Feliz Cinco de Mayo

At the turn of the 20th century, the Maucci Brothers, a Spanish publisher, commissioned Mexico's most influential printmaker, José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) to illustrate a new series of stories on the history of Mexico for young people. These booklets called the Biblioteca del Niño Mexicano, or Mexican Children's Library, are thought to be the only chromolithographs that Posada created throughout is ambitious career. The entire series of 85 chapbooks, each with an illustrated cover by Posada, tell the story of Mexico's struggle for independence against colonial injustice. Each is sixteen pages and measures 4.75 x 3.25". The El Conco de Mayo cover above, celebrates the Mexican army's victory over French forces in the 1862 Battle of Puebla, 151 years ago today. May 5th is also a day to celebrate Mexican heritage and culture and a fitting opportunity to look at more of the great Jose Posada's remarkable illustration, printmaking and stunning hand lettering work. The Jean Charlot Collection at the University of Hawaii Library is an excellent place to start. Images shown here are from Southern Methodist University which also has a very nice collection of these Posada booklets and more.

Respects to The Letter Man

:: Video from Kadambari Gladding
The design community lost another legend last week; Samoan-born, and New Zealand type designer Joseph Churchward on April 26th. He will long be remembered as one of the pioneers of hand-rendered type, and may well have the distinction of the most prolific type designer of all. Churchward left us with more indelible marks on this world than anyone. Over a year ago, I think it was at least 654 typefaces he designed since he first drew letters in the sand as a young child in Samoa. All of them were hand-lettered without the aid of the computer and each of them began with the name "Churchward".

In 2009, fellow New Zealand designer David Bennewith designed an account of Churchward's life and work in a 272 page book, Churchward International Typefaces. Published by Cloud, it went on to receive numerous accolades and awards. The small edition has long since sold out, but a video of it can be seen at Colophon.
::Image above from Churchward Intrntnl Typefaces 
  

I'm very grateful to reader Sean Duffell to bringing the news of Joseph Churchward's passing to my attention today. Respects are long past due.    
:: Image above of Churchward Maori font, and on left are from David Bennewith's book on Churchward, via 
It's Nice That.      

The Birth of Printed Fruit Wrappers in the US

In 1895, the Jersey City Printing Company issued this self-promotion sample book to advertise their Fair and Square printed fruit wrappers. It contained a stamped envelope, a price list, a letter discussing the successes of using their attractive printed fruit wrappers for marketing peaches, and sixteen square sample fruit wrappers printed one and two colors on a tissue-like paper. This remarkably preserved printing sample with the beautiful cover you see above, is an incredible find belonging to fruit wrapper collector Mark Wickens. (The large fly next to the fruit makes me laugh.) Wickens claims that fruit growers have been using printed wrappers since the mid-1880s and the growing number of printed designs produced since that time are estimated to be between 300,000 to 500,000 from at least 65 countries.

The Jersey City Printing Company was established in 1884, to print newspapers. By the early 1890s, they rebranded themselves as "Manufacturers of Fair and Square printed fruit wrappers". They offered one and two colors of ink, printed on at least eight colors of paper, but give no mention about printing custom designs. I presume they must have only offered these varied styles and had a lettering artist on staff in order to add the growers brand name in the illustration. 

     Fruit wrappers printed in New Jersey seem like a curious business plan in hindsight, as this wasn't exactly the fruit-growing belt of the nation. But they certainly presented a professional spin on their work at that time. Judging from the copy written on the inside front cover (above), printed wrappers must have been a fairly competitive business in the late 19th century. Evidently there were many unscrupulous printers who were shorting their customers of wrappers purchased in quantity. Their official tag line "Fair and Square" must have been a successful marketing tool as it appears it was also added on their building as you can see from this illustration printed on the back cover below. 

           

Full credit for this printed fruit wrapper sample goes out to Mark Wickens for presenting this on his site. If you can wade through the pop-up ads there, you can also find the 2002 book he authored on the topic of printed fruit wrappers, titled Extra Fancy.

Design Wrap

The history of fruit wrappers dovetails nicely with the early practice of graphic design long before this term was ever coined. The practice of wrapping fruit with tissue papers "began as a means of controlling the spread of fungal decay" according to Maurice Rickards in his book Encyclopedia of Ephemera. They were originally introduced for wrapping citrus fruits like oranges and lemons in the late 19th century, but were later adopted for apricots, tomatoes and other produce. Soon growers discovered that these thin square paper wrappers could be effective marketing tools when printed with their identification. A typical wrapper would include the growers name, the brand name, the country of origin and an illustration. They were normally printed in three to five colors on large rotary presses with rubber plates; accounting for imprecise registration and loss of detail, similar to the printing found on old matchbooks. This naive printing style might have been considered less desirable to some; particularly in the wake of the artistic printing movement which was also ongoing in the late 19th century. However their attraction must have appealed to many people at that time, or their collections would never have survived this long. This particularly nice collection happens to belong to Didier and Gabriel, who are cousins and passionate collectors from France. They began collecting the citrus wrappers in 2006 and have accumulated nearly 15000 already. Their site Legufrulabelofolie is great fun and updated frequently, but proceed with caution. I would include all of their wrappers here if I could.

  

Lifetimes of Achievement

The American Institute of Graphic Arts announced eight lifetime achievement in design awards earlier this year. The prestigious awards went out to John Bielenberg, William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand, Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones, Stefan Sagmeister, Lucille Tenazas, and Wolfgang Weingart. As part of the presentation of the 2013 AIGA Medal, the AIGA commissioned short videos about each of the winners. It is difficult to single out any of these winners, so take a look at all the other videos here. (Spoiler alert: Sagmeister arranges all of his books by color on the shelf.) 

From the AIGA: 
The medal of the AIGA, the most distinguished in the field, is awarded to individuals in recognition of their exceptional achievements, services or other contributions to the field of graphic design and visual communication. The contribution may be in the practice of graphic design, teaching, writing or leadership of the profession. ... Individuals who are honored may work in any country, but the contribution for which they are honored should have had a significant impact on the practice of graphic design in the United States.

Killer B's

It's Spring and time to bring out some of my favorite killer B's that have been hibernating in my archives for too long. The first B was illustrated by stamp engraver Martin Mörck for the Bucamel wine label. Designed by Mucho of Barcelona for Bodega Tierras de Orgaz. 

An 8x10" pen illustration of a rustic B found on Etsy. Signed "Coyne" 1975, and just one letter of an entire rustic alphabet set featured there last year. 

B Signage
::From Brown Dress with White Dots. No credits listed.

Specimen de Caracteres, circa 1920.

::From Ampersanden's Flickrstream 

U&lc magazine, Volume 20, No.2, 1993. Design credits thank Woody Pirtle, John Klotnia and Ivette Montes de Oca of Pentagram Design for their contributions to this issue, but no specific mention of the cover designer. This issue has many articles about book collecting, book jacket design, 20th century type specimen books, and newly released childrens' books.

::Image via Berlintypes Flickrstream

Circus matchbox label from Russia. 

Doh! I've just been informed this B is actually a cyrillic killer V. Regardless, it delights me just the same.

::via 68-east design

Greeting card and screenprinted poster by Anthony Oram.

Honeycomb B from Jessica Hische's Daily Drop Cap killer promotion.

B in lights by Jeff Rogers. 

Illustration on book cover by Paul Thurby. Available as a print here.

A rustic pastoral B to celebrate Spring. I can almost see the bees humming.

::via Wasianed's flickrstream

B. Blumenthal & Company button gauge from the Button Art Museum.