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No sooner had Yanek emailed me a link to his Stencil Flickr set than I'd swiped half of them for this weeks FTF. I haven't even asked him if that's OK. I'll do that next.
If you've got anything you'd like to contribute, send it here.
Actually, if you've sent anything and I haven't used it, my apologies - I will, just dead busy right now.
Last October Ben from British Letterpress sent me a whole pile of stuff. Lots of letterpressed bits and pieces. It was really nice of him; really interesting things, including that British Rail booklet I blogged. It was lovely. So lovely, since then I've sought out other examples from the same era. Here's another I've dug up.
There's lots to like: Clarendon, specifically those lowercase headings; the cover grid (bloody hell, I've used that technique just a few weeks ago for one of our clients). And the great photography, with a number of stand-out images; dare I suggest, some Rodchenko-esque? While others being just superb snap-shots of life back then, like that one of the station restaurant (and that sad, Brief Encounter, couple at the table).
If I read between the second David's lines correctly, he's spotted that Ace Jet's on a go-slow at the moment. It's the usual, heavy workload story; blog fodder is piling up. In the meantime, enjoy someone else's blogetry.
A seriously dodgy cover I know but inside Volume 54 there's some special stuff, like that astounding Karl Gerstner designed ad. More on Flickr.
Inspired by the mighty Müller-Brockmann, Antonio from AisleOne has designed and had screen printed a new poster. You can buy yours here.
The god-like genius of Alan Kitching is coming to Belfast. Belfast is ace! I can't believe it really; fucking exciting! Here are the details:
/Designer/Typographer/
/Alan Kitching Lecture /
/University of Ulster Belfast Campus/York Street/
/Thursday 6 March 6.30pm/Admission Free/
/Limited places by reservation/
Alan Kitching RDI AGI HonFRCA is one of the world’s foremost practitioners of letterpress typographic design and printmaking. At age 15, Alan became an apprentice compositor with a letterpress printer in his native Darlington in the north of England. After a subsequent successful career in conventional and corporate graphic design, he decided to return to his letterpress roots and in 1989 he established The Typography Workshop in London. He is renowned for his expressive use of wood and metal letterforms in creating visuals for commissions and limited edition prints. He lives and works with designer, writer and partner Celia Stothard at The Typography Workshop in Kennington, south London.
This is a rare opportunity to hear Alan discuss his work, coinciding with the the last day of the large Font Shop International FiFFteen exhibition at the University's Belfast Campus.
Places are limited so reservation is recommended.
Contact Kelly Gordon
028 9026 7285
In the 1967 Penrose Annual I posted last week there's an article by Bernard Orna on the "Growing scope of stamp design" illustrated by examples from around the world. But what struck me was how great the British examples were. Amongst the ones used for the article were the International Telecommunication Union stamps below, designed by Andrew Restall. Very cool.
So I went digging around to see what else I had and found some superb examples, like that absolutely beautiful, David Gentleman designed, Concorde stamp. He also designed those National Productivity Year stamps.
Anyway, I've started another Flickr set. There's not much there right now but I'll be adding to it over the coming months.
It's probably going to be a bit of a slow burner but I've started a Reference Material collection on Flickr, kicking off with my dilapidated copy of die neue Graphik. The book's being gradually falling apart since I bought it and, to be honest, Sunday's photo session hasn't helped but hopefully now, I can leave it safely on the shelf.
Well, I'd guess it took me just about 2 months to get these together. One of the things that's great about vintage Penguins is that there are numerous mini series. Sometimes they're books by a particular author; if you've got Penguin by Design there's lots of examples shown, like the fantastic Derek Birdsall designed set for John Updike's books.
Penguin Modern Poets 1-7 make a really great set. Number eight, unfortunately signals a slight change of direction and I can only guess at why. In fact, number eight, to me at least, looks like it might have originally followed the principles of the previous seven quite precisely but some force came into play that initated a shift. Certainly, the editions that followed went off on a distinct tangent, design-wise. Perhaps the market demanded greater diversity. Whatever the reason I can't help feel it was a shame.
Nicklas has kindly lent me his bumper box of maps etc. There's lots of interesting things inside.
A major highlight being this 1965 map of New York and specifically the 1964/65 World's Fair. Published by Rand McNally & Company and sponsored by Texaco.
John from I Love Typography has asked for a scan of that Linotype illustration so I thought perhaps others might be interested in a closer look at that and, for that matter, the "Marvels of the Monotype".
I've uploaded larger than usual files – just click to scrutinize.
I bought this crumbling old volume for one whole pound. Attracted to its title, I imagined it would tell me everything I needed to know. Unfortunately, all it's told me so far is how to build a locomotive, why the children of Topsy-Turvy Land are all so bleedin' pleased and how to train my own kids for that "harder work ahead".
Perhaps not as immediately useful as I'd hoped, it has its moments nevertheless; there's a fine section on letterpress for example. It turned out that this was just volume five of, I'd guess, around ten but a pound for a tenth of the world's knowledge isn't bad value for money, according to my calculations.
Carolyn Sewell very kindly sent me a link to her excellent Flickr sets along with permission to pilfer whatever I wanted. She's got some great ghost signs.
Meanwhile, Todd's been to Panama and found some fantastic stuff.
Very big thanks to Carolyn and Todd for sharing. If you'd like to, email me here.
And this is only the Old Series!
David Sames has an amazing (damn him), enviable collection of print/type/ephemera (including many, many more Penrose Annuals than I have). But for me, there are few things more interesting than Typographica (not to be confused with the very excellent Type blog of the same name, for those unfamilier, of course) and it's reasonably accessible thanks to Rick Poyner's 2001 (reprinted 2005) Anthology. That said, there's no substitute for the real thing is there?
To complete David's set he's just missing Issue 6. If anyone's got one spare he'd be happy to trade with any of the following: OS 1, 4, 5, 10, 15/NS 9, 10, 12, 14, 15. Leave a comment and I'll pass on your details.
(Yes, he's got spares! Double damn him!)
Just bought this on ebay, reasonable price. Penrose Annuals are brilliant, rich in content: from the mundane technicalities of press technology to the cutting-edge of typographic development. I've been collecting them (very, very slowly) since I started working. I've got eight, there's lots more to get but I thought it would be good to get some highlights online.
They're actually not that difficult to get hold of, although I expect there's rarities.
For a better insight, read Steve Hare's article for Eye
And more pics on Flickr.
I'm not being big about this, my entry has had plenty of votes. There's some really good entries now but too many stinkers in the crucial top 20.