Striking Cover Designs

Yes indeed, YOU can earn big money in graphic design by studying the back of a matchbook cover! Not just any cover however. Learn by observing and exploring some of the stylized cover designs of the earlier matchbooks, prior to the 1970s. For students of illustration, design and typography, considerable knowledge can be gained from the artistry of the many unsung matchbook design heroes.
     By the time matchbook advertising reached its golden age in the 1940s and 50s—which paralleled the rise of smoking—it had become a merchandising phenomenon for business. Matchbooks were cheap and ubiquitous. Better yet, they were free to consumers. Never in the history of advertising, had such a small ephemeral artifact been so wildly successful. Matchbook companies everywhere began to offer services of in-house art departments to create custom designs and blanks for imprinting company names, and highly skilled lettering artists and illustrators worked tirelessly under demanding deadlines to turn out their small printed cardboard creations.
   

Part of the charm which many of the early matchbook covers evoke is, in all fairness, due to the nature of the flexographic printing process. Flexo, as it is sometimes called, is a relief process using flexible printing plates, and it was generally used for packaging, tags, and folding cartons in addition to printing matchbook covers. By the very nature of the flexible printing plate, there is some slight distortion and considerable ink spread, so details can infill or get entirely lost. This slight imperfection has become a legacy of the matchbook cover's appeal. 
     The typographic matchbook covers below may not be the most distinguished examples of lettering design in their class, but their peculiarities should be recognized in the annals of some advertising museum I suggest. All of these striking covers and more can be found at Flaming Turkey Wings Flickrstream. Thank you for not smoking!

The 3 Rs of Design School

Reading, 'Riting and aRt. Milton Glaser draws and lectures about learning. Drawing is essential.

Making Copies

This odd little book structure may resemble an artist book, but it's actually a very rare Victorian portable copier device made by Sampson Mordan & Co. in England, and is designed to make a copy of a handwritten letter with the application of pressure, ink, paper and water. Typically referred to as a copying press, they were often found in homes and offices in the second half of the 19th century before the rise of the typewriter. I must have blinked when this rare portable copier press sold on eBay recently, and I hope it found a happy home/office. 
     Sampson Mordan (1790-1843), the maker of this copier book, was actually a British silversmith and co-inventer of the first patented propelling mechanical pencil in 1822. Mordan later formed a partnership with Gabriel Riddle, an established stationer, and together they sold silver mechanical pencils resembling figural objects, animals, and other novelty shapes, which were (and still are) highly prized. In addition to their wildly successful pencils, they manufactured inkstands, letter balances, cedar pencils patent locks, fire proof cash boxes, deed boxes, seal presses, and these unusual leather bound portable copying presses.

A copy was made by dampening a single sheet of tissue-like paper and placing it on a newly inked original. After bookending each with a sheet of oiled paper to prevent further ink penetration, the moist tissue paper could easily absorb the ink from the freshly written original once pressure was applied. The newly made copy was thin enough to be read from both sides and it could then be sandwiched between blotter paper for drying. A successful copy was directly dependent upon the amount of time and pressure applied to each impression, and how freshly inked the original had been. Office Museum, the definitive site on antique office equipment, claims "the quality of the copies made on letter copying presses was limited by the properties of the available copying inks." The first aniline dye was invented in 1856, which roughly coincided with the earliest importation of thin papers from Japan, and this set the stage for the rise of bound letter books for safekeeping of documents.   

Making multiples of any business documents and letters in the 19th century was a persistent challenge, but this began to change after the introduction of the typewriter and the improvement of greaseless carbon paper around the 1880s. Up until this period, copying presses of all shapes, sizes and styles were being developed. This advertisement for a foot lever press from a London dealer appeared in 1886. 
Source: British Library  

More familiar to bookbinders is the heavy iron screw press which was also used for copying office documents in the 19th century, using the same principles of water, ink and pressure. Less portable maybe, but far more industrial strength.
Source: Pinterest

Then again, this more portable iron book press which stands about 3.5 inches tall and weighing just over one pound, must have been dreamed up by some really small business owner, bent on usability. 
Source: Letterology Archives 

Signs of Life Elsewhere

On a recent trip to Portand, this colorful image of the giant gothic P smacked my visual cortex. This extraordinary endeavor is an enormous replica of the Portland Art Museum logo made entirely from bicycle helmets. It is hanging above their entrance in observance of the show Cyclepedia, an exhibition of iconic bicycle design. The exhibit inside was pretty dang fun to see, though difficult to photograph. Probably my favorite was the Capo Elite "Eis", a remarkable hybrid bike and ice skate design developed in 1930 by Otto and Walter Cap, complete with an ice skate blade in front and a studded tire in the rear.

