Letterology

America's First Art Educator

2012-02-24T01:25:00.002-08:00

Louis Prang (1824-1909) is considered to be America's premiere printer of chromolithography. Born in Poland, he later immigrated to the US as a political refugee and found work in New York and Boston where he became a skilled lithographer and wood engraver. Prang is also known as the "father of the Christmas card" after publishing the first cards in 1874, and as America's first art educator and publisher of art history books, textbooks and drawing books of all kinds. He even produced a line of child-safe art materials including chalks, crayons and non-toxic watercolor paints which are still in production today, at the Dixon Ticonderoga Company.
The image above of the lithographer's studio is from the American Antiquarian's Society Digital Image Archive. Below are 2 children's books published by Prang in 1878 and made available through the Baldwin Collection of the International Digital Children's Library. They happen to be quite colorful in comparison to much of Prang's work. Most of his fine prints and cards tended to be a very rich, but muted color palette. These book covers also appear to have a very strong Arts and Crafts influence which was being popularized in England about this same time.

The three ornate typographic layouts above and below are chromolith publisher's proofs from Volume 8 of the L. Prang and Co. scrapbooks of colored advertising cards. These are from the collection of the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.

This image of a progressive portrait of Beethoven, printed with 25 print runs by Prang, is considered to be one of the highlights from the Phillips Library. It is currently on exhibit with other highlights from their collection through November 2012 at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA.

Fashionplates For Books

2012-02-22T22:53:00.000-08:00

Now if I had some fashionable bookplates like these from Mac and Ninny, instead of my casually dressed yellow postnotes tacked on the front boards, I might never have to think twice about my books finding their way home from borrowers.
Just launched in January in the UK, the duo at Mac and Ninny Paper Company hope to find wider distribution in the US and elsewhere soon. The left and right brains behind M and N are Tony and Victoria Jarratt. Tony creates the lovely illustrations and package designs while Victoria manages the day-to-day operations from their location in Cheltenham. Together they have launched over 60 different bookplate designs and labels which come nicely packaged in colorful paper folders. These handsome bookplates will dress up any cookbook, gardening book, children's book, and more. Available soon here if you are in Boston, and elsewhere in the UK; or maybe in your neighborhood soon.

Here's Looking at You Lincoln

2012-02-20T17:49:00.000-08:00

It's late in the day by West Coast standards to continue celebrating President's Day holiday, but I can't help it if they keep moving it out of convenience. I'm never certain what day it is. Even so; anytime is a darn good time to take a close look at Maira Kalman's new book, Looking at Lincoln. In it, artist/author Maira Kalman paints a wonderful image of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, peppered with witty commentary.
Sidenote: Just last month Kalman visited Seattle on a book tour with her good friend Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), which had to be the funniest book reading I have ever attended. Together, they amused us with stories about failed relationships and love; the topic of the book, Why We Broke Up, authored by Handler with art by Kalman. Just before their presentation, I picked up a copy of Maira's newly released book on Lincoln which is based upon a New York Times online column she did three years ago called In Love With A. Lincoln. In the column, she brings us along on a journey to learn more about Lincoln's legacy; stopping at a Philadelphia museum and library and then visiting the land of Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois where she meets a retired minister who is one of 150 impersonators traveling the country doing Lincoln presentations in schools and libraries.
Today there are reportedly over 16,000 books written about President Lincoln, but I doubt any one of them are as colorful as Maira Kalman's brief account for ages 5 and way older. She does an exceptional job of painting a portrait of a kind, self-made, visionary man with just one year of schooling, who loved apples, vanilla almond cake and books; and strongly hated slavery. A book every world leader should read.

Below are Kalmans' illustrations and hand-lettering from her original 2009 New York Times column In Love With A. Lincoln.

Watch a short clip of Maira Kalman on the Colbert Report a while back where
she talks about her earlier book on American history, The Pursuit of Happiness.
She tells Stephen that Lincoln would have made an incredible boyfriend.

Happy Almost Birthday George

2012-02-20T00:46:00.000-08:00

Here is a little send-up in honor of President's Day today: a rosy-cheeked George Washington holding a flower and riding a spotted horse. I adore this flat two-dimensional style of illustration known as "fraktur" painting. It was done by a Pennsylvania German artist (ca. 1780-90) in a style reminiscent of a medieval illuminated manuscript. The term fraktur, meaning fractured writing, refers to the style of Gothic German lettering, also known as blackletter. The painter of this watercolor and ink portrait of Washington is unknown, but attributed to Sussel, the name of the historian who first studied the painting. It is included in the National Park Service's "Treasures of the Nation" collection. Follow their link and you can click on (almost) any letter of the alphabet to go on a treasure hunt—with exception to the letters K, N, U, X, Y & Z, which are still waiting for their designated treasures. Time might be ripe for the NPS to begin a Kickstarter campaign to fund the rest of the alphabet of the Nations' Treasures.

Another fraktur portrait of GW, circa 1831.
::From the Mennonite Heritage Center via The Reporter.

An ink and watercolor portrait of the man looking a little pale. 7.25 x 6" (no date). ::From Christy Auction House via Live Auctioneers.

This is another remarkable work of American folk art made from various kinds of scroll-cut woods. It is all laid on red fabric and is in the original wooden scroll-cut frame with elaborate medallions and a crest dating 1915.
::From Cowan Auctions

Bookstores in the Hood

2012-02-17T01:33:00.000-08:00

Interior and exterior views of Pages Bookstore located on Lego Boulevard. You can find it in the fiction section of Flickr under notenoughbricks. My guess is they accept only plastic for payment here.

This bookstore goes by the name of Building C Books. They could use better signage methinks. Architect is cdouglas polisci.

This bookstore must only sell fancy books. The name of it is Fancy Bookstore 2. I'm not sure what happened to Fancy Bookstore 1.0. Designed by cimddwc, it was inspired by this fancily nice building in Germany.

Design-builder JETfri doesn't say what planet this bookstore and deco house are on, and they aren't big on signage either.

The eBook 2.0

2012-02-15T14:47:00.000-08:00

The book bar has been raised by the students at KAIST Institute of Information Technology Convergence in Korea. Reading and navigating is about to get easier with their development of a smart eBook system. Pretty remarkable!
::Via Maria Popova at TBWA

Historic Ream Wrappers

2012-02-15T01:26:00.000-08:00

Early Paper Ream Wrappers. They are seldom seen today as these paper wrappers were truly considered disposable. Printers went through volumes of paper in the process of printing books, billheads, broadsides and handbills and the paper wrapper packaging was quickly discarded. For historians of papermaking ephemera, they are considered to be the most ephemeral of all.
Displayed here is a small collection of rare ream wrappers from US paper mills in the 19th century. Most are from New England paper manufacturers. The earliest examples were generally printed as woodcut engravings and later copper and steel engravings were used, according to a great post on The Art of Old Ream Wrappers written by Stephen Gertz of Booktryst a couple years ago. He provides some other fine examples of European and US ream wrappers and explores some of the historical significance of these rare specimens. What was common to most all of these labels and wrappers was the great care given to the artistry, the design, the printing and the typography at that time. It is interesting to note that many of the beautiful illustrations on these wrappers were created by Dr. Alexander Anderson (1775-1870), who many readers here may recognize from several earlier posts I've written. All of the wrappers featured here (and more) are included in a database of graphic arts images from the American Antiquarian Society.

