The Spirit of No.12

Source: 20six Fresh

Source: Fun For All

Win or lose a competition, you have to love the game spirit. Seattle faces San Francisco today in the NFC championship to determine the next Superbowl contender, and the fans are bat-shit crazy. I readily admit, that I'm the last football fan, but I've become quite amused with Seattle Seahawk's team spirit and embrace of the number 12, signifying a tradition of the "12th man"—the team's greatest fan. The number 12 can now be seen in every possible orientation, fontstyle, size and spacing—at the top of the Space Needle, in corn mazes, on pizzas, in the produce aisle...I even saw a homeless man sporting a 12th man flag on his backpack. Recently spotted on the gum-covered bricks of Seattle's Post Alley gum wall was the number 12 gum "collage".

Source: Chromix

Source: Darla Lorbeski on Seahawks fan page

Source: Me

Source: Idalina on KUOW FB page

Source: Tacoma News Tribune

As traditions go, Seattle cannot rightly claim the "12th man" as their own. Legend has it, they stole it from Texas A&M University where it originally began in 1922. Despite this claim—the mystery remains. In a recently unearthed 1870 photograph from the Washington State Historical Society, mountain climber's, Hazard Stevens and P.B. Van Trump, are seen holding an official 12th man flag which they carried to the summit on the first ascent of Mt. Rainier (previously known as Mt. Tacoma). They've got game.

Art Supplies for All Ages

Short of a number of colored pencils (and poor color registration), this 1933 box of Eagle brand pencils has survived reasonably well for its age of eighty years. Every time I pull it off the shelf I have to open and close it repeatedly, as I marvel at the clever package design. The box unfolds into a self-standing easel, simply by pushing down on the top half of the carton gently. At the same time the boy on the front of box is transformed from one balancing on a board and a ball, to one just kneeling on a board, while another plays leapfrog over his shoulders. This package is a great example of a successful product design which enhances the user's experience. Presented with a problem to make a self-standing easel, the designer also chose to mechanically transform the boys into a leap-frog game in order to create a value-added element of surprise. Clearly, this pencil set is for children aged 6 to 96.

This simple die-cut box of Bri-tone Jumbo Crayons also illustrates a sort of visual pun. Not only can the consumer see what they are purchasing, but the product is integral to the package design. I've seen similar designs with white chalk used for teeth, and it delights me every time. 
::Source: Christian Monotone 

The Rebus Riddle Rhymes of Mother Goose

One can't help but fall in love with Joseph Low's spirited pen work. This video presentation takes a close view at some of my favorite works of his, from the playful Mother Goose Riddle Rhymes, first published in 1953 by Harcourt, Brace & Co., NY, which he co-wrote with his wife, Ruth Low. Joseph Low's expressive line art illustrations of rebus rhymes and riddles are perfectly paired with his fine type and hand lettering compositions. The New York Times later awarded it the "Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year" in 1953, and AIGA named it one of the top "Fifty Books of the Year" in 1954. Joseph Low (1911-2007) eventually achieved a long and varied career as a successful illustrator of books, magazine and album covers. In 1960 he acquired an old Washington hand press from a defunct newspaper and began his own private press, publishing short stories and poetry under the imprint "Eden Hill Press" from Newton, Connecticut. Prized by collectors, these limited edition books reveal his diverse talents as writer, illustrator, printer, typographer, and lettering artist.

::Source: Cligne Cligne Magazine

Toys for Teaching Design

"Toys That Teach" was the official slogan of the The Embossing Company of Albany, New York, who were considered a giant in the field of manufacturing wood embossed toys, such as dominoes, checkers, wooden blocks, puzzles and building kits. The company was formed in 1870 after inventor John Wesley Hyatt (1837-1920), improved the manufacturing process of embossing and painting the wood surfaces of dominoes and checkers. Even though Hyatt held the first three patents which were instrumental to The Embossing Company's initial start-up, he was most famous for his invention of celluloid, which he discovered quite by accident. As the story goes, Hyatt became a printer's apprentice in Illinois at the age of sixteen. In the process of making the metal cuts, a bottle of collodion overturned and solidified, giving him the idea of making celluloid. He later used the celluloid to win a $10,000 prize for the competition to replace the ivory billiard ball. Over the course of his lifetime Hyatt went on to develop 236 successful patents, exceeded only by a few other inventors, including Thomas Edison.
     The Embossing Company released the "Curved Designs" boxed toy featured above in 1935, long after Hyatt's death. This toy is a bit of a mystery to me beyond this, yet it appears as if it could be a very effective educational toy for teaching the mechanics of working with typographical printers' ornaments. These individual ornament devices are color-coded which may simplify some of the organization initially, though I presume the blocks are not individually color-coded. Even so, I believe it would assist in the visual thinking process. 
     The Albany Institute of History and Art describes this set of toy cursive design blocks, as having game pieces included, but has little other description. I discovered the source of it after researching the history of a recently acquired chromolithographed label for The Embossing Company's Toy Blocks, dating back to the late 19th century. 

