Vintage – Page 2

Friday find: Bottle caps

I have always thought of bottle caps as an interesting little canvas and wondered how much attention actually goes into their design, but I had no idea that a passionate community of collectors exists…

I came upon an unusual source of typographic history: bottle caps (aka crowns)! I have always thought of crown caps as an interesting little canvas and wondered how much attention goes into their design, but I had no idea that a passionate community of collectors exists.

Kenny Yohn, “The Bottle Cap Man” is a member of the Crowncap Collectors Society International and boasts over 20,000 beer and soda crowns in his collection. Here are a few (well, to be honest, 160!) good ones I picked from his online gallery for their typographic diversity.

Are they not just too cool!

The Bottle Cap Man

Vintage punk rock flyers get swissted

Hey, remember when Jack Black and Mos Def sweded VHS movies in Be Kind Rewind? Well, Swissted is kind of like that, only with punk gig flyers…

Hey, remember when Jack Black and Mos Def sweded VHS movies in Be Kind Rewind (2008)? Well, swissted, an ongoing project by NYC based designer Mike Joyce, is kind of like that…

Only, instead of recreating feature films in a low-fi fashion, he recreates punk rock gig flyers as Swiss style posters. So basically he is taking the punk out of punk, and what could possibly be more punk than that! Odd, but brilliant. (As a loyal supporter of both punk rock and typography, this is right up my alley.)

The number of flyers Mike has swissted is nothing short of astounding – at the time of writing this there are over 200 examples in the gallery! Of course he also has some rules: all posters are 35.5 inches wide by 50 inches high, all set in berthold akzidenz grotesk medium, all lowercase and all the shows actually happened.

Here are but a few examples:

Swissted

100th post and 2011 sign-off

This is Typedeck’s 100th post since launching in June this year – a great milestone and a good time to sign off for 2011. Thanks for all the support and positive feedback so far!

Hello friends. This is Typedeck’s 100th post since launching in June this year – a great milestone and a good time to sign off for 2011.

Typedeck has given me the opportunity to explore typography in a new and more intensive way than ever before. I have learned a lot in the past few months and best of all is I am applying this learning to my own design work.

Thanks for all the support and positive feedback so far! Have a fantastic festive season and a blessed Christmas.

Here’s to resuming Typedeck in 2012 with new vigour.

– Imar

To end off the year I have just thrown together a few random bits and pieces of interest. Click on the images to visit the source:

A free font based on the style of lettering seen on Cassandre posters:

Lettering by Astronaut Design:

From pilllpat’s Flickr photostream:

Two items from the Flickr photostream of junkyard.dogs:

Type specimen poster from a series featuring Changethethought studio’s favorite typefaces:

Mattel Electronics Football from Corey Holms’s Flickr photostream:

Some smokey lettering by Pablo Alfieri:

Explore Fontdeck’s typographic advent calendar:

Hot lettering by Studio Muti:

Editorial illustration by Telegramme Studio via Black Harbour:

Poster from Evajuliet’s Etsy store:

LetterMPress app for Mac and iPad:

Cover design for The New York Times Magazine Photographs:

Detail from Old Faithful Shop identity design by Ptarmak:

Time lapse video of Daniel Cassaro’s (Young Jerks) mural for the Ace Hotel in New York via Xheight LA:

MailChimp’s Voice & Tone styleguide site via Co. Design:

Detail from the Tom, Dick & Harry identity by Mike McQuade:

From Kyle Read’s inspiration Tumblr:

And finally, is there a new Tumblr logo in the works?

Screenshot of their maintenance page:

Vintage matchboxes from around the world

A look at the matchboxes of old, adorned with images of battle and grandeur. Oh and some toothpick boxes too.