I believe the term Vellum Foolscap was considered a very common kind of paper in the 19th century. However I am not familiar with the term Pot as it relates to paper. Surely this doesn't refer to hemp paper, but I am curious what it means, as I noticed it repeated often. Does anyone else have a clue?

The Book of Love

2012-02-14T01:52:00.000-08:00

Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields sing The Book of Love from 69 Love Songs. They are playing at the Neptune Theater in Seattle, March 19th & 20th. Happy Valentine's Day all!

Historic Books of Love and Devotion

2012-02-14T01:37:00.000-08:00

French medieval song book, c. 1475.
::Via Medieval Thedas.

A hand-lettered devotional 15th century French Book of Hours of Amiens Nicolas Blairie. When opened, the two halves of the book evokes the praying of hands.
::Via Content in a Cottage.

16th century heart-shaped prayer book with ornate gold-stamped binding. (Saxon State Library).
::Via A Polar Bear's Tale.

This manuscript is considered one of the treasures of the Royal Library in Denmark. It is referred to as The Heart Book and is regarded as the oldest Danish ballad manuscript. It is a collection of 83 love ballads compiled in the beginning of the 1550's. The beginning of ballad No. 43 is shown above. Below is the front cover of the closed book.
::Via The Royal Library of Denmark.

The Book-Folder

2012-02-13T00:01:00.000-08:00

Rather unbecoming portrait of a bookbinder toiling away on an edition of the Elton's Almanac for their Valentine. Curious the artist misspelled the word "Almanac" in this woodcut illustration.

Give me an L

2012-02-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

A songsheet title from The Spellman Collection of Victorian Music Covers, and The University of Reading in the UK. Circa 1870s. Oh those crazy Victorians!

Free Love

2012-02-10T01:12:00.000-08:00

Canadian designer Marian Bantjes loves her work. She is a prolific and imaginative artist and claims she does it all for love. In the video below, sponsored by Lynda.com, she discusses the heartfelt Valentine designs she made this past year and sent to all of the special people in her life. Since 2005, she has been producing Valentine designs that are terrifically ornate, as only she knows how to do. Below are samples of some of her designs from former year's and a nice video of her discussing her 2011 designs.

The 2010 Valentine Design above was a laser-cut card made from recycled holiday cards she collected. Because of the variety of cards, each appeared surprisingly different despite the common laser-cut.

This handwritten letter above was Bantjes 2009 Valentine's mailing. She described this version as more "conceptual" than in year's past. It involved writing in her own hand, 4 fragments of letters; each with no beginning or end; and each written in a manner which may resonate to some degree with each recipient. Everyone received just one fragment.
Below is a Valentine Bantjes designed for Saks Fifth Avenue. It contains a lacy pattern of endearing script words, forming a beautifully textured heart. This work was so well received, it has been ripped off multiple times, including t-shirts in China. Is this someone's idea of "free love"? Saks now owns the copyright on this work and their lawyers are standing by. Deal with it.

Stitched Stories

2012-02-09T00:10:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is near and I thought I would share the love. This stitched loveletter is from the hand of British lettering artist Rosalind Wyatt. She stitched a Sanskrit / Indian love poem onto a lacy linen cloth. Wyatt claims her work is about words. "The 'sound' of them, the 'feel' of them and the forming of letters. The choice of tool is uninhibited and relevant to the content of the text—therefore my range of writing tools has expanded from nib, through brush and now to needle." She prefers to think of her work as storytelling or "writing with a needle". She brings stories to life by stitching the handwriting of a letter writer onto a garment. You can listen to Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, reciting this heartfelt poem to his wife here.

Fashion Plates for Rare Books

2012-02-08T00:41:00.000-08:00

Flickr continues to amaze me. Some fine images frequently turn up there. Recently I came upon The Penn Libraries wonderful and historic collection of rare books. They have documented thousands of images from many of these fine books which span over 5 centuries. I've handpicked some of my favorite bookplates from some of their collections. Above is one I find especially intriguing. It is a German anagram bookplate circa 1840 designed by Karl Emich Leiningen-Westerburg for Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich (Froehlich), 1796-1865. The notation further explains how the shading of L I C H has some significance (I presume to the pronunciation). Anagrams were far more experimental than most of your typical mid-19th century bookplates which is why this one appeals to me so greatly I guess. Below is a beautiful engraving (undated) of a monogrammed bookplate with the initials M L C.

This Ex Libris is unidentified.

This is a beautiful monogram and marbled endpaper, but also unidentified.

Ex Libris for writer and scholar Giovanni de Bizzaro, 1782-1833. Great name!

Bookplate of French book collector Tobie-Gustave Herpin, 1820?-1900.

I included this 1804 label as a beautiful copperplate engraving example of hand-rendered script. It records the purchase by Ludwig Friedrich, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, of Carl Gerhard von Ketelhodt's library of 16,000 volumes.

This monogrammed bookplate is unidentified. My guess is it is French, based upon another French book with similar endpapers.

This bookplate makes me smile. It's unidentified. Just a mermaid with a mirror, and a comb, and Mason.

Stamped Ex Libris Victoris Aemilii Tiranti. No date or positive ID.

Bookplate with the interlocking initials of Gilbert Mainssonnat. Undated.

Calli-collages

2012-02-06T23:51:00.000-08:00

All of these self-titled "Calli-collages" are the work of Silvia Cordero Vega of Buenos Aires. The series of the three artworks above are a mix of collage and gestural calligraphy on canvas. Calli-collage or collagraphy? Either way, they are beautiful. See much more of her work on Flickr and her website.

Mylay (My Lips Against Yours), 2003

Alfabeto, 2003

Fuego, 2003.

Trip, undated. An unfinished collage on canvas from the Trip series. Old papers, rice paper, Japanese ink, cola pen, and gesso on canvas.

19th Century Tobacconist Labels

2012-02-06T00:51:00.000-08:00

Tobacco label from 1868 for a New York tobacconist. Interesting to find the border echoes an Islamic motif, being that this is a Cuban tobacco product.

Tobacco label from 1869 for a Cairo, Illinois tobacconist.

Tobacco label from 1870 for a Savannah, Georgia tobacconist. Señor Fernandez & Bro happily display all of their packaged tobacco products.

Tobacco label from 1871 for a Lawrence, Kansas tobacconist.

Tobacco label from 1865 for a Connecticut tobacconist. All five of these lovely old tobacco labels are from a collection of the American Antiquarian Society and made available for educational research. Each are remarkable examples of lithography, lettering and illustration which I have not previously seen.

No Tipping Point For the Book

2012-02-02T23:50:00.000-08:00

A really nice portrayal of the evolution of a new illustrated boxed-set of Malcolm Gladwell's three best-selling books: The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers. Designer Paul Sahre, illustrator Brian Rea, Malcolm Gladwell and other participants sit down with Debbie Millman, host of Design Matters, to discuss their experiences with the formation of the Malcolm Gladwell: Collected book project. Such a nice collaborative achievement, and three years in the making.

::Via Felt & Wire

At the Chocolate Bar

2012-02-02T00:58:00.000-08:00

With Valentine's Day near, chocolate has been on my mind. I even gave my students an assignment this week to design some packaging for a chocolate start-up. While gathering examples, I ran across this work of Sophie Blackwell which she illustrated for a new Brooklyn chocolatier, Cacao Prieto. Their NY factory just had a soft opening for the public in late November. They produce "bean-to-bar organic chocolates" made fresh from the finest cacao from their family farm in the Dominican Republic. Their chocolate bars are hand crafted with 72% dark chocolate in 5 varieties of fruit and nut combinations. They are handsomely packaged with Sophie Blackwells' limited edition illustrations of the Prieto family history. I'll take one of each please. They are dreamy!

