We Made This

Reference Library

Reference Library is the fantastic blog from Philadelphia based designer Andy Beach (you can see some of his work in the recent book of hand drawn type Hand Job).

The blog is principally a pictorial compendium of the various bits and bobs that Andy failed to win on Ebay.

Which could be a bit depressing.

But instead of getting down about it, he’s created a rich visual feast, ranging from lettering to apparel to storefronts. (And saved a huge amount of cash in the process.)

He’s a damn fine curator. Go take a look.

Words of wisdom

We've just been doing a bit of a spring-clean round the studio, and found these two letterpressed sheets that we picked up in 2006 at the Gregynog Press in Wales (sorry, that's just a Wikipedia link, but the press's website seems to be down).

There's lovely.

A box of tricks

If you're a London based graphic designer of a certain age, you'll have heard of Artomatic. It was a fantastic company that helped designers to realise tricky and unusual print projects. They had an incredible print and materials library, a wealth of knowledge, and a great little shop too; and were often to be found behind many D&AD award winning projects.

Artomatic was run by Tim Milne, who has now set up a new venture in conjunction with Royal Mail. It's called Matter, and it's basically a new way for brands to advertise at you. The basis of this is the Matter Box, which is a cardboard box that gets mailed to you for free, and which is full of bits and bobs from various brands. It's direct mail, but with the volume turned up.

The first version of the box was sent out a week or so ago. It had a mix of stuff, including some Play Doh pots (for Sony Bravia), a Wii wristband, a little plastic toy from Sony Ericsson, and some crayons from Nissan. You can see a full rundown of the contents on the Matter Blog, and people have been posting their pictures of the boxes in their homes on this Flickr set.

Tim is being really quite brave by being very open about the project, and sent out this first box as a sort of experiment, asking for feedback on how it might be improved. (Our mate Charlie has written his own great review over here by the way.)

We reckon there's potential for the Matter Box to be really interesting. It's a chance for companies to talk really directly with their (potential) customers.

But we get the feeling it will only succeed fully if they can find some way of tailoring the content to the recipients' personal tastes. Otherwise you're just being sent junk that's going straight in the bin, and that's just a horrible waste. If you're not planning on buying a car, you're not planning on buying a car, no matter how many bits of clever marketing you get sent.

We think that one way forward might be to set up detailed user profiles for people who register for the Matter Box. That way the brands can get a real idea of who might be interested in getting stuff from them; then when you do get the stuff, you're more likely to think, "Hey, yep, this is interesting. And heck, yes, I would like one of those...".

You can see the beginning of something similar on Facebook, which has been tailoring its advertising to the information users have already entered: it actually seems to work quite well. It seems reasonable enough, after all, that if you like the music of a particular artist, you'd be interested in hearing about their next album, or gig.

We've grown up accustomed to broad spectrum advertising, be it on billboards, on the TV, or on radio, where the advertisers shout their message out to everyone, in the hope that just a tiny proportion of those who hear it might be interested. It feels like now there's room for something much more focused, and much more effective.

Ephemera Society Fair

Just a quick post to let you know that the first Ephemera Society Fair of 2008 takes place this Sunday in Bloomsbury. If you've not been before it's well worth stopping by - you'll find a huge selection of printed ephemera, including advertising posters, travel documents, personal letters, old photographs, books, invoices and all manner of other printed goodness.

We can't make it, but if you pick up anything tasty, do drop us a line.

The fair takes place on Sunday 3 February between 11am and 5pm at the Holiday Inn, Coram Street, London WC1N. It's just £3 to get in.

Graphic journeys

We made our way over to the recently revamped London Transport Museum this weekend, and wow, what a treasure trove of graphic brilliance it is.

You're given a folded card-guide of the museum as you go in, and as you wander round the museum you punch the card at thirteen stops that mark out different areas of the exhibition. It's a really smart way of encouraging kids to explore the whole place.

You kick off your journey by taking the lift to the second floor. As you ascend, the usual floor indicator LED sign instead shows the years ticking past in reverse, so that you travel from 2007 back to 1800. There's an accompanying set of audio-clips that help to make you really feel that you're heading back in time. It's a charming and simple way of getting your imagination in gear.

