Dingbats and Diners

Two years ago, Duckpin spent the Fourth of July hopping around Southeast Arizona. One of the highlights of our stay at the Shady Dell RV park in Bisbee was our morning breakfast at Dot's Diner, the tiny greasy spoon pictured above.

Few things are more joyful than finding the perfect diner when you're on a road trip. But what if you didn't have to hit the road, and instead just leave the front door of your workplace? Well, that's how the first diner was born. In 1872, a small wagon packed with food pulled up in front of the offices of the Providence Journal, ready to feed the newspapermen who, by the time they finished their shifts, found the doors of the town's restaurants locked for the night. According to an article in Mental_Floss magazine, a nickel could buy you a ham sandwich or half a cranberry pie. The wagon proved so popular that imitators soon followed, and eventually the typology of the modern diner was born: round stools fronting a running counter. Just like Dot's.

So who was the wagon owner who first fed the ink-stained wretches at the Journal? It was Walter Scott, an enterprising printing pressman. Seems it took one to know one.

Timewarp Design

In an earlier post, we showcased a book that extols modern design created with age-old technology. Now, from our West Coast correspondent, James, comes word of the Alt1977 project. Alex Varanese has done the opposite: he celebrates today's technology through the lens of yesterday's design. His ads, two of which appear above, tout the power of recent technology to the technophiles of the late 1970s. More spectacular images here.

Click on images to biggify

West Baden Springs

We couldn't help but squeeze in some Indiana sightseeing on the way back from Dave Churchman's. Above are photos from the West Baden Springs Hotel just outside of French Lick. The gorgeous dome was the largest in the world at the time it was built. And for awhile there in the '80s and '90s, it looked like it was going to be unbuilt. After a long period of neglect, the hotel was saved from demolition and recently restored to it's former glory. Well worth the 300-mile detour.

The Duckpin Dueler

Our impending trip to Las Vegas always brings up the inevitable question: what would you do if you won a million dollars?

My answer is above.

Toyota's put together a great site where you can design your own racecar for the price of providing them a fake e-mail address. After you pimp it out, you can take it for a 3-D simulated test-drive, complete with burnouts. It's a wonderful way to spend an hour or twelve. Kinda like dreaming about what you'd do if you won a million dollars.

Wood Type Haul

After returning from a very fruitful trip to Dave Churchman's letterpress warehouse in Indianapolis, we're looking forward to putting our latest finds to work. We bought 6 or 7 fonts of wood type to fill out some missing areas of our collection, plus various lead slugs, rules, borders, etc. that would be too expensive to ship by mail. Kind as always, Dave threw in some extras to make the 1000-mile roundtrip journey well worth our while. But honestly, just seeing all the presses and parts in person is worth it; it's an education you won't find elsewhere.

Pictured are some new acquisitions: an advertising cut and 25-line Playbill wood type

Impressive

The new book Impressive explores the confluence of modern design and age-old production techniques (letterpress, hand-binding, block engraving, etc.). The desire for a handcrafted feel is the common thread among these projects. Though the techniques are traditional, the results are not. Impressive indeed.