Ace Jet 170

End papers

End papers from Falkiner Fine Papers (76 Southampton Row, London , WC1B 4AR Tel: 020 7831 1151). Bought them years ago. It's a fantastic shop, full of paper and printing paraphenalia: books, tools, even presses. I really like repetitive patterns like these; they're similar to patterns used for the covers of vintage Penguin Poets and Music (to be logged soon). For those unfamiliar with end papers, these would be used by traditional book binders inside the front and back covers of fine books. I have been known to buy knackered old books from second hand shops inorder to remove the end papers. I must point out though that I am only able to do this to the most delapidated of books.

Helvetia 2

Another brilliant stamp from Switzerland.

Praha

I'm obviously not alone in having a liking for maps. All those multi-layered lines and intricate detail; I guess it's a throw-back to my boy scout days; scouring the map for a short cut (I always was a lazy git).

Printed on thick, off-white, pulpy paper; the ink has soaked in nicely.

Gurtner

Another Paris Flea Market find. This time a tin for a brand of spark plugs.

Envelopes

Now I'm no stamp collector* but I do think postage marks, stamps, envelopes are ace. Here are two Russian envelopes with fabulous illustrations, a beautifully simple letterpressed airmail envelope from the US and a Czech sample with great stamps.

* Said with no disrespect to stamp collectors. Although a traditionally nerdy past time, I'm a strong believer in the idea that one man's nerdy interest is another man's passion. In fact, this site is testament to that idea.

Czech Match Labels 1

I first came across Czech match labels when I was in that shop in Prague. Like stamp designers of certain countries (notably Switzerland, USSR and the UK) Czech designers seem to have embraced the opportunitiy to design on a small scale with many of the labels displaying dynamic compositions. There are, of course, plenty of duff designs too. Like stamps, these labels were used to celebrate events and inform the public. Printed with spot inks onto low grade, very thin paper, the colours have a beautiful saturated quality.As the numbered title suggests, I'll post more examples as time goes by.

I never saw another butterfly…

I bought this strangely beautiful book from a second hand bookshop in Nottingham. I picked it up thinking that it was just a nice children's book, that my wife might like. Infact it's a book of children's drawings and poems from Theresienstadt Concentration Camp.

The jacket notes tell a terribly sad story of the 15,000 children under the age of 15 that passed through the camp. Theresienstadt served as a kind of way station to Auschwitz and other extermination centres, so its inhabitants were condemned in advance to die.

The drawings and poems represent what the children experienced but, perhaps surprisingly, not just the endless queues, funeral carts, executions and shouts of the SS men; they tell of meadows and hills, birds and butterflies and even, "...princesses with coronets, wizards and witches, insects with human faces, a land of happiness with cookies, candy and soda pop".

To be honest, it's a difficult, powerful read.

Cafes Ladoux

I really like branded espresso cups and have literally begged, borrowed and (to my shame) even stolen them. This was my first and, yes, the one I stole. It was from a cafe in Paris following a very good créme brulee. I even have photographic evidence of the incident; with my wife holding 'Exhibit A' round the corner from the scene of the crime. Now I'm not proud and have since adopted a more noble strategy: I beg for them.

Generally, though not always, waiters/bar staff are happy to give them away, if asked for with the appropriate level of humble appreciation. Often even washing them for me. I'm pretty sure the cups are given free to the bar by their coffee supplier.

Copper Sulphate

I think we found this in the loft of the first house my parents actually owned, so that must have been around 1980. I used to keep my paint brushes in it when I was at Art School.

Helvetia 1

The Swiss design some very cool stamps. Some awful ones too but here are two of the good ones from 1965.

Passport

Thought this one was a bit spooky for some reason. Found this passport in a drawer in the cottage we stayed in for our honeymoon. It was near Cortona, Tuscany. Thought it was fascinating but left it where we found it.

Penguin Fiction

More Marber Grid era Penguins; this time Main Series fiction. Generally, Main Series covers incorporated illustration styles much more diverse than Crime fiction, so I'm much more selective. Paul Hogarth's illustrations were fantastic (below). The cover above is by Derek Birdsall, one of my design heroes.

A to Z

The A to Z project consists of a set of index card dividers, each carrying either a found item or a collage; sometimes both. I made two different sets.

