July 2008

How to show telephone numbers on letterheads – c early 1960s

The idea of a set of parenthesis surrounding the area code in a phone number dates back to the booklet above and Ladislav Sutnar’s design work for AT&T. Aflier has posted scans of this booklet which includes 15 letterheads selected by Sutnar with various options of laying out a 10 digit phone number.

(via the always excellent iso50 blog)

Also worth checking:
Sweets Catalog promo designed by Ladislav Sutnar

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Nieuwe Muziek – Concrete en elektonische muziek by Gerard de Wit c1968

Great cover photo of a dutch recording studio from the 1960s. Check out all the vintage analog recording equipment! So many buttons, switches, knobs, reel to reels and dials. If your into 60s computer interfaces, tape machines and old mixing boards, I highly recommend you check out Stewf’s amazing Control Panel Flickr group.

Mucho  thanks to Chris at Groove Merchant for hooking me up with the booklet.

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Plantão Fatídico é de c1967 -O Assassino Nudista c1968 – No Calor da Noite c1968.

Beautiful book covers by Brazilian designer/ illustrator Gian Calvi. Very similiar to the Penguin book covers of the same time period.

I’m very interested in Brazilian design from the 60s and 70s, so If anyone has any images or info please send it my way.

(via design ref’s wonderful flickr set)

also worth checking:

Japanese book cover art from the 1960s

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I was in New York a few weeks back and had a chance to stop by the studio of design champ collective Rad Mountain. Rad Mountain is the Brooklyn based collaboration of Damien Correll, Justin Fines, Wyeth Hansen, Garrett Morin, and Ryan Waller. You’ve seen their work in/for Good Magazine, Swindle, Nike, Urban Outfitters, MTV, and the AIGA to name a few. Overall, their work feels very hand-crafted, with lots of illustration and hand-drawn type. They really stand out due to their super attention to detail, which gives the work real personality and makes it so much more interesting.

The studio space is split in two; half design office, half screenprinting studio. It’s open and airy, and complements the Rad Mountain hands-on aesthetic really well. Highlights of the visit included seeing some new prints from Justin and Wyeth, and being introduced to Rambo, the design super cat.

Thanks again to the Rad Mountain crew for opening up their studio, and letting me snap some photos.

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Giant metal robots feeding toasts to kids, double decker bus eating elephants, pooping unicorns eating ice cream, and this is just for starters! These are just a few of the paintings you’ll see at Amanda Visell’s website. Some of which have come to life in the form of limited edition wood / resign figures and sculptures.

Swindle magazine has a nice interview with her where she shares her appreciation for vintage Walt Disney concept art and her beginnings as an artist.

(via dinosaurs and robots)

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In 1940 Albe Steiner founded the Milan based studio Graphica Foto where he and his wife Lica experimented with Photography and design. Over the course of his career, Steiner designed for Domus, Agfa, Pirelli among others.

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I love these patterns from Telegramme, a London based design and illustration super duo. They have a nice way of mixing old, worn illustration and imagery into their work. Besides patterns and posters they also specialize in web, identity, print, and redesigning playing cards.

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Super cool Buck 65 poster via the All-Over gallery. Birds talking about record factories, thats all I’m saying.  Check the rest of the limited edition prints in the gallery as well..

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grain edit is proud to announce for your viewing pleasure the second installment in our ongoing record gallery series.

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One of the first people I met when I moved to California was Chris Veltri. Chris aka “Cool Chris” owns the world renowned Groove Merchant record store which has become a haven for those looking for obscure jazz, soul, funk and latin records. Chris is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and his knowledge of music is bordering on insane. I couldn’t begin to count the amount of amazing albums he has exposed me to.

On one of my trips to Chris’s house I had a chance to take a few photos of his personal record collection. I only had time to go through a small portion of his collection, so here are a few of the choice album covers.

*Note – sorry for the poor image quality on some of the photos. I was having an issue with my camera.

Also worth checking:

The Record Gallery part 1- Mike the 2600 King

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If you haven’t seen this already, the arts and architecture website has an amazing archive of the magazine from 1945-1967 available in PDF format. The issue gallery includes covers designed by Herbert Matter, John Follis and Alvin Lustig. Select covers are available as prints you can purchase.

also worth checking:

53 years of Jauna Gaita magazine

Many thanks to Seth for sending this our way.

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The Jungle Race – c 1967- Published by Bancroft & Co.

Super cool children’s book from Czech illustrators G. Seda and J. Pavlin. One of many pop up books the duo illustrated during the 1960s and 70s.

The short version of this story is: a lion, an elephant and and a giraffe try to put together a race and find out that their friends are totally lame. Their loser friends include trendy Zebra fashions snobs, snorkeling hippos and an antelope that likes to get tossed in the air by a gaggle of monkeys.

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All around design champ Jez Burrows of It’s Nice That, Evening Tweed, and that cool Destroyer poster you’ve been seeing around is at it again. He and Lizzy Stewart are Sing Statistics, and have just put out a wonderful new book called “I Am The Friction.” The book is a combination of short fiction by Jez, and illustration by Lizzy. It reads front to back, and back to front. So the end is in the middle!

See, buy, or read an excerpt of the book at Sing Statistics.