Wrestling With Typographic Terms

2012-02-01T00:18:00.000-08:00

Armin Vit served up this Nacho Libre type analogy a while back for round number one of Coudal Partner's Layer Tennis blog. Again, I'm late for the game match, but Vit's typographic wrestlers are worthy of a replay. Myself? I would have played the "justified horizontally" wrestler card next. Game over!
::From Layer Tennis via Wrong But Funny.

Free Art Talent Test! See Offer Inside

2012-01-31T03:14:00.000-08:00

Before the term "graphic designer" became part of our lexicon, many artist correspondence schools popped up across the country to train "commercial artists" for careers in advertising. During the 1940s and 50s, matchbook advertising was considered one of the most effective methods of reaching a wide audience of young talent, (or maybe they just assumed all artists were smokers at the time). The schools encouraged men and women to enter their talent tests and submit drawings for chances to win scholarships and earn big money. Although tempted myself, I was too young to enter, but I can recall carefully copying some of the "Draw Me" matchbook illustrations of dogs in the early sixties. It was my first introduction to the world of advertising art. Note to students: this old matchbook talent test still has merit, and would make a great lettering exercise in class this quarter. Stand on notice! The matchbook gem above is from Michael Karshis' Flickr photostream.

There is something so delicious about this clown drawing and the awkward "circus type". It looks more like an advertisement for clown school than art school. It is from Animation Archive where you can read a great post on the Famous Artists School correspondence courses.

Naked girlz and men smoking pipes were a constant theme of many of the advertising campaigns. This cover is one from Design for Good.

Earn Big Money drawing "Spunky"! From Calsidyrose's Flickrstream.

Art Talent Hunt from What is This? New talent needed!

Front and inside covers of the landscape challenge. From eBay.

Free art contest! Draw the Boxer and you may be a winner too. Front and inside matchcover from the Letterology Archives.

Spreading The Love

2012-01-30T01:12:00.000-08:00

Christopher James of Porridge Papers in Lincoln, Nebraska is the Cupid of the Typosphere. Since 2008, he has been hosting Love on the Run, a free pre-Valentine's Day event merging vintage typewriters, love notes and special delivery services. Anyone can stop by his shop and type out a love note on an old working typewriter, onto some nice Mohawk Ultra Fuschia paper and have it sent to a designated Valentine by special delivery. Each note gets rolled up to fit inside a little bottle, and then packaged inside a letterpressed bag made with handmade wildflower seed (for Spring planting), and delivered in time for the Valentine's holiday. With four years of Cupid expertise, James would now like to assist businesses in other cities to adopt this Free Love campaign. Stop in at his Kickstarter site to watch a short video and learn how you can help spread the love in your neighborhood in the future. My only question to him is, "Do you have any Pink-Out on hand in case of typos?"
::Thanks to my friend Alyson Kuhn of Felt-n-Wire for spreading the typewriter love links.

Stephen Colbert Collaborates With Maurice Sendak Part One

2012-01-26T17:28:00.001-08:00

Stephen Colbert Collaborates With Maurice Sendak Part Two

2012-01-26T17:19:00.001-08:00

The Poetical Works & Letters of Robert Burns

2012-01-25T13:39:00.000-08:00

In honor of Robert Burns birthday today (1759-1796), I have one of my own favorite title pages to share from a 1787 edition of The Poetical Works and Letters of Robert Burns. I recently found this book on a flea market table for $10. It has a very nice stamped leather binding with some wear, gilded edges and it is all in tact. Evidently, this is the "family edition" of this book. Just beyond the title page it has the comment "(In this Edition the more Objectionable Passages and Pieces are excluded)". The decorative title with beautiful line art and blackletter text is an inspired work of lettering and illustration. I have seen other titles of this very same nature, but so it goes...I can't seem to put my fingers upon them now. (I have digital copies of them floating around here somewhere, so will revisit their comparisons again later once I find them). This title page and other illustrated pages throughout the book are steel engravings. Below is the same edition of this book I found on The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company site recently. It has a plaid front cover and a nice fore-edge painting of Ripley Castle.

This beautiful edition of the same Burns book is currently on display through February 5th for a Robert Burns exhibit at the Morgan Library in New York City. It was lavishly rebound for Charles J. Sawyer (1876?-1931), in the 20th century, probably by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, in London. The binder even included a miniature portrait of the author on the back cover. Visit the Morgan Library's online exhibit and you can listen to some audio versions of Burns works over a hearty meal of haggis tonight—or not.

This is how the poet's birthday was celebrated in Glasgow a few years back.

Birds and Words

2012-01-25T02:59:00.000-08:00

In my mind, this set of 1959 Czechoslovakian postage stamps designed by painter, illustrator, lettering artist, teacher and stage designer Karel Svolinsky (1896-1986) and engraved by Jirka Ladislav, are some of the most beautiful I've seen. The illustrations of the birds with the lovely script lettering, and the high quality multi-color engravings, set these Czech stamps apart as works of art. More of Svolinsky's postage stamp artwork can be seen in two of my earlier posts here and here, and in this set of lovely postcards in a recent post. Look for many more of his stamp designs to come in the future.

Sweet Packaging

2012-01-24T02:15:00.000-08:00

Swiss Chocolat Suchard ad from pages of the Allgemeine Illustrirte Zeitung, 1886. Via the Flickrstream of Mosh Garumpelaxias.

Tiny French Chocolate paper sleeve wrapper for a bite-size vanilla chocolate from Chocolat Menier, 1878. From the Letterology Archives.

Tiny caramel candy paper box from the Gum & Sweetmeat Co. of New York, undated. Folded size is 1.5 inches long. From the Letterology Archives.

Treasures of the 19th Century Dutch Book Trade

2012-01-23T01:37:00.000-08:00

Catalog cover for an association to promote the interests of booksellers in Amsterdam in the 19th century. Below is an 1876 advertisement for a bookstore.

1883 menu for the Book Society dinner.

Lithographed bookstore poster, 1903. Designed by William Bernard. Below is a promotion for the International Exhibition of Books and other related subjects.

Drawing of an exhibit for the Netherlands Booksellers Association. Below is a chromolithographed poster from 1875 for a children's bookstore.

The book trade in Europe during the early part of the 19th century was a prospering and flourishing industry, despite few major advancements since Gutenberg's era. Earlier this month I reported on a Dutch book about The Making of Books in 1850. This happens to be sort of a companion post to it, and just like the earlier post, these images of the 19th century book trade in the Netherlands also belong to the University of Amsterdam's Bibliotheek van het Boekanvak, or the library of the Book Trade. Their rich archive contains booksellers' catalogs, type specimens, posters, source material about the production and design of books, and ephemera from the printing industry. This library contains one of the largest and most comprehensive historical collections in the world documenting printing and book design.
This just in: For those of you lucky enough to be in Amsterdam between February 8th and May 13th 2012, you might enjoy visiting the University of Amsterdam's exhibition, The Printed Book, A Visual History. The exhibit and companion book by the same name which is compiled by Mathieu Lommen, curator of graphic design, covers 500 years of Western book design. According to the press release, "It showcases book design in all its forms: reference works, and works of art, 'for reading machines' and picture books, prestigious collector's items and throw away paperbacks. It includes work by famous printers of the hand-press period—Nicolas Jenson, Aldus Manutius, Christophe Plantin, the Elzeviers, John Baskerville, Giambattista Bodoni—and trendsetting designers of the modern era—William Morris, El Lissitzky, Jan Tschichold, Paul Rand, Massin, Irma Boom. It also includes remarkable illustrated works by architects and artists such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Maria Sibylla Merian. Special attention is devoted to printers' manuals, illuminating the printing process, and also to type specimens and writing masters' copybooks, placing letterforms in a broader context."
Below is a glimpse of the exhibition design by Experimental Jetset. I am so ready to pack my bags!

