[Scrapbook and Journal of an Artist and Creative Ad Man on Holiday]

Spain, 1981. Very good. 8½" x 7". Paper over boards. Pp. 160 with 12 photographs, 26 instances of original art, dozens of items of ephemera and copious handwritten entries. Very good: book filled to bursting, beyond its original size; remnants of old adhesive; a few items detached; sporadic offsetting and light wear.

This is a magnificent multimedia marvel-a vibrant journal, art and keepsakes book created by Graham Elliott, a celebrated artist, advertising professional, educator and filmmaker, while he was on holiday in Spain.

Graham Elliott, a native of Manchester, England, was studying at the Royal College of Art in London in 1986 when the Swatch company ran an art competition. He and fellow student John England made the short film "Time Waltz," a self-described "kind of punk, time travel performance piece." Their five-year collaboration as the "ThunderJockeys" included a two-year stint creating album covers, merch and stage designs for the rock band Living Colour; they also directed the video for the band's song "Glamour Boys," leading to a contract with MTV for a series of extended promos. Elliott worked at Saatchi and Saatchi, directed commercials for Coca-Cola and designed the long-running, award-winning "beach ball around the world" campaign for Nickelodeon. He taught Motion Graphics at the School of Visual Arts, New York for over a decade but said in an interview that he "still couldn't define what exactly" it was - so he made a documentary. New York in Motion premiered at a dozen film festivals worldwide (including IDFA, Amsterdam) and Elliott was keynote speaker at the first International Motion Festival, Cyprus in 2012. His work has appeared in the York Times and in Graphic: Inside the Sketchbooks of the World's Great Graphic Designers (Monacelli Press, 2010).

This overflowing diary spans the summer of 1981, when Elliott took a holiday in Spain with a woman he calls Limpf (later entries name her Lindsay) as well as their friends Geoff and Sharon. They arrived in Girona, and "noticed peoples reactions as our amazing bags punctuated the masses of boring cases," then headed to the beach at L'Estartit. The text mainly covers their heavy relaxation, noting what they ate, when they moved from the hotel balcony to the beach and back, souvenir shopping and Graham's frustration with drawing subjects who rudely moved out of his view. There are poems and pen and ink drawings devoted to Limpf's and other beachgoers' bodies (as well as his own sun-scorched legs), his watercolor rendition of a soup packet and countless advertising samples like food and drink labels, souvenirs from bars and cafés, matchbooks and a Spanish-language label for Kellogg's corn flakes. Elliott also glued in three wristwatches he bought on the journey, a packet of melon seeds and a set of lovely Spanish stamps. There are Polaroids and lists of things he wanted to photograph, depictions and descriptions of a birdcage he couldn't live without and three pages on the epic time the couple had at the circus. The book holds a fabulous flyer for that circus and a brochure for a sandcastle competition, with an image he deemed a "superbo photo." The last few pages cover their stay in Girona before they flew home ("What a place...blocks of houses with balconies with plants and plants and plants...superb smells...narrow streets...really amazing. I've no film left but I'm rather pleased because I couldn't possibly try to capture the magic of the place on film") and include a great drawing of an airport runway scene.

A rambunctious vacation journal, filled with original art and bursts of colorful advertising.