Cookiegraphy

How appropriate are these? Helvetica cookie cutters.

Car Emblems

For those looking for some retro type inspiration, here's a great collection of classic car emblems on Flickr. Bonus shots of racing car numerals and some commercial lettering, too.

Olympic Curling Fashion

From Chip, Duckpin Press' East Coast correspondent, comes this news from Vancouver: Norway has shattered the barrier of good taste in their pursuit of curling fashion. Check out the magnificent pants they'll be pimping when men's curling gets under way later this week. Kinda puts to shame the curling sweaters we featured awhile back.

According to a Washington Post article, the flashy pants are an effort by the Norwegian team to raise the profile of curling in their home country. Their coach, however, seems unconvinced:

"Everybody thought black was a bit dull, so we tried for red. This was the closest we could get," [Coach Ole] Ingvaldsen said. "I don't like them. I hope my mother doesn't see them. She should rest in peace [one day] without having seen them. I will probably get used to it."

If it's any consolation, coach, we happen to love them.

DesignBot 3000

Whenever a new version of InDesign or Photoshop is released, it's the first thing I look for: the as-of-yet-invented AutoDesign tool. Just imagine: with one touch, your entire project could be designed. Touch the button again and -- whamo! -- it redesigns your project. Hit it again and get a third iteration. This button would revolutionize the industry.

And it would put me out of work.

For that, I fear the AutoDesign tool. In a heartbeat, it can eliminate a wide swath of skilled artisans, much like the Linotype did to typesetters. I often joke about my job being replaced by DesignBot 3000 -- the cute, electronic, alogarithmic version of me. That joke could be becoming more of a reality now, with the release of the addLib iPhone app. It takes any photo stored on your phone and -- whamo! -- creates a graphic image based on "educated theories". The above images are examples of addLib's work, and frankly, it looks better than a lot of stuff I've designed. So is this just another app... or my future replacement?

Thanks to Chippy for the tip.

The Aughts in Review

Atop the heap of retrospectives for the decade that just ended (or didn't) lies this gem from the Magazine Publishers Association and American Society of Magazine Editors. "Covering the Decade in Magazine Covers" is a 10-year recap spoken in through the language of newsstands.

Obvious in this romp is the reliance on celebrity-image-driven design over a thoughtful inspection of the more complex and thought-provoking issues we face. For instance, we happen to think this image does more to capture the entirety of the social climate of the 2000s than any image of, say, Ms. Hilton or Ms. Spears. Yet nothing like it is to be found in the video. Indeed, this retrospective reminds us that the cult of personality dominates over substance on today's newsstand. If magazines themselves are to live to see the end of this decade, perhaps it's time they themselves become a little more substantive.

Time to Refocus... and Eat Yer Bacon

Ostensibly this blog is about letterpress and related design. We've spent a good share of time recently on the "related design" part, so let's get back to some good ol' ink on paper, shall we?


What better way to dig back in than taking a bite of some porky posters? San Francisco's 4505 Meats has 3 posters for sale, all celebrating that other white meat. They were produced at the venerable Hatch Show Print and available for sale here. At 26 bucks apiece, they're not cheap. But at least they won't clog your arteries!

National Design Museum

Of all the Smithsonian museums, perhaps our favorite to visit is the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City. Unfortunately, it's not many others' favorite. The design museum is just about the least visited of all the Smithsonians, placing 17th out of 19. In fact, of the 30 million visitors to the museums last year, only 1/2 of 1 percent visited the design museum.

In an attempt to boost the museum's profile, the Smithsonian has appointed Bill Moggridge to the director's post. Besides bringing a career full of industry and interactive design experience to table, he's also a committed pedagogue of design's impact on our everyday lives. Making design relevant to the average person is not the easiest task, despite the evidence lying plain sight. Moggridge has certainly made his own contributions to this everyday realm. In fact, he designed the first version of what I'm typing on right now: the laptop computer.

Above: The GRiD Compass laptop, circa 1982

A Movie Film

We can't seem to kick this recent, um, kick we've been on. We've examined the typography of movie posters. We've explored the typography of movie titles. So now it's time to look at typography as movie. That's right, it's Typeface, the film.

The film centers on the Hamilton Wood Type Museum and the artisans who converge there for a celebration of the letterpress arts. Here's the trailer:

Font Songs

Typographers by nature are nerds. So perhaps it's only fitting that one of today's best type foundries is also one of today's best nerds. Hoefler & Frere-Jones inspired quite a few tweeters to bust out song title puns using names of typefaces.

Below is a list of some of the best from this summer's #fontsongs Twitter tag. (We warned you of the nerdom.)

• We will, we will Rockwell
• Rock the Caslon
• I Meta Girl
• ITC Clearly Now
• Tempted by the Frutiger ’nother
• Rockwell Amadeus
• Gill Sans in a Coma
• Get Down Onyx
• I Wanna Bold Your Sans
• Janson Queen
• Take a Janson Me
• Hotel Caledonia
• My Tahoma
• I’m So X-Heighted

When we told Duckpin's own Mom M. about this post, she spouted off a few of her own:

• Lucinda, You're Breaking My Heart
• I Had the Times of My Life
  

Think you can you outdo her? That's what the comments section is for.