Check Out This Library Material

2012-01-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

Leave it to librarians to uncover some great film and TV clips about libraries and setting it to a dance beat. This is over 5 minutes of solid gold material and long past due. Excellent editing of 31 different Hollywood clips by Ryan Ireland and the staff at the Greene County Public Library in Ohio. Parker Posey has to be the best librarian! Thanks to Booktryst for the tip on this one. Made my day!

Glacial Graffiti

2012-01-18T10:26:00.000-08:00

Loving the snow today! The graphical interface outside today is amazing! ;)
::from aesthetic sensibility

Illuminating Characters

2012-01-18T00:17:00.000-08:00

These hand-illuminated letters are no wallflowers. They are spirited characters of nobility and deserve to be illuminated once again. Their geometric and botanical designs are not refined, yet quite beautiful none-the-less. They can be found in an early printed Italian book on the history of Rome, titled Scriptores Historiae Augustae, from the Special Collections of the University of Glasgow and published by Philippus de Lavagnia in 1475. The letters are thought to have been added to the text in the 15th or 16th century, though their style appears as if they could have been illustrated just yesterday. Many have exaggerated serifs, some are sans serifs and a few have more literal interpretations such as the "I" above which vaguely resembles a chalice. All of the illuminated letters are on view at the University of Glasgow's flickr set.

Ephemeral Books

2012-01-17T00:28:00.000-08:00

I'm rather intrigued by the ice book projects of Basia Irland who is an environmental artist concerned with river and watershed restoration. She works with research biologists, botanists, stream ecologists and community groups on various conservation projects to promote healthy watersheds. As part of her river restoration projects, she works with participants to hand carve ice books of frozen river water and embeds each with local native seeds which become sort of an "ecological language or riparian text" as she calls it. As the frozen books are launched downstream, the ice melts in the river's current and the seeds are released. Theoretically the seeds will grow into plants and trees which help to stabilize the river banks and provide shelter for fish and wildlife. I imagine this could happen, but it seems rather overly simplistic to me. I do appreciate the concept however and think her ephemeral books are beautiful. They promote an awareness of watershed preservation and restoration, and oh yeah, it must be really fun to watch ice books float downstream. You can watch a video of Irland's ice book project Receding/Reseeding here.

This ice book weighed 200 pounds and included seeds of the mountain maple, columbine, and spruce. It was released in Boulder Creek, Colorado in 2007.

A young ice book reader wonders why there are no pictures.

Irland makes other materials in the construction of her environmental books. The one above is Barnacle Book II on the shores of Puget Sound in Washington state. Below is a text of sand dollars in what else, but sand.

The Book of Drought is made from parched field notes and dehydrated paragraphs. The pages are dry from being sun-baked.

Faux Snow Job

2012-01-15T23:26:00.000-08:00

It snowed outside today and blanketed the city in white for the first time this Winter. Just in time to share some very recent snowflake work from a few of my Experimental Typography students. I know it may seem contrary, but I had them each design snowflakes as a warm-up exercise on the first day of class two weeks ago. Actually, I call them "word crystals". I assign students to design three snowflake-like crystals from a list of words about winter, snow and ice. They must use just one word and one font per flake, and are asked to work quickly and be playful with each. Just as the single word requires the students to look closely at the shape and the structure of it very carefully, the word alone is also responsible for creating the structure of the snowflake once a repeat pattern is defined. Most were symmetrical, but not all, and I continue to be pleasantly surprised by their varied outcomes.
The three snowflakes in the top row are designed by Sarah Ervine. Words used in each (from left to right) are Glacier; Avalanche; and Blizzard. Second row from left is Marisa Tanji: Chilling; Sarah Rudback: Silence; Jeremy Grant: Glacier. Third row is Jeremy Grant: Winter; Sarah Rudback: Exquisite; Marisa Tanji: Sledding.

The three feather-like dendrites above are designed by Susan Schumacher. Each were created in Photoshop using the three words, Silence, Snowangel, and Snowbird. Reversed out of black, they would more closely resemble a starburst of fireworks because of the beautiful contrail of letters she created. Such fine flakes have greater detail to reveal, so please click away on all.
Although Brendan Lattin's work below is more like a snowstorm than a snowflake, it is a beautiful texture none-the-less. We will soon be doing more experiments with lettering, texture and typographical patterns so I hope to be sharing more of my student's work here in the near future.

Drawing on Local Talent

2012-01-13T01:38:00.000-08:00

Some Crazy Magic: Meeting Harry Smith from Drew Christie on Vimeo.

Local Seattle artist Drew Christie continues to surprise me. From his shiny new website comes another one of his endearing animations, fully illustrated in loving detail. This is a strange little story about a strange little man, Harry Everett Smith (1923-1991) who was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic. Even more strange, he was also a gifted magician. In one of the many bios about him, it states: Smith's broad range of interests resulted in a number of collections. He donated the largest known paper airplane collection in the world to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. He was a collector of Seminole textiles and Ukrainian Easter Eggs. He also considered himself the world's leading authority on string figures, having mastered hundreds of forms around the world.
Drew enjoys stories and music and this one is like a 3 minute novel told to him by noted musician and filmmaker John Cohen. Not only that, but Drew can seriously draw and hand letter. He also performed the music soundtrack to this short. Check out his blog and store featuring posters, books, original prints and DVDs of his animations. (I featured his lovely animated music video for a Moondoggies song >here< in October 2010). You can also place a custom order or subscribe to the Drew Quarterly and receive a surprise package 4x a year!

Serious sidenote: Drew's crazy nice website was designed by my 2 former students Andrew Nedimyer and Barry Sevig of Camp Doug. I cannot claim any credit for their fine digital doings sadly, but they are also a digital design duo to put on the To Watch List! I'm quite proud of them both!

BiblioLegos

2012-01-12T00:46:00.000-08:00

Who said "there is no such thing as fun for the whole family"? Dave and Johnny Xandegar are a father and son team of Lego artists from Illinois who have quite a portfolio of amusing work at BrixWerx. Their charming blue bookmobile and the library stacks caught my eye here, and they are now busy building a Lego model of a library near their home in Illinois. You can see a BrixWerx beta pix of their library work-in-progress here.
The first two Lego books below are designed by Guy Himber at V&A Steamworks. It is the first Lego Steampunk book with a fully functional spine and pages (printed in vinyl) which turn. Himber has also designed a much larger Blurb book about his Lego creations called Lego Steampunk.

Another view of one of Himber's book structure here.

Sweet. A Moleskin blank journal perhaps, with a No.2 pencil? This one is from Starstreak007.

ReCycled Printing Ideas

2012-01-10T14:41:00.000-08:00

This is an idea whose time has come again. Recycle this cycle printing idea from the streets of 19th century Paris by strapping a container of some water-based ink to the back of your bike, fitted with a self-inking device, and the streets could be your canvas. I love this idea. It is the latest fashion in moveable type.
This tricycle printing sort of reminds me of Jonah Kessel's brilliant invention of his tricycle calligraphy. On the streets of Beijing, Kessel wrote such Chinese proverbs as: Create a good environment for minors to grow up healthy; Virtue shows through long term persistence, civilization reflects by actions; Civilization comes from every individual, to contribute from every little thing. I still marvel at his invention.
::As seen at Ptak Science Books.

