lisez, jouez et decouvrez La Scandinavie avec Andersen -by Paul de Roujoux, Pamela Labonnelie and Mireille Ballero. Illustrations by Martine Bourre c1975 editions des deux coqs d’or

La Scandinavie avec Andersen is a beautiful children’s book about Scandinavian culture. The book is filled with stories, games and activities.  Just think, your child could be making his/her very own Nils Holgersson costume right now! For the budding young history buff, there’s a section on the Drakkars and Vikings. If your child is too scared to look at tough guys with helmets, head straight to the fuzzy Nordic animals in chapter one. Have a four year old that’s into logging? No problem, this book has you covered. There’s a section on the Scandinavian timber industry in the middle of the book. Soon your young one will be able to turn raw material into fine Danish furniture!

More pictures after the jump.

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I’ve always been impressed with Mark Weaver’s continuously fantastic collage series Make Something Cool Every Day. Firstly, making something like this every day is a great project — I love when designers make their personal work public. Secondly, these collages are an interesting mishmash of styles and images. Mark has a keen sense of knowing what types of images work well together.

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A Colt is My Passport (1967) – Directed by Takashi Nomura

If your into classic + cult films it would be worth your while to check Shannon Maldonado’s I Love Hot Dogs.  Several times a week Shannon curates a selection of stills from a particular movie. I appreciate her selection process as she sometimes includes typographic/design details that can easily go unnoticed (think street signs, window lettering, etc.). For fans of the art of film title design, there’s plenty of that stuff as well.

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I visited New York last week, just in time to attend the opening reception of the Lubalin Now exhibition at the Cooper Union.

The place was incredibly packed with ladies and gents in polychromatic garb, chatting about type with a nice drink in their hand. It was interesting to see the work of contemporary designers, such as Jessica Hische,  Brett Macfadden, Justin Thomas Kay, Deanne Cheuk, and HunterGatherer, juxtaposed against Lubalin’s original works.

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I had a chance to check out Visual Acoustics this weekend and I highly recommend it. The documentary is about the life and work of Julius Shulman, a brilliant architectural photographer whose photos captured the history of modernist architecture in Southern California. During his prolific career he worked with nearly every modern architect since the 1930s including John Lautner, Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, PIerre Koenig, Charles and Ray Eames, Craig Ellwood, Raphael Soriano and Gregory Ain.

The release of this film seems especially timely, given that Julius recently passed away. If you are unfamiliar with his work, you are in for a real treat.

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1. Come to Africa – Designed by Gerard van de Voort – c1975

How about virtual tour around the world to start off the week?  I dug up a handful of travel related posters from 1950s -1970s for all the desk jockeys that are itching to get out of town. Enjoy!

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Hell yea. Cool logos on trucks + vans! It doesn’t get much better then this. The Autografik flickr group is set to serve as an archive for modern design applied to motor vehicles. Thanks to Jonathan Turner aka insect54 for setting this bad boy up.

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Funkadelic! There is some serious soul in this typeface from Bulgaria-based designer Mihail Mihaylov. I’m such a sucker for bold type — I love the juicy, drippy, saturated feel of these letters. I can’t quite tell if the type is sprouting, or three-dimensional, or both.

In addition to Funkadelic, Mihail’s other work shows a nice combination of experimentation and style. I love the textural, hands-on feel of the Quotes alphabet studies, and the subsequent large-scale “E” poster. Really fun work.

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Monsters of Folk Concert Poster by Jason Munn of The Small Stakes

The poster pick for this week features this Monsters of Folk Concert Poster designed by Jason Munn of The Small Stakes. This is a nice example of the impressive and sophisticated work that The Small Stakes churns out. Note the harmony in the composition and see if you can spot any patterns in this poster. This is smart design.

This poster is available for purchase here.

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Ah! Nothing beats a spot of tea and the company of man’s best friend!

The composition of this print, created by Buenos Aires illustrator Sollinero, is nicely balanced and uses a relaxing color palette consisting of warm ochres and cool blue. I really love the patterns and details throughout the print, especially the little baubles that tie the rug, lamp, lounge chair, and gentleman’s pants together.

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