns.

As David Crowley says in the foreword, “in the very best designs produced in Poland in the 1960s, rippling animation and fluid threads of light brought a kind of nocturnal magic to the city.” Today, most of the neon signs are gone, too expensive and fragile to maintain; belonging to no one, all that remains of them are their ghostly weathered “shadows.” In Polish Cold War Neon, Ilona Karwinska collects her own stunning photographs, archival images, original neon designs, and interviews with their designers to reveal the untold story of Polish neon.

British photographer Ilona Karwinska specializes in portraiture and world cultures. Based in London, she is a graduate of Goldsmiths College and the London College of Printing. She has been exploring the disappearing world of Cold War Era neon and graphics for more than five years, and has been credited with starting a new “school of neon,” as well as founding Poland’s first Neon Muzeum. Her work has been featured in Creative Review, A4, Icon, The Telegraph, Newsweek, and Time Out. Karwi?ska regularly exhibits in international galleries.

Mark Batty Publisher is an independent publisher dedicated to making distinctive books on the visual art of communicating, showcasing the visual power and innovation of contemporary culture in all of its varied poses. Today, the visual comes at us from more places than ever, and its dissemination is faster and more advanced every year. Books from Mark Batty Publisher capture this acceleration on the pages of every book. Affordable, well designed, thoughtfully created, and produced to last, MBP books are artful products that readers want to hold onto forever.

Polish Cold War Neon
Ilona Karwinska
Page Count: 224
Size: 11 x 9 inches
Format: Casebound
Publication Date: November 2011
Price: US $55 UK £35 CA $64
ISBN: 978-1-935613-35-0

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NEON MUZEUM OPENING IN EARLY 2012

Ilona Karwinska and London-based graphic designer David Hill will be opening Poland's First Neon Museum in Warsaw in early 2011.
While documenting cold war neons for the past 5 years, Ilona was determined to save many original signs and archival blueprints from destruction. This large (and growing) collection will be curated, restored and initially displayed in a temporary but exciting gallery space until a permanent home can be secured.

Poland's first Neon Museum is dedicated to the documentation and preservation of the country’s cold war era neon signs (1950s - 1980s).
The Neon Museum will house the largest and only collection of original cold war era neon signs of Poland. The collection includes many of the most historically relevant signs, such as the oldest known cinema neon KINO PRAHA, the largest of Warsaw’s signs - JUBILER, Hotel Saski, Berlin, Kawiarnia Jas i Malgosia and Syrenka to name but a few.

It is the mission of the museum to archive and restore the remaining neon signs of cold war Poland. Along with this growing collection of neon signs, the museum will house documents, blueprints, schematics and a large collection of Ilona Karwinska’s fascinating neon photographs that document the disappearing world of communist era neon graphics.

For more information about Ilona Karwinska's Neon Museum please go to: www.neonmuzeum.org