A bicycle-driven "resistance press" from WWII. I believe this press is from the Netherlands where many underground presses flourished during the later stages of the war. It is difficult to see from this lone photo just how this press was operated by the bicycle, but I presume there was a strap-pulley system somehow connected to the flywheel of the press and the press operator fed the paper in the front seen on the left side of image.
I read somewhere that Orville and Wilbur Wright once designed and built a printing press and the two brothers ran their own job printing shop for a short while. Eventually they settled on managing a bicycle repair shop and building their own bicycles. Always the inventors, I have to wonder if they ever strapped a bicycle to one of their presses. If anyone knows more about this and bicycle-powered presses, please let me know.
::Photo by Krista van den Bos via Bibliopolis.

What Books Do While We Sleep

2012-01-09T16:23:00.000-08:00

No wonder I have so much trouble locating a specific book when I need it. From the folks at the Type bookstore in Toronto who seem to have an abundance of recreational reading books and a prolonged history of capturing them at play.
::From Quill & Quire via peacay at BibliOddysey.

The Making of Books in 1850

2012-01-09T02:13:00.000-08:00

The title page of this 1850 Dutch book, Bevallig en Nuttig, translates literally to Graceful and Useful. It's a nicely illustrated title page, and I presume the publisher is referring to the process of making useful books with grace, but I have to trust in the Google for my iTranslation. This endearing book is part of the "Tetterode Collection" included in the Special Collections at the University of Amsterdam. The beautiful chromolithograph prints nicely illustrate the entire bookmaking process. The 3 spreads below are the only available online, but they leave me hungry to see more. Do click on each for enlargements.

On left is The Typesetter. The caption suggests Laurens Koster of Haarlem invented the printing press in 1423 and later perfected it. The typesetter deals with assembling the words from lead type.
Sidenote: Legend actually has it that Laurens Koster of Haarlem first invented moveable type in 1423 after a walk in the woods with his grandchildren. He cut a letter from some bark of a tree and dropped it in the sand and noticed the impression it made there. He went on to experiment with block printing, inks and printing books, and received much fame for his work. Koster employed the lettercutter Johann Faust (sometimes spelled Fust) to assist him, and who later made off with all of his equipment when he was near death. This is the same Faust who eventually resurfaced in Mainz, where he began his own printing venture and later formed a contemptible partnership with Mr. Gutenberg. Today, there are no books in existence which carry Koster's name as printer, however the city of Haarlem has celebrated his achievements for hundreds of years. At the bottom of this entire post, you can see two photos I took a few years ago of an enormous bronze statue of Koster which sits in the big market square in Haarlem. He's holding a large book and say, a 300 point piece of (bronze) metal type.
The page on right illustrates the Essentials of Printing. In order to print books, you need these items: No.1, a barrel (!) of printing ink; No.2, lead type; No.3, an ink table; No.4, a pressure roller; No.5, a composing stick.
Oddly enough, no typesetters were employed in setting any text in this book, as it appears to be all hand-lettered.

The Steam-printing Press on left. Besides the regular (iron) press, the printer also uses the steam press. This works much faster, as it can print 12,000 sheets an hour.
The right page (above) has something to do with imposition. Composers make certain all of the leaves, or pages of the book will be folded and paginated in correct order when fitting the lead type in the imposition frames.

The Proofer on left. Before any printing takes place, there are 2 or 3 samples printed to check and improve it. It is necessary as words can be misspelled.
On right is The Printer. It is essential all the errors are now corrected. After the type has been inked, it is placed with the paper under the platen and the sheet is printed with one pull.
The "Tetterode Collection" is the official Typographical Library at the University of Amsterdam which they acquired from the Dutch type foundry, "N. Tetterode NV" in 1971. Today the library contains one of the largest typographic collections in Europe, covering all aspects of the book, paper, type and illustration from design, production and distribution of the book. The collection includes some 70,000 books, 12,000 documentation files on printers, publishers and booksellers, 13,000 type specimens, 10,000 book covers and thousands of examples of special graphics technology and design.

The Silkscreen Editions of Icinori

2012-01-05T00:55:00.000-08:00

Icinori is a small DIY silkscreen publisher based in France, featuring the work of Raphael Urwiller and Mayumi Otero, and friends. Urwiller and Otero produce all of the books and posters which are for sale in small editions and sell out quickly. The pop-up above appears to be their newest wordless book which is quite grand. More of their brightly-colored work can be seen below, and on their blog and flickr site. I cannot wait to see more work from them.

Animals, Urwiller, 2010. Wordless accordion book, printed in an edition of 25.

Residues of Sirens, by Clemence Pollet, 2009. 70 copies, sold out.

Weeders, 2009 by Raphael Urwiller. 70 copies, sold out.

No Man's Land, 2009. 35 copies with 20 different colors on the inside alone. Sold out.

Gourdin, 2009, 25 copies, sold out.

Retarded, by Brecht Vandenbroucke, 2009, 40 copies, sold out.

Where Ideas Come From

2012-01-03T18:01:00.000-08:00

Frank Chimero's The Being There Diary, asks the question: "What was the very best moment of your day?"

When asked where he gets his ideas, writer Nicholson Baker comments:
If you ask yourself, 'What's the best thing that happened today?' it actually forces a certain kind of cheerful retrospection that pulls up from the recent past things to write about that you wouldn't otherwise think about. If you ask yourself 'What happened today?' it's very likely that you're going to remember the worst thing, because you've had to deal with it—you've had to rush somewhere or somebody said something mean to you—that's what you're going to remember. But if you ask what the best thing is, it's going to be some particular slant of light, or some wonderful expression somebody had, or some particularly delicious salad. I mean, you never know...
::Via Austin Kleon's Tumblr, Lustik

A New Year's Toast

2012-01-02T12:52:00.000-08:00

Toast in the New Year with some text on toast. You could write yourself a to-do list for the day in jam or prepare a toasted love note for someone sitting next to you at the breakfast table. Or write a toast novel? This is such a great idea from Niimi, a Japanese design office specializing in product design, however it appears the letter may only be a prototype. With the envelope exterior and the grill mark lines, I am certain the toasted letter would be very well-received if it were for real. In 2007, the letter received the Gold Prize for New Product Design at the Toyama Product Design Competition.
::Found on Present & Correct via Good Mail.

Have a Great Calendar Year

2012-01-02T00:49:00.000-08:00

If only there was an app for a calendar as nice as this. It was designed by British artist Edward Bawden (1903-1989), one of the great painters, illustrators and lettering artists of the 20th century. He originally designed the 12 month calendar for the book, The Review of Revues, by C.B. Cochran in 1930, with each month featuring a hand-lettered masthead and a beautiful 3-color illustration. Suitable for printing (control + click on mac). Tip-o'-the-hat to Dr. Chris Mullen over at The Visual Telling of Stories for kindly providing these images. Please note: Calendar dates do not reflect 2012.

How to Design Rustic Type

2012-01-01T02:30:00.000-08:00

1. Photograph a log.
2. Convert it to grayscale.
3. Increase contrast.
4. Posterize image and create a black and white TIFF file.
5. Send file to Vector Magic.
6. Send vectorized image as PDF to engraver.
7. Hand-color print with granulated watercolors and salt.
8. Repeat for each letter below.

