18/03/11 – Selections from the packaging and documentation of Richter’s Anchor Stone Building Set No. 8 (Anker Steinbaukasten No. 8), first issued in 1894.

Selection includes:

• Schematic for the arrangement and storage of stone blocks
• Box cover graphic featuring the goddess Architecture
• Richter’s designs for architectural models: cover and select contents of the architectural designs manual
• The practical architect: cover and select contents of the sections booklet

All images courtesy of the impressively comprehensive Collection of Anchor materials

Sources and more information
Anker Stones Germany
Collection of Anchor materials

21/02/11 – Ladislav Sutnar began designing toys while a student at the School of Applied Arts in Prague in the early 1920s. His use of simple geometric shapes and bright colours resonated with children as well as adults. His designs, though rooted in the rich heritage of Czechoslovak folk art, helped bring toy design into the 20th century.

His toys depicted modern everyday objects (cars, trains, factories) and were carefully designed to allow for mass automated or conveyor-belt production. As early as 1921, Sutnar’s toys began gaining wide acclaim, winning numerous awards and touring in international shows.

During the early 1920s he began work on a building block set called Modular City (Skládací město) for the Artěl Association. The design would win him a prize at the Toys exhibition held by the Prague Museum of Applied Arts in 1924. Between 1926 and 1929, he further developed his ideas and created more prototypes, including a building block set entitled Factory Town (Tovární město) this time winning significant recognition both in Czechoslovakia and abroad.

Through the 1930s, Sutnar looked beyond toy design and held positions in several notable applied arts and cultural organizations. He also worked on a great number of collaborative and solo projects ranging from book design and typography, to industrial and exhibition design. It was not until the early 1940s that he would once again return to his building block designs.

After traveling to the United States to help setup the Czechoslovak pavilion for the 1939 New York World’s Fair and subsequently being stranded due to the outbreak of war, he developed what would be the final iteration of his building block designs. He called it Build the Town. In an effort to see the set produced, he created designs for packaging, instructions and promotional artwork and, after unsuccessfully securing a manufacturer, himself commissioned the production of fifty sets.

Prototypes of Build the Town, as well as promotional material and working sketches, now reside in the collections of several major museums including the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, MOMA and the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague.

Modular City building block set (1922)

Building block set, 1927

Factory Town building block set 1927

Kit sketches, Build the Town building block set, 1942-3

Kit sketches, Build the Town building block set, 1942-3

Documentation: roofs, Build the Town building block set, ca. 1943

Documentation: blocks, Build the Town building block set, ca. 1943

Promotion kits, Build the Town building block set, ca. 1943

Promotion kits, Build the Town building block set, ca. 1943

Design of box, Build the Town building block set, ca. 1943

Design of box, Build the Town building block set, ca. 1943

Design of box, Build the Town building block set, ca. 1943

Prototype, Build the Town building block set, 1943

Prototype for Build the Town Building Blocks, 1940-43

Sources and more information

• Andel, J. et al. Ladislav Sutnar: Prague – New York – design in action, Prague: Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague & Argo Publishers, 2003.
• Images of Build the Town from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art//
• Build the town images courtesy of Daddytypes on Flickr//
• Build the Town Flickr set//

22/12/10 – In 1963 Alexander Girard created a series of wooden dolls for his home in Santa Fe. Girard’s keen interest in folk art is apparent in the designs which act both as decorative items and children’s toys.

Based on originals found in the Girard Estate – now held by the Vitra Design Museum – Vitra has (re)produced 16 dolls. Each is made out of solid pinewood and hand painted. All images courtesy of Vitra//.

Sources and related information
Wikipedia entry for Alexander Girard//
Girard Wing at the Museum of International Folk Art//

Many of the images included in Bill’s book come from the 1949 traveling exhibition Die Gute Form (Good Design) organized on behalf of the Swiss Werkbund. It includes everything from natural phenomena and industrial tools to sculpture and commercial goods, from architecture and urban planning to children’s toys.

From the introductory essay:
This is primarily a picture book laying no claim to completeness or balance. It illustrates things that evince a remarkable degree of perfection, or embody some idea capable of further development. In fact, it is really a kind of survey from the compiler’s personal standpoint of the evolution of form towards the middle of the Twentieth Century.

Sources and related information
Images from Max Bill’s Form on Flickr//

28/03/10 – Between 1965 and 1966, New York book publisher George Braziller published a six volume series under the title Vision + Value.

The aim of the series, “…to stimulate the circulation of ideas, to find channels of communication that interconnect various disciplines and offer us a sense of structure in our 20th century world…,” encouraged interdisciplinary cooperation and sought to bring together the day’s foremost artists, scientists and scholars.

Each volume centres on a broad basic theme with the series itself speaking to the fundamental role of vision for human insight and expression.

The series is edited by renowned artist, designer and M.I.T. professor, Gyorgy Kepes and includes essays by such eminent contributors as: Rudolf Arnheim, Saul Bass, Max Bill, Marcel Breuer, John Cage, R. Buckminster Fuller, Karl Gerstner, Johannes Itten, Marshall McLuhan, Paul Rand, and many others.

Volumes in the series:
1. Education of Vision (1965)
2. Structure in Art and in Science (1965)
3. The Nature and Art of Motion (1965)
4. Module Proportion Symmetry Rhythm (1966)
5. The Man-Made Object (1966)
6. Sign Image Symbol (1966)

Resources and more information:
Images on Flickr//
Gyorgy Kepes on Wikipedia//
George Braziller, Inc.//