Suze Vabé

Found pad of these in a Paris fleamarket. Groovy type.

Just two tickets

VW Beetle

This was lying on the floor of an abandoned room in my old art school. Interestingly, the illustrations were originally drawn elongated to make the car look more elegant. It's a beautifully designed piece.

Typographica

When I worked in England, I was fortunate enough to have reason to be in London fairly frequently. Whenever I was down there I'd try to spend some time browsing the bookshops on the Charing Cross Road. Every now and again I'd stumble across something really interesting. One day I found these: one of the most exciting finds ever. Better than the 3D Geometry perhaps or the facsimile copy of Tschichold's die neue typographie (yet to be bloggged). I bought all six editions being sold: 4 new series, 2 old series at the absolute bargain price of £1.50 each!

Hotel Jordan

Drink mats from that shop in Prague. More stuff to come.

Czech Book

If you take a walk over Prague's Charles Bridge and follow the main route up to the Castle, somewhere on the right hand side is an amazing shop that sells all kinds of print material, books, labels and signs.

I bought these books just for their printed cloth covers.

Admit One

Sad but true: I could hardly contain my excitement when I found these at the back of a small stationery shop in New York's Upper West Side. Never mind all that Empire State stuff, give me a shop full of paper and staplers.

National Dried Milk

This was in the attic of our new house, along with a whole pile of fascinating old photos from the 40's.

BIG in Paris

Found the letters in a junk shop in Montmartre during one of our numerous trips to Paris. The tin was from one of the city's flea markets.

The Dot and the Line

Found this "romance in lower mathematics" by Norton Juster in a second hand bookshop in Bloomsbury during a weekend in London. You might remember the cartoon, but if you're not familiar with the story, it's about a line that loves a dot but the dot thinks the line is too straight and prefers the crazy squiggle. Then the line discovers geometry and seduces the dot with beautiful constructions.

Penguin Crime

Generally speaking, the original triple stripe design is thought to be the classic Penguin but I can't help feel that once you've seen one, you've seen them all. For me, it's the Marber Grid era that rules. The geometrically constructed grid system, into which Penguin dropped strong illustrations and innovative photo montages, helped to perpetuate a powerful and consistant brand.

Helvetica: Homage to a typeface

Published by Lars Muller, just a little larger than A6 in a hard cover, the pages are french folded and printed on both sides with "found" examples of the typeface in action, hidden on the inside of the folds. My copy started to fall apart almost immediately, which gave me the perfect excuse for pulling the pages apart to see what's inside.

Within the text it is suggested that Helvetica can be used for just about anything. I saw this as a challenge and proceeded to apply it to my next 5 projects very successfully. No one caught on.

Car Booty!

Bought these at a car boot sale last Saturday. The four layer tiffin tin (£1) came from Bombay apparently and has a great "bad font" label. Who knows where the pegs (50p) came from but the pack has that badly-printed-on-pulp-board feel I like so much.

die neue Graphik

I found this in a second hand bookshop on London's Charing Cross Road. Written/compiled by Karl Gerstner and Markus Kutter, published in 1959 by Arthur Niggli, Teufen, Switzerland. The pages are falling out and the outer spine is fraying but it doesn't matter; it's packed full of super cool, timeless, modernist graphic work.

Type Tray 1

This was a project that took a while to compile. It includes the work of designers that have had an influence on my work: (in no particular order) Josef Muller-Brockmann, Tschichold, Derek Birdsall, Otl Aicher, Abrahm Games, Piet Zwart, Herbert Matter, Saul Bass, Hans Schleger, Le Corbusier, Brownjohn and Ladislav Sutnar, along with more random items like the Swiss Passport or Boccioni's Fist.

Ping!

Stapleless Stapler

Can't remember where this came from. It cleverly punches a small shape that slots into itself, fastening papers together. Don't know why they didn't catch on.

Cigar?

I love cigar boxes. Type, colour, print quality and you can keep stuff in them! Mine are full of salvaged wood and metal type, rubber stamps, match boxes and, well, stuff.

Yuan Chang Ding Shu Ji

Found this stapler in a stationers in New York's China Town. The pack is badly printed onto a pulp board.