Mankind’s command of fire is arguably what separates us from the animals on a most basic level. The ability to package that kind of power in a tiny cardboard box and put it in your pocket is nothing short of awe inspiring. No wonder the matchboxes of old used to be adorned with images of battle and grandeur. The bleed and misregistered printing only adds to the appeal. Oh, there are also a few toothpick boxes in the mix. I mean of course reigning supreme over God’s creation with something in your teeth would be simply disgraceful…

Vintage matchboxes

Note to Australian gingers: please remember to wear the correct protective mask when using safety matches.

Vintage matchboxes

From a Livejournal post by valaamov_osel and a Flickr set by Shailesh Chavda.

The typographic allure of analogue control panels

In this age of touch screen interaction I think our senses are left underwhelmed by tapping and swiping and we often experience a yearning for the tactile response of dials buttons and gauges…

In this age of touch screen interaction I think our senses are left underwhelmed by tapping and swiping and we often experience a yearning for the tactile response of dials buttons and gauges. This is evident in the contemporary application of retro design aesthetics, for example BERG’s Little Printer and Jonas Eriksson’s 76 Synthesizer iPad app. Typography plays an understated but indispensable role in any analogue interface.

I came across this intriguing Flickr Group Pool entitled Control Panel. Here are a few delicious samples to fuel your nostalgia:

The typography of analogue control panels

Friday find: Scandinavian logos from the 1960s & 70s

Great collection of beautifully scanned logos originating in Scandinavia during the 1960s and 70s.

Aren’t these great? Interesting how the logos not only fall within a very narrow palette of colours – with a definite preference for blues and reds – they also share a similar aesthetic quality. How can one describe it… maybe “noble yet understated”?

From a Flickr set by Oliver Tomas where you can see even more.

Friday find: Racing decals from the 1970s

I have always been a sucker for stickers, so it’s no surprise that these caught my attention…

I have always been a sucker for stickers, so it’s no surprise that amongst sarcoptiform’s eclectic Flickr collection including art, tea tags, found photographs and magazine covers, these are what caught my attention:

Vintage 1970s Racing Decals

And finally, here is a goggle-wearing owl emerging from a cloud of smoke inside a big X. Your argument is invalid.

Vintage 1970s Racing Decals

Vintage French type specimen books

A few beautiful pages from old French type specimen books.

I found these in pilllpat (agence eureka)’s Flickr photostream. She has a huge collection of high res scans from old publications, well worth a look.

Album du peintre en batîment (1882):

Interesting to note the missing W from these earlier specimens as it was very rarely used in French.

Album du peintre en batîment 01

Album du peintre en batîment 02

Album du peintre en batîment 03

Album du peintre en batîment 04

100 Alphabets Publicitaires (1946):

Alphabets Publicitaires 01

Alphabets Publicitaires 02

Alphabets Publicitaires 03

Alphabets Publicitaires 04

La Lettre (1957):

La Lettre 01

La Lettre 02

La Lettre 03

La Lettre 04

Amazing vintage cigarette pack designs from around the world

Smoking or non-smoking, be sure to take a look at these fantastic cigarette pack designs from yesteryear, collected from different countries around the world…

Christian Kranich of Vienna, Austria has a mammoth collection of cigarette packs representative of over 150 countries and spanning several decades. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life, so for me to sit drooling over their packaging is unusual to say the least. Believe it or not, there are some typographic gems amongst them and I have just spent way too much time exploring his online database not to share a few of my favourites, well 160 of them to be precise!

Cigarette packs from around the world

Find loads more information about the individual packs on Zigsam – the Austrian cigarette collection. Although the packs are archived by brand and country, I must warn you that browsing is not an easy task…

Friday find: Atari logo

The Atari logo, sometimes referred to as the “Fuji” symbol, was designed at the company’s inception in 1972 by California based George Opperman.

The Atari logo was designed at the company’s inception in 1972 by California based George Opperman. Sometimes referred to as the “Fuji” symbol, the icon is both a stylised A and a representation of two opposing video game players playing Pong, Atari’s best seller at the time.

Via Art of the Arcade.