Poop Rainbows, part 4

For our latest Poop Rainbow™ installment, we bring you the All-Vehicle Edition. Hat tip to our own printer's devil for the Buffalo bus [upper right], inspired by a recent trip there.

Click on image for larger view.

What the hell are we talking about?

The Printer's Song

Over the years, printing has done wonders to build and support the music industry. And what have we gotten in return? Not so much. Until now. Tommie Rose, a musician and printer, offers us this song about the decline of the printing scene:




What do you think? Will the ink knife ever touch her fountain well again?

Holiday Bash

Hope everyone's holidays are loud and monstrous.

Ewwwww

Like a reverse Secret Santa, every office has their own Sandwich Grinch. You know, that employee who enjoys pilfering someone else's lunch. Want to avoid being the next target? Protect your grub with these anti-theft lunch baggies from Lost at E Minor. They're preprinted with moldy splotches, making your sandwich an instant turnoff. Viola, no more roast beast for the Grinch.

(While you're over at Lost at E Mionor, check out their Bob Ross coverage.)

Movie Titling

On the heels of our movie poster post, it's only fitting that we highlight the other place where a film's graphic identity comes from: the titling. A great archive of title stills can be found at The Movie Still Collection, a compendium of hundreds of movie screen shots from 1920s-present.

Flipping through the site, one can tease out the many trends in film typography, from the classic (above) to the recent (below). Perhaps the most artful, typography-wise, belong to the Westerns genre. Oh, to have wood type cut in the form of some of those titles.


Also included on the site are the end titles for many of the films. Though largely absent from modern films, they provide a fitting (and typographically appropriate) conclusion not just to the films, but to this post.

Movie Poster Minimalism

Like Garfield Minus Garfield, these stripped-down movie posters offer a fresh perspective on something we've all seen a hundred times. Once you peel back the typographic clutter, it's surprising just how identifiable films are by their graphic treatment.

Think you're good at recognizing the films that these posters promote? Test your knowledge with many more at Film the Blanks:

2009 Holiday Gift Spectacular

In a pinch for some last-minute stocking stuffers? Let us help you outfit your designer buddy in time for eggnog drinking:

Gotta start with a t-shirt, right? Will it be Cooper Black or the Original Design Gangsta? Either will go nicely with a set of Pantone espresso mugs. Better include a nifty, typographic coaster so your designer friend doesn't scald the table. Why not slip in a fashionably nerdy, broken image necklace, then top it all off with an old skool, dot-matrix wallet?

Congratulations, you're now a new best friend.

Know When to Fold 'Em

Attention paper fetishists.

C'mon. you know who you are. Your heart thumps and your palms get sweaty at the prospect of visiting Paper Source to caress their newest offerings. You can't walk past a piece of pulp without running it between your fingers. And you justify all your paper purchases by promising yourself that you'll be able to use it all for your very next project. Suuuuure you will.....

Between the Folds is a new documentary on the art of origami and fascinating people behind it. NPR has a nice piece on it. The trailer is below. Why not catch it on PBS or Netflix? Just promise yourself you'll be able to use it for your very next project.

Like Chess, but with Type

On a visit to the homestead, my brother and I sat in the living room playing Wii curling for what seemed like hours. I mentioned to him that a big part of curling involved calling the right strategy. I gave him the old line that curling was "like chess, but on ice." Characteristically, he came back with a wise-ass comment:

Every sport tries to bill itself as being like chess. [Imitating a hayseed] "It's like chess, but with big tires and a mud bog!!!"

Okay, point taken, James. But what about letterpress?

And Now A Globe Poster Imposter

That Globe poster post got us thinking.

Back in 2007, Washington City Paper ran a cover story on Elvis' one and only DC appearance. Pete, then the art director of the paper, channeled the old Globe poster aesthetic for the design of that week's cover. It was no match for a Globe original, but then again, you know what they say about imitation...

Click on image for a honkin'-huge view.

Globe Printing Company

When most people think of a print shop being deeply intertwined with a local music scene, they think Hatch Show Print. For years the Nashville-based shop helped promote the Grand Ole Opry brand of country music.

A little closer to Duckpin's home, the Globe Printing Company has been a mainstay in the DC go-go scene for years. From early pioneers like Junk Yard Band and Experience Unlimited, Globe has been there to spread the word about DC's homegrown music. For much of the 80s and 90s, a trip along DC/Maryland commuter routes offered a cluttered, visual panopoly of Globe posters. Fluorescent-splashed signs tacked to traffic poles greeted you at every stoplight. How many times a week can Rare Essence possibly play? I remember often thinking.

Various "beautification" ordinances and a declining number of clubs have conspired to eliminate most of the signage. Globe has since diversified into more mundane "Houses from the mid-$400s"-type advertisements. These new signs (bland, plastic and text-only) are no match for the heyday signage of Globe.

Baltimore City Paper ran a great article on the long history of Globe, from it's start as a letterpress shop through the present day. The article is accompanied by beautiful -- and often haunting -- photography of the shop's composition equipment, type cabinets, and some now-quiet presses. To us, they look eager to be pressed back into service. Just as Hatch has experienced a revival, perhaps the time is ripe for Globe.

Shop photos by Frank Hamilton, Baltimore City Paper