Quality Match Label Design

This 1950s Japanese matchbox label...or Lapel, is one of my all-time favorite finds. With the naive outline lettering, the simplistic illustration of a blue-haired woman, and slack color registration—design services might easily be called into question. However, with the word QUALITY, randomly placed and handwritten in italic caps, we can rest assured that all of our match lapel needs will be met. Spellchecking must cost extra.
:: From the Letterology Archives.

No Match for Reading Books

Proof positive from Dept. B: people still read books of all kinds. 
::From Inferno55's Flickrstream.

Words With Friends in 19th C England

These two Victorian word wheels, c.1870, found in a Ken Spelman Rare Books catalog from August 2010, are described as "two 10-inch star-shaped cut-outs, each handwritten (on both sides) with a wide variety of slogans relating to love and fortune". The strings would have been held and spun in some fashion, creating a fortune-telling game most likely. No doubt a popular pastime in Victorian times, but certainly no match for Words With Friends. 

A Topographic Type Town

Fascinating. Some people look at cold metal type and see words to print on paper. New York artist Hong Seon Jang looks at metal type and sees a miniature cityscape. Labyrinth, a current exhibition of Jang's installations is on view at the David B Gallery in Denver through June 16th. Among his contemporary works on display, Type City is Jang's sprawling metalopolis seaport made of tall lead type buildings and boulevards bisecting the city into a topographic and typographic landscape. With the patience of a skilled hand typesetter, he set the tall buildings of metal type upright so they are capped with individual letters. Long lead piers stretch out to the sea, and empty city blocks and sidewalks of spacing material frame the city center. Jang enjoys manipulating ordinary materials in order to create new contexts, and I'm quite happy to momentarily suspend my beliefs and go along for a ride to Type City with him. Next stop: Baskerville... 
::A hat tip to my good friend Bonnie for bringing Hong Seon Jang's exhibit to my attention. Click on images for greater detail.

Maurice Sendak on Life, Death, Love, Friendship and the Importance of Work

Thank You Mr. Sendak! 

      Author, illustrator, philosopher and adorable curmudgeon with a brilliant imagination. From "Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak" a documentary by Spike Jonze and Lance Bangs. 

      AND...If you have not yet seen the two-part Stephen Colbert interview of Maurice Sendak, drop everything and do so now. It is some of the best television ever! Part One and Part Two. For more Maurice, listen to his Terry Gross interviews on Fresh Air... What a wonderful man he was.

A Signmaker's Textbook

Der Praktische Schildermaler (The Practical Signmaker), Series 2, by Hans J. Jedlitschka, 1910, printed by Friedrich Wolfrum and Co., of Vienna and Leipzig. This volume is a portfolio of 32 color lithographed plates which are particularly decorative examples of advertising signs from stationery, floral shops, craftsman, photo studios, restaurants and more. I have been unable to track down much information about the designer, Herr Jedlitschka, but Damon of New Bohemia Signs wrote an enlightening piece on him and his work about 18 months ago. He was also kind enough to post a number of images from his own set of Jedlitschkas' prints on Flickr, as he feels they should be made available so others might equally appreciate them. The multi-colored plates are lavishly printed, often combined with gold and silver. Images here are only from Volume 2, which I first discovered when doing some light window-shopping here not too long ago. Hans Jedlitschka was indeed quite an accomplished designer, illustrator, and typographer. I would so love to see all of his original prints in analog time someday. I get weak in the knees just thinking about it. ; )  

Below are just a few examples of Der Praktische Schildermaler from daemonsquire's Flickrset.

Welcome to Amsterdam

With music by David Bowie, Niels Shoe Meulman paints a tribute to his home town of Amsterdam on Wibautstraat, one of the main arteries into the city.