TIP: For snow-capped and icicle letters, spray with water and freeze quickly.

Wishing all of you good cheer

in my very first log of the New Year!

*<|;-)

::With apologies to Lunada Bay Letterpress, for my log adaptation.

A Stitch in Time

2011-12-30T00:20:00.000-08:00

Gregor, the calendar scarf for the wall, from German designer Patrick Frey. I suppose you could wear it until your year totally unravels.

The 3D CMYK Print

2011-12-29T02:46:00.000-08:00

It was quite by accident that I stumbled into the cross-stitch design work of Evelin Kasikov after yesterday's post on the Manolo sisters and their embroidered type. All of these artists are based in London, but the only common thread between their work is embroidery.
Evelin Kasikov has long had a fascination with typography and printed matter along with a love of craft, and decided to combine her interests by exploring cross-stitch as part of her academic studies at Central St. Martin's in 2008. She began by deconstructing the 4-color CMYK print composed of various sized dots and replaced each dot with hand embroidered cross-stitches. Where many CMYK prints might be made with a screen of 150 dots-per-inch, Kasikov can reduce her cross-stitched resolution to as little as 2 or 3 dots-per-inch. Just as the dot size in a print can effect tone and saturation, she varies the thickness of the thread in order to create subtleties of tone. To further imitate a 4-color print, she also adjusts the angle of each cross-stitched color. This is what I find so engaging about Kasikov's work—beauty of craft meets the science of color reproduction. She can methodically mirror a 4-color print with the precision of a pressman—but does so with the trained eye of a designer. A nice reminder that craft and design are not inseparable.
Below is Kasikov's first fully handprinted alphabet of 26 lowercase san serif letterforms. They are 4-color CMYK made with 26,773 stitches. The challenge, Kasikov claims, was to construct a coherent character set with 10 cross-stitches per x-height. The screens for each color were set to a different angle and the combined blend of the stitched CMYK colors effectively result in a handmade Registration Black when viewed at a distance.

Below are images from Kasikov's Printed Matter project, created for her final MA project and based upon her cross-stitch technique. In the four different books, she explored craft and color in three-dimensional form within the context of graphic design.

The images below are hand embroidered posters based on Gill Sans Light. They are examples of the blend of CMYK colors stitched in four different thread thicknesses. In addition to her website, you can find much more of her colorful work on Flickr and her blog Craft meets Graphic Design. Editioned prints and stitched originals are for sale here.

Sweater Letters

2011-12-27T23:25:00.001-08:00

No need to work with cold type in the wintertime, when you can dress your letters in warm double-knit sweaters. This Sweater Letter set is designed by twin sisters, Maricor and Maricar Manolo of the small design studio Maricor/Maricar based in London. The sweater set was privately commissioned and hand embroidered with cotton floss thread on cotton fabric. Not recommended for warmer climates. In addition to their embroidery letters, the 2 sisters also mix it up with other print and web media, set design, album artwork and animation.

Embroidered illustration for ESPN magazine for their regular Go Play section. Below are more fine examples of their embroidered lettering work.

Season's Readings

2011-12-25T01:11:00.000-08:00

This set of bogus books from the stacks at Letterology Library (with exception to this last gem from the NYPL Digital Gallery), are; spoiler alert; greeting cards posing as books. My most favorite is the one at top which is the first faux book-card I discovered years ago. After finding the next book-card at some forgotten post Christmas sale, this theme soon became a collection. The oldest in this series is the postcard shown directly above, and it is postmarked 1909. I find it rather odd that 3 out of 7 of the cards each have burning candles on their covers—a practice I would not recommend for books or cards.
No matter the holiday celebration, sending greetings of joy is universal. I wish all of you a great Season's Readings and Joy, and I thank you for your continued support of Letterology; particularly over this past year. May you continue to stay inspired in whatever it is you do!

Winter Scenes of old Czechoslovakia

2011-12-23T23:15:00.000-08:00

A set of 10 lithographed postcards from 1948 illustrated by Czech artist Karel Svolinský (1896-1986). I recently was doing a little online "me-commerce" when I discovered this set of postals at Antik Buddha's online site. Svolinský's work charmed me immediately just as his stamp designs have done so in the past. Anyone familiar with Czech postage stamps, banknotes or Czech art and painting after WWII, would at some time encounter Mr. Svolinský and his work. He was one of the most influential Czech artists of the last century. In the course of 40 years, he designed 210 stamp designs for the post of Czechoslovakia. He was also a teacher, a painter, a theater designer, an illustrator and a great designer of posters, ex libris and books.
This set of folk art postals came packaged in a paper wrapper with an adorable snowman on the front (seen below). The 4-color original lithographed prints are titled Zima, or Winter in english, and illustrate some of the Czech folk art traditions of the Winter solstice holidays.

Santa Brand Chocolate

2011-12-23T01:58:00.000-08:00

The marketing of Christmas never seems to end. Some of it is good, but so much of it is useless crap. This one is in a class all by itself. It is an outer wrapper from Rowntree chocolate candy bar packaging from the 1950s. Simple and playful, this sweet chocolate packaging is truly a gem.
::From Jason Liebig's flickrstream.

Holiday Ties

2011-12-22T23:15:00.000-08:00

1960 British magazine advertisement for Tootal socks and ties designed by Tom Eckersley.

1942 and 1943 half-page advertisements with Christmas tiepography from
Botany Ties and paul malon's flickrstream.

Christmas wrap for that special Him, with belt and tiepography. From Roadsidepictures flickrstream.

Le Christmas Catalog

2011-12-22T02:46:00.000-08:00

The beaucoup toys and trinkets here are wonderful, but I would be delighted to wake up to this beautiful 1952 Christmas catalog beneath my tree. These pages are just a glimpse of over 30 colorful toy-filled pages from the French catalog Comptoir Général de la Bimbeloterie at the fabulous Flickrstream of Rebecca's Collection. The e-commerce user experience can never compare to this!

Space Age Santa

2011-12-22T01:04:00.000-08:00

Forget the reindeer. Santa's downsized and he's finally got a brand new sleigh! You can send Santa's space sled into orbit by following the DIY easy assembly instructions after downloading and printing. Santa's space ship is kindly provided on the Flickrstream of Calsidyrose where you can also find the download.

First Day Christmas Covers

2011-12-21T02:03:00.000-08:00

This first day of stamp issue with a very elegant typographical ski pole and snowflake ornaments, commemorates the 1962 World Ski Championships in Poland. This just has to be their clever idea of a Polish joke... a ski pole for a skiing Pole? It just has to be ;)

1968 British first day cover commemorating toys and games. No design credit given here, but the cover illustration certainly looks like the brilliant work of British designer Tom Eckersley (1914-1997).

Another 1968 British first day cover of the same commemorative toy stamps. This time illustrated with someone in her red pajamas standing barefoot on a block of ice. I somehow missed that holiday tradition.

Christmas Tales

2011-12-20T02:30:00.000-08:00

The 2 illustrations seen above are wood engravings by the very accomplished artist Alexander Anderson (1775-1870), considered to be America's first "commercial artist". I have posted previously on Anderson's prolific work, and will likely do so again, as he had a very distinguished career. These 2 wood engravings were used for the very popular childrens' book series, Parley's Christmas Tales. The first illustration was likely used as a title page while the second was used as the cover design seen below.
First published in Boston in 1827, the Parley's series were one of the first childrens' books to be based upon true stories rather than fairies, giants or monsters. Because of their popularity, they soon became a victim of plagiarism and eventually folded. Below is a well-loved Peter Parley's book published in 1838 with the same Anderson wood engraving as seen above.

