22/12/08 - Ubu’s Almanac: Alfred Jarry and the Graphic Arts exhibition catalog and essays from the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. For a select bibliography of works (in English) related to Alfred Jarry, ‘Pataphysics and Ubu, see my flickr.
18/12/08 - Kobenstyle pot designed by Jens Quistgaard for Dansk International Designs, France (1954). Red enamel on steel. Opening diameter: 8.5″
09/12/08 - Henning Koppel teak salad bowl for Scanform, Denmark (c. 1960/70). Opening diameter: 11.5″. More images on my flickr.
29/11/08 - The Solair chair for IPL. Design by Fabiano & Panzini. Patent design d-44237. Item: no. 60323. Made in Canada (c. 1970). More photos and information on my flickr.
13/10/08 - Pot with teak handle from Henning Koppel’s Form 24 (aka. Koppel White) service (1962) for Bing & Grondahl. More info on my flickr.
24/06/08 - Select excerpts and notes from Laurent Pflughaupt’s Letter by Letter:
Introduction
“Tracing back through the history of these abstract signs, which we manipulate and decipher unconsciously on a daily basis, is often like discovering their hidden or forgotten meanings. We find that today we still use capital letters whose structures are identical to the engraved capitals that date from the beginning of this era. We also discover that the design of our printed letters is based on Carolingian lowercase letters, which were rehabilitated and perfected seven centuries later by Florentine humanists.” (9) (more…)
24/06/08 - Joe Colombo “Boby Trolley” designed for B-Line, Italy (1968) . Injection molded ABS in 3 shelf/3 drawer variation. Salvaged from Vancouver’s Downtown East Side (DTES) a little worse for wear but still functional.
18/05/08 - A selection of excerpts and principles from Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style [Part 1 of 2]:
Foreword
“But when I set myself to compile a simple list of working principles, one of the benchmarks I first thought of was William Strunk and E.B. White’s small masterpiece, The Elements of Style.” (9)
“But the underlying principles of typography are, at any rate, stable enough to weather any number of human fashions and fads.” (10)
“The essential elements of style have more to do with the goals typographers set for themselves than with the mutable eccentricities of their tools.” (ibid.)
I THE GRAND DESIGN
1.1 First Principles
1.1.1 Typography exists to honor content.
“Typography with anything to say therefore aspires to a kind of statuesque transparency. Its other traditional goal is durability: not immunity to change, but a clear superiority to fashion.” (17) (more…)