Mayflower Power, Part 2

In my earlier research on the late 19th C horticulturist John Lewis Childs (1856-1921), I came across a few of his illustrated bookplates in a collection at the Harold T. Clark Library in Cleveland. An astute library volunteer by the name of Rebecca Molton-de-Greeff had discovered a collection of Childs' books on ornithology and noticed they each had a different bookplate attached with hand-lettered and hand-painted images of birds. Her research lead her to Childs colorful career as "a successful businessman and politician whose love of nature influenced both his business and leisure pursuits".
      As I mentioned in my previous post, Childs began the first seed catalog business in the US and published The Mayflower magazine which were both widely distributed. He also had one of the finest private ornithology libraries in the US which included Audubon's rare Birds of America. Molton-de-Greeff's research also lead her to the blog of Lew Jaffee, who is a self-confessed bookplate junkie. He has 3 of Childs' scarce bookplates in his own collection: they contain a flower, and insect and a frog seen here. Jaffee speculated that the artists Childs hired to illustrate his colorful seed catalogs were likely responsible for the bookplate illustrations as well. His assumption was also confirmed by a contact at the Floral Park Historical Society on Long Island where Childs' seed and bulb business first began. Although this bookplate artist is long forgotten, they claimed there were many artists employed by Childs over the years, including one who lived on-site to help publicize his botanical merchandise.
      These unnamed illustrators and letterers were some of the first and finest commercial artists in the US. When Childs created one of the very first publishing empires in NY, he likely provided these gifted artists their first start at a career. (I give Childs credit for recognizing and encouraging their talents too.) I suspect many were untrained, but may have been influenced by sign makers, printers and typesetters of the day. The late 19th century was truly the golden age of typography and printing in the US and I do wish there was more of a public record of these amazing artists who helped make it so. I am however, very grateful for the beautiful archive of some of their work seen below. This and more are now included in the incredible digital archive of the Smithsonian. 

Mayflower Power

Nothing says May Day more than some fine hand-lettered mastheads from The Mayflower magazine. (Guess it is time to dust the snow off the Letterology masthead itself as Spring is in full color and I'm late for the party.) The Mayflower magazine was founded by noted horticulturist John Lewis Childs (1856-1921) in 1885. When it folded over 20 years later, it had reached an international circulation of half a million copies. Childs also established one of the first mail order seed catalogs in the US, based in Floral Park, Long Island and was receiving up to 8000 orders per day. By 1892 he had several hundred acres with glass greenhouses, seed beds, seed stores, housing, a lumber mill, and a printing press where he employed numerous nameless artists to design his elaborately illustrated magazines and seed catalogs. Nearly every issue of The Mayflower monthly displayed an entirely hand-rendered, new or modified masthead. Child's magazine and seed catalogs soon became wildly successful and he went on to build the first school in Floral Park, served as the first town mayor and later NY state senator, and ran two unsuccessful campaigns for US Senator. 
      The colorful 1892 issue of The Mayflower above is from American Gardening. All of the other magazine covers shown below are listed by dates in consecutive order. The 1893 through 1896 issues are from Period Paper. 1899 through 1902 issues are from here. May the seeds of these lovely lettering and cover designs, cast by countless unnamed artists, provide lasting inspiration to your own typographic endeavors. 

Counting on Winning Numbers

I'm painting by numbers today—all sizes and styles. Really there are no bad numbers, just poorly designed ones. Even though there are an infinite amount of numerals, they still count as much as each letter of the alphabet. Pictured below are some of the most well-mannered numbers I have recently encountered. The ornate No. 100 is an engraved 1878 tax revenue stamp from my own files; No. 5 is from Vintage Collective; No. 15 is a tile from the San Angel barrio in Mexico City, shared by Mosh Echacuervos; the set of beautiful lead numerals are designed by Hermann Zapf for D. Stempel in 1953. They belong to Interrobang Letterpress; No. 69 is part of a 1969 calendar designed by Herb Lubalin in 1968 from Nick Keppol; Numerals 1 through 9 are printed on a game board from Pilllpat of Agence Eureka; The bold numero Uno postage stamp from Brazil honors 100 years of Brazilian stamps in 1943, from Karen Horton; No. 9 is part of a pizza box from Alistair Hall; Nos. 933 is Corey Holms's betting ticket from some dog race which N.18 appears to be a French architectural address and belongs to Clio20; No. 7 is from a series of many beautiful wood type prints from Joey Hannaford. See them all here; The mosaic no. 61 is from Raffaele Mariotti. Lastly, this lovely paint by numbers set is from Gale 47.