Monograph for Czech artist and designer, Karel Teige (1900-1951): Karel Teige a typographie: Asymetricka harmonie (2009) by Karel Srp, Polana Bregantova and Lenka Bydzovska. Text in Czech. More pics//
18/05/09 - Excerpts from Jost Hochuli’s Detail in Typography: Letters, letterspacing, words, wordspacing, lines, linespacing, columns (2008): (more…)
02/05/09 - Lambretta LD 150 scooter built by Innocenti in Milan circa 1954-56. (more…)
26/04/09 - Excerpts from Tenugui, Pie Books (2007), Japan. Tenugui are traditional Japanese cotton hand-towels featuring a wide range of designs and motifs. (more…)
14/04/09 - Formal typographic study of the square with 3×3 grid and variations in ratio/proportion and orientation. (more…)
11/04/09 - “The luxurious Boeing 747 is the world’s largest commercial passenger aircraft. Wing span, 195.7 ft. (59.6 meters). Length 231.3 ft. (70.5 meters). Fuel capacity 42.481 imp. gals (192,500 ltrs). Max. take-off weight, 775, 000 lbs. (351.540 kgms.) Cruising speed, 560 mph (900 kmh). The 747s are part of CP Air’s modern fleet of orange jets serving five continents.” (more…)
08/04/09 - “This is the main entrance to the Exhibition and the terminus of the mass transit. Buildings on the extensive deck are restaurants, boutiques and reception rooms.”
Official post card / Les Messageries de Press Benjamin Ltee / Benjamin News Co., Ltd., Montreal 3, Canada / Plastichrome of Canada / ©1963 (more…)
01/04/09 - Excerpts from Bruno Munari’s Design as Art first published in 1966. Images on flickr//
Preface to the English Edition
They [artists] have realized that at the present time subjective values are losing their importance in favour of objective values that can be understood by a great number of people.
And if the aim is to mass-produce objects for sale to a wide public at low price, then it becomes a problem of method and design. The artist has to regain the modesty he had when art was just a trade, and instead of despising the very public he is trying to interest he must discover its needs and make contact with it again. This is the reason why the traditional artist is being transformed into the designer, and as I myself have undergone this transformation in the course of my working career I can say that this book of mine is also a kind of diary in which I try to see the why and wherefore of this metamorphosis. (13) (more…)
24/03/09 - Excerpts from Massimo Vignelli’s The Vignelli Canon (2008):
This little book reveals our guidelines - those set by ourselves for ourselves. (p. 6)
Creativity needs the support of knowledge to be able to perform at its best. (ibid.)
It is not the formula that prevents good design from happening but lack of knowledge of the complexity of the Design profession. (ibid.) (more…)
24/02/09 - Industrial British Columbia 1946: Canada’s magnificent new industrial empire, geared to efficient high quality production, backed by an adequate pool of skilled labor promotional catalogue. Designed and lithographed by The Sun Publishing Company Limited, Vancouver, B. C. Copyright May 15, 1947. Spiral bound 14″ x 10″ with 46 pages. More images// or see it on the Canadian Design Resource (CDR)// (more…)
18/02/09 - Excerpts from Armin Hofmann’s Graphic Design Manual: Principles and Practice published in 1965.
Introduction
“What is lacking is a creative focus which would be the source of every new insight into the nature of art and would foster every kind of talent.” (37)
“It is only in in drawing, which occupies an isolated and underprivileged position in the curriculum, that thinking, inventing, representing, transposing and abstracting can be correlated.” (ibid.)
“It is a fairly general assumption that art training is autonomous and subject only to its own laws. It is precisely this error which has induced me to preface my consideration of the problems of art education with some thoughts on education in general with a view to showing the close interdependence of the various aims of education.” (ibid.) (more…)
29/01/09 - PIE books, Japan: Cesky Filumenisticky Design (2005) and Japanese Matchbox Label Collection 1920s-40s (2004). Text in Japanese. See maraid’s matchbox labels on flickr.
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 images//
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…)