:: The 2 illustrations above are from the NYPL Digital Gallery. The image of book above is from the University of Washington's Special Collections.

Snow Books

2011-12-19T02:44:00.000-08:00

A Patch of Old Snow by Robert Frost is a miniature book designed by my friend Margery Hellman of The Holburne Press in 2002. It was printed in an edition of 50 at Bonnie Thompson Norman's The Windowpane Press. Knowing of my personal penchant for the snowflake, my good friend Bonnie presented this to me as a gift several years ago, and I have always treasured it greatly. As all of Margery's books, they are a recipe of thoughtfulness and craftsmanship, with a good measure of character. Her books are as much poetry in motion as the poet's words which she handsets in type (with her strained vision). This particular little book of hers is a beautiful interpretation of Frost's lovely poem. The book opens like a snowflake fractal, and letters and ornaments fall on the page like a dusting of light snow. After reading the short verse twice—you soon discover Margery's note near the end—When reciting his short poems, Frost frequently would repeat them. Now this gives me the happy feeling of snowfall accumulation * . * . * !

This spread reveals a pop-up sheet of vellum with text lightly printed in what appears to be a snow forecast from a newspaper, which nicely resonates with Frost's poem.

The repeated verse on the clear vellum.

The single spreads of this book are backed with vellum papers which are structural, and the boards are attached separately. The attached "dust" cover is a clear vellum which reveals the title and gives it a nice frosty feel. The book is only 3" in height with 5 full spreads. There are a few more copies still available from Vamp & Tramp Booksellers as well as more of her books listed here.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Below is another small book of meditations which has nothing to do with snow other than conveying purity I presume. The cover design knocked me out when I saw it. The title page is pretty elaborate typography too. No publisher's date on it, but the inscription on the endsheet is dated 1887. The 4" tall book is printed in London by The Religious Tract Society.
* * * Let it snow * * * * * * Let it snow * * * * * * Let it snow * * *

Swedish Holiday Delights

2011-12-15T23:20:00.000-08:00

This nice collection of holiday covers from the Swedish printer's journal Grafiskt Forum are kindly provided by Katie Varrati and Derrick Schultz of the after-hours studio Bustbright in Los Angeles. This large archive is made available on Flickr, in addition to a vast scrapbook of many more mid-century design works which they have kindly provided for the masses. It is a rich resource indeed!
Above is December 1951 Grafistkt Forum. Below is a December 1952. No design credit offered.

January 1955 cover. My personal favorite. ; )

December 1955. Design by Helge Rehnström.

December 1957. Design by Helge Rehnström.

December 1958. Design by Helge Rehnström.

January 1970.

Hmmm...Typewriters

2011-12-15T14:11:00.000-08:00

A gingerbread typewriter from master pastry chef Patti Paige of Baked Ideas, is now on display through January 6th at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel in New York City to benefit City Harvest. It is entirely edible including the rice paper ribbon. I suppose that is onion skin paper too?
::Via Cakehead Loves Evil

Faber and Faber Does Christmas

2011-12-14T23:55:00.000-08:00

Faber and Faber is one of the great publishing houses in London. When first established in 1929, T.S. Elliot was their first editor. Their Christmas Books catalog from 1933 (above) was illustrated by one of the great British artists of the 20th century, Edward Bawden (1903-1989). Below are a series of their Christmas cards commissioned from several other brilliant British artists of the day and printed by the Curwen Press. I'd like to thank the folks at Faber and Faber for permitting me to share these Christmas cards here. Look for many more fabulous Faber finds on their Flickrstream.

1945 card designed by Barnett Freedman (1901-1958). Just below is the interior of the same card. Freedman did many notable book illustrations and book jacket designs for Faber during the course of his career. I'm particularly fond of this set of his cards which all contain books.

1946 card design by Barnett Freedman.

1950 card design by Barnett Freedman. Below is the interior of same card.

1954 illustration of Russell Square by V.H. Drummond.

1956 card design of the 12 days of Christmas by Alan Howard. Below is the interior of the same card.

1960 card illustration by Gerald Rose. Below is the interior of same card.

1961 card illustration by David Jones. Below is the back of card also designed by David Jones.

1963 design by Gerald Rose. Interior of same card below.

1970 card design by Errol Le Cain.

Cold Type

2011-12-12T23:58:00.000-08:00

I have a thing for snow-capped letters in case it wasn't clear by now. And it's no coincidence I married a glaciologist. I do love the snowfall. Here is a small collection of ephemera with snow-covered letters to add to the holiday spirit. If it must be cold outside, at least we can celebrate the beauty of winterized letters.
Oh, and that new seasonal masthead above? It is a 1975 snowed-under version of Gill Sans Bold which you can find here.
Sidenote: the Snow Shoe brand tobacco label above is one of my favorites from the Letterology archives. It is partially cropped, but I believe it must be a wrapper from a box of tobacco, like the one Mr. Snow Shoe guy happens to be also carrying with his picture on the front.

Polar bears making polar beer on the Klemm Lager beer label from 1877. From Captain Geoffrey Spaulding's Flickrstream.

Eskimo Pie 12 Pack label from 1984. With such tight leading, the snow never had a chance to collect on the heads and shoulders of this type. The Zero wrapper below is from the 1920s and 30s. Only 1 cent! Both of these labels are from Jason Liebig's Flickrstream.

Another eBay find I missed out on. An 1898 trade card from the Leibig series on Winter sport ski-race-fishing. Who knew?

From an essay on The History of Flour Milling in Washington State from HistoryLink.org. This Snow Drift brand flour sack is from Dayton, Washington, circa 1900.

A menu from the 13th Annual Arctic Club Reunion Dinner in 1906 in New York City. From the Buttolph Menu collection at the New York Public Library. More yet to come later...

Crimespotting

2011-12-12T00:10:00.001-08:00

It has been nearly a year since my last post on the paper sculpture work of Seattle artist Patty Grazini. Some of her current work is on display at Seattle's most outlier shop and gallery, Curtis Steiner, owned and managed by artist Curtis Steiner. Grazini's latest paper sculpture work might best be described as pulp fiction noir, except her characters are based upon true stories of villains, cons, and felons uncovered in the archives of the New York Times. Each of her nefarious outlaws are delightfully portrayed as animals or birds, and measure about 18 inches in height. They are handsomely dressed in 19th century costume, with exquisite detail given to every button, ruffle, pattern, pose and expression. A beautiful banner is displayed next to each figure, with a reproduction of the original newspaper's account of their criminal activity. As curious and mysterious as these jailbirds' exploits are, it is Grazini's imaginative portrayal of these characters which provide the most engaging narratives. She single-handidly delivers poetic justice for their sensational crimes.

Miss Ruggles who was charged with arson of her home in order to collect on insurance and finance her trousseau, jumps a rope on fire.

Mary Largo, (a pigeon) who was convicted for being the brains of a New York city gang of begging imposters is sent of to the Reformatory.

Pretty Ada Turise, (a young goat) is a confirmed opium smoker at the young age of 16, and is dressed in the finest of marbled endpapers.

