Japanese Matchbook Label

I heart the sweet handlettering the artist gave to this small matchbook label for the Tokaido Co. Bookstore. They even took the care to make the kite string sail through the counter of the B. But I mostly love the innocent and naive illustration and printing quality so typical of vintage matchbook labels. Charming!
Thanks W. Creswell!

Grounds For a Makeover at Starbucks?

Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz announced this past week, yet another transformation of their mermaid logo—this time removing the Starbucks name entirely from their familiar identity. Design writer, Steven Heller writes about the public's reaction to branding changes in the Sunday New York Times and poses the question, is it necessarily good design? If the trend continues as artist, Felipe Torres has predicted in his editorial illustration for Heller's article, Starbucks may be looking at just a solid round green logo in their future. Read what others have to say about it on the Starbucks' blog.

Book of Knowledge

Die-cut Hood's Sarsaparilla promotional booklet from 1899-1900. 9.5"h. x 7.6"w. Via Richard Sheaff Ephemera.

Caractère Magazine Cover of 1950

Via Agence Eureka

Moss Bold

Via Mrs. Bird

Story of The Little Book of Big Type

This miniature type specimen book from 1961 was the result of a collaboration between Los Angeles bookseller, Glen Dawson and printer Will Cheney. It contained type specimens from Will Cheney's cases. Cheney (1907-2002) was a self-styled typesticker in LA and loved setting metal type into words. He was obsessed with typography and perhaps best known for his miniature books along with his wry sense of humor. I never had the pleasure to meet Cheney or see this little book of Big Type, but it is a very sweet gem.












































































































As a sidenote, bookseller, Glen Dawson and his brother Muir, were second-generation owners of what I believe was the best rare book shop in Los Angeles for many years—the legendary Dawson Bookshop on Larchmont Boulevard. It was a family business which began in downtown LA in 1905 by their father Ernest Dawson and they specialized in rare books on California history, Western Americana, photography and fine printing. Ernest was not only a rare book dealer, but was also an accomplished mountain climber who served as president of the Sierra Club for several years in the 1930s. His two sons, Glen and Muir (namesake of John Muir) took to the mountains as well. Glen was part of a team of climbers who did a daring first ascent of Mt. Whitney in 1931. During World War II, both he and his brother Muir served as ski and rock climbing instructors in the Tenth Mountain Division at Camp Hale, Colorado and in Italy. Together, they later took over the family bookstore and moved to various downtown locations before eventually settling into their Larchmont location in 1968. During the course of their careers, the Dawson's published nearly 400 collectible books, many of them miniatures like the one featured above by Will Cheney.

It was in the early 1980s, when I first discovered Dawson's Bookshop myself. It was probably by gravitational pull. I was a young designer and eager to soak in anything I could read about fine printing and books. Dawson's was one of my earliest introductions to a rarified collection of materials on fine printing and typography and I would spend hours browsing their bookshelves. I couldn't afford much more than an occasional piece of ephemera at the time, but the Dawson's always made me feel welcomed just to stop in and browse.

Last August, after more than a century of bookselling, Muir's son and third generation owner, Michael Dawson made the difficult decision to officially close the doors of the Larchmont store and shift his family book trade online. After years of catering to book collector's and libraries he felt it was time for a new chapter to the family business. I am sad that I am no longer able to visit their friendly shop again, but comforted knowing it still virtually exists. You can read a recent interview with Michael and review a slide show of more historic photos of the various Dawson Bookshop incarnations here. The images below are several of the first Dawson Bookshops' in Los Angeles beginning with the earliest store on Broadway taken in 1907.

Thanks to Paul Ritscher's Typesticker Flickr for Cheney's Type Book images. And special thanks to Dawson's Bookshop for all of the great memories!

Books With Latitude

Essential, structural and purposeful books. Just not for reading.
Via: There I Fixed it.