The cycle collection is from more than 200 functioning bicycles belonging to Michael Embacher, an architect in Vienna. Unfortunately it just closed on September 8th, however you can learn more about Embacher's collection here, and see many of the bicycles here or pick up the book or iPad app of Cyclepedia available in many languages. And here is the iPad trailer for Cyclepedia:

Bike of the Week

During my visit, the bike(s) of the week feature had several handbuilt cycles from local artist, Joseph Ahearne of Ahearne Cycles. He custom bulids steel bikes with love and fury, according to his tagline, but I would amend that with good humor as well. My favorite was the touring bike with the spork and flask attached. All sparkling shiny steel and picnic-ready. Simply remarkable work!

Ahearne's Flickr pages are chock full of more bicycle goodness. I love his mash-up of truck cycles which you can see pedaling all over Portland.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation 1.0

This is The Museum of Printing in North Andover, Massachusetts, about an hour's drive North of Boston. It is home to one of the largest and most eclectic printing and typesetting collections in the country. First established in 1978, it now sits in a former textile museum on the North Andover Common, and is managed by an entirely volunteer organization. I was off to visit the Museum while on a nearby family visit in early July, and had the good fortune to meet up there with my new friend Sara from Western Mass. Meeting at the Museum seemed like a fitting idea, since we both were keen on printing technology and could find refuge from the heat inside. Sara first introduced herself to me earlier this year after discovering Letterology, and we have kept up a lively correspondence over many months discussing our mutual interests.

Photo source: North Andover Patch 

We were quickly introduced to our gracious tour guide, Frank Romano, at the door, and he gave us a most extensive tour of the press room, type composition room and the museum's library. Romano, a professor emeritus from the Rochester Institute of Technology, is a fountain of knowledge on the history of printing and type, after having spent most of his career in the industry. Here he shows us the press cylinder used to print the New York Time's edition of the first moon walk in 1969. Below is an 1882 Hoe rotary flatbed newspaper press that printed the Hingham Gazette for 80 years. The Hoe press is believed to be the first American press to use a steam motor and it revolutionized the newspaper printing industry because of it's speed.  

Photo source: Laurie Swope for The Boston Globe

The very first Linotype machine invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1885. This machine was the first to produce Lines-o-type automatically by keyboard operation. It ushered in machine typesetting compostion and revolutionized book and newspaper production. 

Allison (I didn't get her last name), is a 15 year-old volunteer at the Museum, and she's seen working here on a calendar she's locking up on a Vandercook. When first introduced to printing, her enthusiasm led to building a working model of a wooden press with her father. Below are examples of several litho stones, an early Photon phototypesetting keyboard, and a glimpse into some of the Museums' stacks.

This gentleman joined our tour in the library and happily discovered a toy press identical to the first press he had as a child. 
     The Museum of Printing is home to about 30 presses on site, with even more equipment stored in a Boston warehouse. The collection includes one of the most complete inventories of hot and cold type composition in the country, including Linotype, Monotype, metal and wood type, composing typewriters, and photo typesetters. They also have the entire Mergenthaler Font Library containing about 300,000 letter drawings and intricate plans for the manufacturing matrices of Linotype machines, in 800 different languages. The Museum is open on Saturdays only, from 10am to 4pm. On exhibit in their gallery through end of December is a beautiful show of work by wood engraver Mark T. Fowler. The non-profit Museum is a friendly and welcome atmosphere and holds a number of special events throughout the year, including their annual Father's Day Printing Arts Fair and periodic type sales. Stop by for their next sale on Saturday, September 14th, and again on November 30th if you are in the hood. Find out more about events, visiting and membership information here. 
::Thank you to Sara Krohn and Pamela Harer for their contributions to this post!

Touch Typing Goes Hollywood

A recent visit to Portland Oregon, turned up this 1961 boxed set from Smith Corona which includes an instruction booklet and five recordings for a crash course in touch typing. The most visually interesting part of this package is the sixties display type on the front cover with the variable size letters and the elongated horizontal arms and stems. This lettering style can be directly traced to the influential work of Saul Bass (1920-1996) and his groundbreaking 1955 film poster for The Man With the Golden Arm. According to former Saul Bass & Associates production artist, Jill Bell, the credits for the hand-lettering of the logo go out to Harold Adler (1912-2002), with likely contributions by lettering artist Maury Nemoy (1912-1984). The version of this sixties lettering style seen above appears to be a commercially produced font, but I love it all the same.