I absolutely marvel at Grazini's skill and patience to physically manipulate paper into beautifully tailored costumes, tools and all of the trappings of outlaw culture. Her rich color palette and patterned papers are carefully chosen to give the illusion of old fabric. To fully appreciate, you must walk slowly around them each and discover all the many suprising details: the blood on the cook's meat cleaver; the top button left undone on the knife thrower's pants; the small patches on the shirt of the cat who painted birds to look like canaries, the suitcase made of book text which belonged to a former bookseller-turned-serial-polygamist; the pretty opium poppies growing at the feet of the young opium addict. It is all so very inspired.
I want to thank Curtis Steiner for graciously permitting me to take these photos and to share them here once again. He and his staff are very welcoming and I encourage you to pay a visit to his little cabinet of wonders if you are in or near Seattle. Meanwhile, you can view a short video of Patty Grazini speaking about all of her new work at the very bottom of this long post.

A drunk and jealous knife thrower, (a sewer rat) is convicted of killing his girlfriend in a knife-throwing incident after an attempt to reform her. Whoops!

A young woman (stork) was charged with trafficking orphan babies to paying clients.

An old man (cat) is arrested for selling fake canaries which he painted yellow. No telling what became of the poor painted birds.

A cook takes aim at her employer with a gun, only to miss.

Former bookseller Marthila Hart, (a crow) stole the hearts and life-savings of many men. She had at least 11 husbands, deluding them each into giving her money for false pretense shortly after marrying.

Religious spiritualist Olive Brown (portrayed as a black cat) and her husband, Philander Brown swindled an elderly man of nearly $3000 by convincing him they had a direct line to the spirit world and could communicate with his deceased wife. Found guilty, they were soon spirited away to prison.

Air Santa is Coming to Town

2011-12-09T23:42:00.001-08:00

A 1940 invitation to attend a New Year's Eve celebration at the Police Station with Santa. I bet that party was well attended!
Love the snow-capped small caps!
:: Via The Ephemera Society, July 2011, Item of the Month.

Indoor Snow Play

2011-12-08T23:04:00.001-08:00

Snow play, for those that don't like the wet, cold snow, can best be enjoyed indoors as well. This interactive panorama of 25 colorful Christmas scenes is best enjoyed when viewed indoors. It was produced by M. Bradley (Milton I presume?) in 1870 and designed to be viewed through a window with revolving screens on hidden rolls. It's sort of a theater of the mind, without the cold, wet white stuff. Strictly for happy children as it implies. ; )
:: Via Ketterer Kunst Auction House.

Pulp Fiction Holidays

2011-12-07T23:56:00.001-08:00

I think Peter Mendelsund's design of The Snowman, by Jo Nesbø has to be one of my top favorite book cover designs this year. This is a very modernist approach to a crime novel, but it's not a cliche. The minimalist spine is stunning and is an attraction on any bookshelf.
Other pulp fiction book covers below are less minimalism; more drama. Enough to put you in the holiday spirit for some good crime novel reading.

No date on this gem, but still available on Amazon.

A 25 cent Dell paperback from 1951.

Another interpretation of Henry Kane's novel from 1952. This one is a hardback dust jacket.

Another 25 cent pot boiler from 1949.
:: The last 3 books are from Froggyboggler's Flickrstream.

A fabulous Dell cover design by George Gregg from 1943.
:: From uk vintage's Flickrstream.

A Fully Booked Shelter

2011-12-07T23:05:00.001-08:00

Snuggle up with a good outdoor adventure book a when you go camping with the Fully Booked tent from FieldCandy. You can take cover between the pages of this smart shelter, and share a favorite bedtime story with a friend. The first edition of Fully Booked sleeps two comfortably. Only 76 tents left in this edition, however you can find dozens of more designs to choose from here.

Now if only the Occupiers could occupy these tents...

US Grants Patent on Snowman Design

2011-12-07T01:02:00.001-08:00

Hide the carrots and your marshmallow and popcorn ball snowmen. On September 6, 2011, inventor Ignacio Marc Asperas of Melville, NY was granted a US patent on the Apparatus for Facilitating the Construction of a Snow Man/Woman. Mr. Asperas, who now owns the man with the long orange nose and funny hat, insists this is no snowjob. His revolutionary method for creating a better snowman and woman is outlined here in a 25-page US patent report.
With many years of experience in building snowmen, Asperas had enough of premature melt problems causing oddly shaped snowballs, misshapen torsos, adornments falling off because of deformities, or not enough snow to make a snowball because of declining snow levels. He describes having a flash of genius, when he determined a snow boulder could be lighter in weight just by rolling the snow around a hollow sphere, and made with a minimum amount of snow so it could be easily moved. The perfectly symmetrical snowballs would avoid the unevenness that results in a "big caboose" and allow for easy stacking on top of one another.
Asperas insists he has no plans to sue young children who infringe upon his new patent.
:: My thanks to Buster for this important Winter alert!

I Candy

2011-12-06T00:06:00.001-08:00

Several weeks ago, I was giving a lesson to my book design students about the pleasures and perils of using initial caps in their texts. It was purely unintentional, but many of the examples I included in my slide show lecture happened to be decorative capital I's. Of all the letters in the alphabet, the I is not a particularly beautiful letter, but these featured designers each brought them to life. The example immediately above is a hand-rendered porchoir stencil surrounding an open cap I, and it was designed by Vance Gerry (1929-2005) of the Weather Bird Press in Los Angeles, for his book Porchoir.

This lovely initial cap I designed by Saul Marks (1904-1974) of the Plantin Press in Los Angeles, was for a book he designed and printed on the influential British designer and bookbinder T.J. Cobden-Sanderson. Mark's distinguished capital I is composed entirely of printers' ornaments and is a remarkable achievement which he often skillfully repeated in his work with other letters of the alphabet. I am most grateful to my good friend Bonnie Thompson-Norman for generously sharing her fine book collection and to let me photograph many of these lovely books.

The third lovely cap I is a wood engraving designed by British artist Miriam MacGregor for the Matrix in the article, The forgotten pleasures of hand-setting. MacGregor was very successful in interpreting the concept of this story with her design of a hand setting the I in its' place as a drop cap within the text. She cleverly invites the reader to participate in this story from the beginning which is one of the primary role's of a typographer.

Last, and least in this series, is what I refer to as a raised I of Newt cap. This oversized initial cap happened to appear earlier last month in a New York Times Magazine article on the rise of Newt Gingrich as the Republican party's flavor-of-the-week frontrunner in the race to the White House. Kudos to the NYT design team for selecting the oversized slab serif for the I of Newt. A perfect fit me thinks!

Olivetti Holidays

2011-12-04T23:38:00.001-08:00

19 x 27" poster for the Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter, 1953.
Designed by Edigio Bonfante (1922 - 2004).
:: Via SFMOMA

1957 Christmas print ad Walter Ballmer (1923 - )
for Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriters.
:: Via Ninonbooks Flickr page.

Olivetti Lettera 32 print ad designed by Walter Ballmer, 1964.
:: Via Mr. Knappy-Head.

Book in a Bag

2011-12-01T21:38:00.001-08:00

NY artist Trong G. Nguyen provides his own interpretation of a library in his ongoing series, Library. Beginning in 2007, Nguyen has used rice kernals, ink, gold paint, gold leaf and clear mylar to record entire books on grains of rice. He writes one single word in ink on each grain of rice, until he completes an entire chapter and places them all into a clear mylar bag. To distinguish the books' titles, he paints the rice grain with gold leaf. The book's title and individual chapters are noted in the top corner of each mylar rice packet with a due date card inside. His project gives new meaning to food for the soul.
:: Via Blessé par le mot