This 5 inch square label of a charming circus clown and pig was originally glued to a wooden box of embossed and painted wooden toy blocks, such as those seen in this later 1930 edition of this toy. My research also lead me to learn more about some of the many other wonderful toys from this company, such as the set of Illustrated Cubes (wooden blocks) circa 1900 and the Wonderwood, Play it With Flowers toy, circa 1925. 

The illustrator of this box design with the wonderful wonderwood title created with flower petals, happens to be Norman Price (1877-1951), a 1978 inductee to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame.

Color Cubes is another great teaching toy which I think could benefit a budding designer of any age. These simple and timeless toys are not just for blockheads. They are produced in four color variations, and one can create a myriad of designs within a square—again, much like miniature type ornaments. The examples below of this timeless toy originated from Sushipot.  

The Kolor Blox, also from Sushipot, is another similar learning toy, but with the addition of the half-circle shape, which invites all sorts of new options.

::Source of 1926 advertisement: Old Wood Toys

Old Designs on a New Year

A 1932 New Year's poster from Ricard Giralt Miracle (1911-1994), who was one of Spain's greatest 20th century designers. 
::Source: Paul Malon

A New Year's Wish from the office of (Ladislav) Sutnar + Hall. The last panel reads: 

The new year holds a challenge for better living. With good will, we can make use of our expanding knowledge to create new, wondrous environments and leisure for human growth. And thus, you and I can achieve the world of our dreams. 

Sutnar and Hall
circa 1948-50
::Source: Herb Lubalin Study Center  

A 1960 New Year's card from Swiss modernist designer, Walter Marti. Text at bottom reads:

Wish you a happy 1960. Walter Marti-Süess family
::Source: Herb Lubalin Study Center

Banking on A Happy New Year

A bank note celebrating 365 happy days for the receiver on New Year's Day, 1906, and issued by the Bank of Prosperity in the State of Happiness for Miss Julia Heath. The handwritten text surrounding the border reads:

Trust the whole year will be to you as happy and pleasantly spent as the ride from Montgomery to Union Springs was to me. MC 

Now this makes me happy.

::Source: Steve Frenkel's Flickrstream

This little Happy Days bank book just HAS to be from that same Bank of Prosperity in the State of Happiness! I'm banking on happy days ahead. Hope the same goes for you.                            H a p p y    2 0 1 4    t o    A l l    o f    Y o u !

::Source: eBay

Planet Type

This ain't no disco ball. No, but it could be, however I actually like to think of it as "Planet Type" orbiting the celestial Typosphere. In truth, it is an IBM Selectric type ball, spinning on its axis, or more commonly known as an "IBM golf ball", so named as it resembles one in size. The type ball was originally engineered for IBM's Selectric Typewriter in the early 1960s, and offered an interchangeable typewriter font which rotated and tilted into position before striking each letter onto the page. The first monospaced type ball fonts came in a variety of styles and two sizes: 10 or 12 characters-per-inch. These features represented an enormous innovation for IBM at that time, and a rather rudimentary introduction to the world of desktop publishing.

Source: IBM100 | Icons of Progress

This sweet little orbital type ball is actually the first of its kind I've come across. If memory serves, the IBM type balls typically came packaged in their own little clear plastic cases, ready for instant installation, so you could switch fonts with ease. I purchased this miniature "type planet" globe from a dealer who knew less about it than I, but presumed it was never something IBM actually distributed. 
     Soon after discovering the little "Planet Type" several weeks ago, my old friend and typewriter devotee, Alyson Kuhn, coincidentally shared the happy news of a recent endowment to her type ball library of fonts, given to her from typewriter "Repair Saint", Gerry Wallace, in gratitude for her many referrals. 

Not only was I impressed with the news of her kind endowment, but I had to inquire about her lovely personal stationery. She responded in kind with a second decorative envelope filled with various examples of her crested notepads which were designed by Michael Osborne, and letterpress printed onto Crane's papers by Judith Berliner of Full Circle Press. For the full background story read her earlier report on Felt & Wire.

The next handsomely engineered enclosure within this mailing, was Alyson's Alphagram (or Alysongram), with letterpress printed alphabet, vertically arranged to match the line-spacing of her typewriter. Her delightful note was typed in the lovely "Business Script", which I find quite expressive and characteristic of many mid-century script fonts in use at that time, such as Brush Script and Kaufmann. 

The last enclosure was a save-the-date promotional postcard for Ex Postal Facto 2014, an upcoming 3-day conference celebrating mail art, faux philatelics and postal modernism, to be held in San Francisco in mid-February. This could be a type ball for postal art people.