Book Scraps

This dispatch is about a mysterious title page from an early 19th C scrapbook that turned up in the Peter Harrington rare book shop in London last year. This scrapbook was typical of the kind often purchased from stationers of the day by wealthy young women. Long before the term scrapbooking became popularized as a verb, it was a fashionable activity in that day, for young people to fill them with prints and ephemera. The books were often nicely bound blank pages with the exception of a title page intended to be removed by the owner. This particular scrapbook was produced in 1829, according to the title page, and it was lovingly filled with ephemera dating from the late 1700s to the mid-1850s. What is most unusual about this book is not only having the title page still intact, but it is truly a typographic wonder. Most likely it was printed as a steel engraving and it included very tiny bits of hand-lettered text amongst all of the decorative flourishes of the designer's hand. (Be sure to click on the title page to view full enlargement.) I love how it states that it is expressly designed to divert the anxious, amuse the studious, cheer the gloomy and employ the idle. Isn't that why we have reality TV now?

Happy New Year Reading

Victorian greeting card via The Private Library.

Reading Glasses for the Horizontally Inclined

Invented in England in 1936. Via LukeTechTips.

Primitive Spellcheck Device

Father Time

Illustration by New York artist, Alexander Anderson (1775-1870), considered to be one of America's first illustrators. Anderson produced a prodigious amount of work during his lifetime and was still producing amazing works of wood engraving even into his 90s, which suggests he may have had Father Time on his side. Or maybe there was just more sand in the annual hourglass back then. Figures. Even the sands of time are eroding.

Alphabet of Quadrupeds

Children's alphabet book of quadrupeds illustrated with hand-colored lithographic prints published in Britain by Charles Blair Leighton in 1840. Leighton (1823-1855), was also a noted portrait and landscape painter in addition to being a fine lithographer. He was believed to be one of the first to conduct research into color lithography at his family printing firm, Leighton Brothers in London.

Built to Chill

Ephemeral ice typography by Vancouver BC artist, Nicole Dextras who takes words to the frozen North and exposes them to the cold elements. Over time, guess what? They melt and disappear, just like the ephemeral words vanish into thin air as we speak them. The photographs at least freeze the words in time and insulate them from the elements. Each 7' tall letter is created with wooden forms and they are transported to locations and set out on frozen rivers or lakes. Holes were augered into the 2 to 4' deep ice and water pumped into the forms. Words are left to freeze and the wooden forms are later released to reveal the fragile and frozen letters of ice. According to Dextras, "Legacy refers to the landscape as being the heritage of the inhabitants of this (Yukon) region. The gold that was found here a hundred years ago is what attracted people to come to this remote area. Now the inherited legacy of this pristine landscape is theirs to protect and pass on." Other installations include smaller frozen words with tints of color which fade with time. You can see a video of one of Dextra's icy word installations here and view photos of her Frozen Typography here.

Victorian Idiot Guides

Before the Complete Idiot's Guides there was Hill's Manual of Social and Business Forms, Gaskell's Compendium of Forms, and The Peale Home Library of Useful Knowledge. They were each Victorian etiquette and reference books on everything from penmanship, sign painting, letter writing, accounting and to social behavior at dinner parties. These books were large, heavy and formidable. They looked like they were designed by trade printers who had no restraint when it came to adding decorative border treatments or headers. It became a competition amongst these publishers to see who could produce the most ornate and detailed compendium for the wealthy class in the late 1800s. They were printed on cheap paper with marbled endpapers and leather bindings which are now turning to dust on my bookshelves. You can preview an entire edition of the The Hill's Manual at Internet Archive. And if you are struggling with how to write those letters of thanks for that special Christmas sweater or a nice New Year's note, this might be a good place to start.

A Winter Love Story

I somehow missed this fuzzy flocked poster when it first premiered over at FPO last month. Still worth repeating. It was designed by Mette Hornung Rankin of Bureau of Betterment as a self-promotion. She came up with an idea of producing a nordic knitted story about a love-struck moose which evolved into this lovely poster designed in Illustrator. It was flocked with white and glitter flocking by Great Lakes Flocking. You can read more about her production process here and posters can be purchased the Bureau of Betterment Shop.