Here’s a cool personal project from designer Meg Jannot — a Tumblr called Branding the Presidents. She’s designing each of the 44 presidents over the course of 44 days. A great exercise for any designer, and especially great for this breathless, rough-and-tumble election year. Nice work Meg! I especially love how different they all are. Here are a few highlights. Click here to see the whole set on Tumblr. Which ones are your favorites? Thanks Ilina!
Oh my heavens. Hundreds of gorgeous photos of old New York. Shots you’ve never seen before. Like the one above of painters on the Brooklyn Bridge. With no safety harnesses or anything! I could look at these all day. In fact, I just did. The New York City Municipal Archives has just released a database of over 870,000 photos from its collection of more than 2 million images of New York throughout the 20th century. Here are just a few of the great ones, curated by Alan Taylor from The Atlantic. (Click images to enlarge.) To see more (and there are SO MANY MORE),…
This is awesome. And just one of the oh-so-many reasons I have always loved Apple and always will. Watch the two videos one after the other. Don’t you especially love the assertion at the end of the Newton spot that “if there’s anything this world could use, it is more communication.” Hoo boy! (Thanks SMCLT)
So not only is House Industries releasing a fantastic new font collection (the Eames Century Modern), but they will also be drawing three names to accompany them on an exclusive look into the inner sanctum of one of 20th century’s greatest design teams. The Eames House was built in 1949 as number 8 in the series of Case Study Houses and is still recognized as a revolutionary use of space and materials. To toss your hat into the ring, fill out this form and enter EAMES HOUSE in the comments box. And if you forget the first time (like I did)…
New, limited edition book, about Helvetica’s infiltration of the New York City subway system. Written by Paul Shaw. Including hundreds of photos, along with reproductions of pages from various MTA and NYCTA signage manuals. Oh, I’m sorry — was that me drooling? Goodness, how embarrassing. I lived in New York for 6 years, and I return every year at least twice, and to count the number of photos I have taken down in the subway would be impossible. I am obsessed with its haphazard permanence, its raw, often accidental beauty, and its consistent inconsistency. I can’t wait to hold this…
Haiti remains a place of profound need, anguish, desperation and danger, with a few glimmers of hope and slowly growing capabilities to receive and distribute the international aid now flowing in. Sporadic looting, sometimes violent, was met with force by security officials and ordinary citizens, resulting in a number of further deaths and injuries. The tenuous security situation has led to at least one temporary evacuation of a medical facility, to protect the care-givers. Despite the long time since the earthquake, at least five people were pulled from the rubble alive this weekend, including a young girl trapped inside a…
Phillip Niemeyer has created a fantastic chart for the New York Times depicting trends of the past 10 years. The above is just a sample of highlights of the O’s, but the whole chart is an interesting walk down the memory lanes of our love, concerns, moods and fears. See the full chart here. (Thanks Crystal!)
Time.com has curated a list of the top-10 magazine covers of 2009. There are some great ones, but this New Yorker cover by Chris Ware slapped me across the face when it came into my house a couple of months ago. Another New Yorker cover that wasn’t included in the list but that I haven’t been able to send to the recycling bin is this one that came out immediately after President Obama’s inauguration. It is titled “First,” and I think it is perfect. See them all here. (Thanks Guy)
When I was 12 years old I spent the summer working at my father’s office, filing, stuffing envelopes, talking to the women who worked there, trying to absorb some of the secrets of being a grownup person who went to work every day. My father’s company was in the process of changing its name and one afternoon on the way home, my father informed me we needed to stop off at the Art Director’s studio to approve something to do with the new logo and whatnot. For one reason or another we ended up being there longer than expected, my…