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Design Magazine June 1961

Ken Garland served as art editor for UK based Design Magazine for six years. This is just one of many amazing covers that was conceived during his tenure.

also worth checking:

10 years of Vendre Magazine cover design

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Online indie music store Insound announced the release of the Insound 20 project today. The project features limited edition t-shirts, Sweatshirts and posters designed by Jason Munn of The Small Stakes for 20 of Insound’s favorite bands. Only 1000 t-shirts / sweatshirts and 200 posters of each design will be printed.

The band’s featured in the Insound 20 are: Beirut, Black Heart Procession, Built to Spill, Calexico, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Death Cab for Cutie, Department of Eagles, Grizzly Bear, Jose Gonzalez, Magnolia Electric Co., New Pornographers, Okkervil River, Peter Bjorn & John, She & Him, Spoon, The Constantines, The Decemberists, The Hold Steady, The National, and The Thermals.

There is an additonal design being sold that includes the names of all the bands in the Insound 20 program. 100% of the profits from the sale of this shirt and poster will go to benefit nonprofit literacy organization 826 NYC.

You can purchase the goods here.

Behind the Insound 20 Designs with Jason Munn

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We’re really fond of Wayne Pate‘s work over here, and were very excited when he sent over a bundle of prints, including the above “Love Saves the Day” piece. In all of his work Wayne really nails it with simple patterns, bold shapes, and perfect colors.

He combines a nice mix of flat organic shapes with textured images and illustrations really well. On his site there’s a nice range between collage work and more simple graphic work. A lot of the elements feels like they could be found in nature, or translated from found objects.

Thanks again Wayne for sending these are way. Keep an eye on the prints section of his site, as Wayne will be releasing some new prints.

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From the same East coast that you brought you such cult classics as the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the Thanksgiving holiday comes these bad boys. These cast iron ampersands produced by House Industries are perfect for bookends, door stops, paperweights and rolling shotgun to the next Judas Priest concert.

Plus check out the ampersand t-shirts! I need to get one of these.

also from House:

Alexander Girard Alphabet Blocks

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Book cover for Jules Verne novel

Lots of great work to see at Argentinian design firm tholon kunst – Book covers, annual reports, logos and a cow grazing on a prime patch of white space.

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Winnie the Pooh has been around since the 1920’s. In the early 1960s the character was licensed to Disney for a series of features that debuted in 1966. The Russian version of this cartoon known as Vinni Puh aired in 1969. You can see an episode here.

It’s weird to see the Russian interpretation. I’m so used to the chunky orange American version. This guy looks like an Ewok.

Really enjoyed the video. Many thanks to Chris for sending this our way.

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Giovanni Pintori exhibition catalog c2003

Giovanni Pintori won a scholarship in 1930 (at the age of 18) to study at the ISIA in Monza under design heavyweights like Marcello Nizzoli and Edoardo Persico. After graduation he was invited to work for Olivetti in the Development & Advertising Office located in Milan. Three years later he would become the head of the department. Over the next 27 years he created an impressive body of work for Olivetti that would earn him a lasting international reputation.

This book was made in conjunction with a 2003 exhibition that highlighted many of Pintori’s designs for Olivetti.

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stamp commemorating 100 years of Professional Baseball c 1969 – printed on a Giori press.

One of my favorite stamps from the US. It all works for me, the use of negative space, the colors, and the 6 cent price tag. Makes me miss the days of buying big league chew at the candy store and watching TWIB.

Also worth checking:

vintage modern stamps from Israel

modern sticker, label and stamp club

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moodswing9 (me) digging for records circa 1998

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. We had a few people over and watched the fireworks from our deck. Ryan “burger mother” tenderly worked the grill and successfully brought over 10 meat patties to life. This man knows his stuff. Thanks to everyone that came through. In addition to all this patriotic partying, it was my birthday, so it was a pretty busy weekend.

Now onto the picture above. Before I was interested in design I produced music for many of the guys in the Anticon collective under the moniker Moodswing9. Marc of We Push Buttons recently interviewed me. You can read the full interview here.

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If the bomb doesn’t get you maybe the Uzi will.

Have a great 4th of July. We’ll be back on monday.

(vintage firecrackers via crackerpacks)

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You may have seen these colorful blocks and the accompanying video where they move, running around on the web lately. It’s the work of Evan Geltosky, a recent Long Beach State graduate. On his site he has some nice typographic work, and a sweet poster/illustration of Mike Tyson!

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Bossa Nova Online has an insane collection of Bossa Nova album covers. I counted over 2000 albums! what! Tons of records from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. You can sort by labels as well. The site has archives for some of my favorite labels including: equipe, Forma, Odeon, Elenco, MPS and Som Maior. I’m not sure if these records are store inventory or part of someone’s personal collection. Either way you can easily spend a few hours browsing this monster.

Also worth checking:

Quarteto Em Cy – album cover design

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1950s Japan: The blossoming of the graphic designer exhibition book

Packaging –  Honen salad oil – design by Kenji Ito 1959, Snow ice cream -design by Tadashi Masuda 1959, KAO soap – design by Hideo Amano 1958

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Eric Tan nailed it with his recent line of limited edition prints for Wall-E. The illustrations were inspired by vintage Disneyland attraction posters.

I saw Wall-E on friday. The theater was packed, as you might expect for the premier in Oakland. Pixar is only a few miles away from my house, so I’m sure there were illustrators who worked on the film in the audience. It was unlike any other Pixar film I’ve seen. Amazing in so many ways.

(image via Slash Film)

Also worth checking:
Exclusive look at the making of the Wall-E picture book.

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