Timely Tutoring in Topics, Tastes and Trends of Typography from Bradbury Thompson

Westvaco Inspirations for Printers may be one of the most influential and highly prized series of paper promotions ever produced in the 20th century. The leaders at Westvaco, formerly named the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, believed their paper promotions should be an educational living record of advertising design and commercial art. What they often produced was something so entirely modern, that many issues still look contemporary seven decades later. Bradbury Thompson (1911-1995) was a key figure in their success. Beginning in 1939, he was responsible for the design and art direction of over sixty of the Westvaco Inspirations issues. Undaunted by minimal resources and budgets, he sourced out historic, public domain images and combined them with modernist effects. He relied on classic typography for the most part, but once went so far as to design a conceptual version of an U&lc alphabet he called Alphabet 26 which premiered in Westavaco Insprirations No. 180 in 1950. One of Thompsons' seldom seen art direction triumphs, issue No.129, is available here. This 16 page issue from 1941 is "A Primer of Typography, Including Timely Tutoring in Topics, Tastes and Trends." Thompson personally designed the front, back and 1st page spread. Other contributors were Charles Sheeler and Stow Wengenroth.

Selling 20th Century Design

A 1959 Czechoslovak How to Paint brochure designed in a very modern tone by an anonymous designer. 
Source: 108 Buddhas

Brochure of Képes Könyv design examples by Hungarian designer, Johann Tábor. Published in a 1930 issue of Gebrauschsgraphik.
Source: From the collection of David Levine.

The Chamber of Commerce of Czechoslovokia published this 1954 foreign trade guide in English. It was designed by Milan Hegar. 
Source: 108 Buddhas

A colorful Dutch brochure designed by Willem Hendrik Tweehuysen (1921-1981), for De Gouden Spin. Undated, but most likely from the 1960s. The text written in english playfully becomes part of the woven fabric. This is part of a much larger collection of Tweehuysen's 1950s and 60s design work which will be at auction on May 13th, 2014. 
Source: Burgersdijk & Niermans

These two cover designs from the early 1930s, advertising BMW Motorcycles, each sport a spare Bauhaus style of design and typography typical of this era. More on "selling speed" and the art of motorcycle marketing can be found at The Vintagent. It's a great read.  

Art of the Flour Sack

This collection of thirteen handsomely designed flour sack prints are from the State Library of New South Wales in Australia. They were screenprinted onto separate sheets, possibly to be used as test prints prior to printing them onto the paper bags. The charmingly simple lettering is all accomplished by hand. Simply charming! 

The Magic Designer AKA Hoot-Nanny

If only I had known it was so easy. It's just magic.
::From Enso-on's brilliant flickrstream, via Kate and Rick's yard sale.

iThank You Steve Jobs

Adapted from the interactive visual of Shan Carter at the New York Times.

No one has been more influential to the design and technology industry than Steve Jobs. A remarkable 313 patents are listed with his name as principle inventor, designer, or collaborator. His patent list includes everything from iPod lanyards, monitors, mice, laptops, keyboards and packaging, to the beautiful glass staircase that graces some of the Apple stores. Miguel Helft reports on these achievements in a New York Times article today and on Job's influence and leadership of Apple since its inception in 1976. Worth viewing, is Shan Carter's interactive feature for the article, which displays many of Jobs' impressive patent holdings. Another great link takes you to an interactive timeline by Danielle Belopotosky and Sam Gorbart featuring Apples' benchmark achievements during Job's tenure.
      Under Steve Job's leadership, Apple has had a profound influence on the design and publishing industry. Perhaps one of his most important contributions has been the elevation of typography into our daily language. Since the inception of the first Mac, everyone has learned the difference between a serif and sans serif, and they all have opinions about their likes and dislikes of fonts. This has not necessarily improved overall typography standards, but it certainly has invited more people into the typebar for conversation.
       Thinking differently has been Job's approach to everything. Foremost, it was about the user's experience—about how we work and play. (This was evident with the introduction of the first Mac in 1984, when it greeted you with a cheerful Hello). He has been one of the most legendary successful chief executives in corporate history (just 2 weeks ago, Apple surpassed Exxon as the stock market's largest company), and his visionary contributions have changed the way we listen to music and communicate with words and images. He has given us the tools to become a nation of storytellers, but his personal story remains one of the most inspiring. Though he is officially stepping down from his role as CEO, this is not his fade-out departure into the sunset. He intends to remain involved as chairman of Apple's board, which leaves him more time to concentrate on his personal health challenges. I wish him the greatest success in the next chapter to his remarkably different story.  

Should I Work for Free?

Jessica Hische provides her Work for Free chart for free. Get yours here. Available for Google translation too.

Got Game?

One of the most trying tasks as a young designer is to develop a look and name for your own design services. Do you use your own name or make up an identity? Do you spell it in all caps or lower case or some composite of each? Or do you just use a glyph like Prince or whatever-his-name-is-now? Then you have to consider; is the domain name available? That done – what about a trademark search? Who knew this would be so much work? And this is before you even sit down to do any design work.

This is your singular moment to express your design skills in just one simple business card. Not to put too sharp a point on it, but it IS the DNA of your entire design career. It speaks volumes about you and your work. If you cannot simply express what it is you do well, why would anyone else trust you can do it for their business? The key is learning to edit your own work. With experience comes more confidence to discard those ideas that aren't working. So you have to learn to discern the difference between the good and the great. Learn to abandon your better ideas in order to arrive at the very best solution. Design is work and requires perseverance and determination. And those that learn how to reject and revise early on, will likely excel. In the words of Don Draper on Mad Men, "I want you to show me more work I can reject!".

The Design Pricing Formula

David Airey, designer and design author from Edinburgh, offers up this pricing formula and explains why one size doesn't fit all.

Saul Bass On Making Money vs Quality

The Write Stuff

Time to get down to business this quarter and begin some letter writing of the other kind. From letterforms to form letters...and email ettiquette. L8R