The exhibits are the expected examples of tube carriages, hackney cabs, models of stations, and even some waxwork figures; but what really stands out is the wonderful collection of graphic ephemera. The walls are covered in fantastic posters from across the years, and there are several plan-chests full of bits and pieces of ephemeral wonders.

Check out Alistair's Flickr set for more pictures.

There's a great shop (naturally), with a particularly fine poster collection (which you can browse online too).

The ones above are by (from left to right) Alan Fletcher, David Pocknell, and Man Ray.

Make your own path

Those lovely folks over at Keep Calm have just launched a new set of prints by Douglas Wilson.

Make Your Own Path is a limited edition of 90 prints, featuring letterpressed woodblock text printed on top of paper cut from Wilson's collection of antique maps; and they're utterly delicious.

They're selling fast, so if you'd like one, you might want to get over there sharpish...

Good Golly Miss Molly

Well, if it isn't just a huge weekend for getting a fix of furniture fun.

Having already posted about the Mid Century Modern show in Dulwich, we've just been sent the utterly delicious catalogue for the Modernism from a California collection auction at Christie's on Sunday, and it's a compendium of wonders.

How's about an Eames RAR Rocking Chair? Or four photos of Eames chairs, estimated at the same price as one chair? Or five original De Stijl posters by William Sandberg for a Gerrit Rietveld exhibition? A collection of eighty luggage labels from the USA circa 1920? A Theo van Doesburg lithograph? A pair of Frank Gehry's corrugated cardboard Wiggle chairs? Or perhaps a collection of twenty four microphones (pictured above)?

You know in the Simpsons when Homer tips his head back and drools if anyone mentions doughnuts? That's us right now.

Time to start saving up a few pennies...

The next Ephemera Society Fair is coming up in a few weeks, with stacks of printed matter to spend your hard earned on.

We figured it would be a great time to have a bit of a We Made This Christmas get together, so after the fair we'll be going on to a pub for a few drinks, and it would be great if you could join us. It's a chance to meet up with other design folks, and to have a nosy at the bits and pieces they've laid their hands on during the morning.

The fair is on Sunday 2 December, and it's a 'Special Fair' which means it's a bit bigger than the regular ones. It's being held at the Holiday Inn, on Coram Street, near Russell Square, from 11 until 5.

We're going to get along there for round midday, and we'll heading on afterwards, say round 1pm, to The Swan, which is just down the street at 7 Cosmo Place. Here's the streetmap link.

So if you feel like coming along, drop Alistair a mail; say hello at the fair; or just meet us at the pub afterwards. We'll stick up a sign or something so you know who we are.

And if you want a look at the sort of stuff on offer at the fair, just take a look at Alistair's Flickr set.

Museum of brands, packaging and advertising

It's not often that you find yourself grinning inanely while walking round a museum (well, we assume you don't, but heck, we hardly know you), but that was what we found ourselves doing this weekend, when we visited the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising.

The museum is tucked away down a smart little mews in Notting Hill, and is a compact treasure-trove of delights. It documents over a hundred year's worth of history of the stuff that surrounds us on a daily basis, the stuff we consume. The collection begins in 1890, and moves forward in sections, a decade at a time.

It's an incredible chance to see the evolution of graphic design through the ages. From the early text-only packaging of the Victorian era, through to the present day, you get a tangible sense of the visual styles and trends that form part of our lives.

It's a really strange feeling when you get to the packaging and products that were around during your childhood. They're such evocative reminders of a particular time. (Which is why we found ourselves grinning inanely in the 1970s section, as we stumbled across the original Monster Munch packaging.)

We also particularly loved the 1950s - really strong yet simple graphics. And were equally disgusted by the hideous clutter that makes up most of today's designs, which are overloaded with photography, text, promotions and other junk. It certainly left us with the feeling that things hadn't improved with the passage of time.

Several brands have hardly changed their packaging across the decades though, much to their credit. We've photographed just a few of those above. Birds loses points for succumbing to the modern day trend of sticking highlights and shadows on everything. (Hey, packaging people, newsflash: 3D is not big, and it's not clever. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. Please stop.) There's a particularly wonderful display that comes after the chronological section, where the sponsors of the museum display the evolution of their individual products side by side, so that you can clearly see how they have changed year on year.

We were also struck by the section representing the second world war, where packaging design was dictated to by a cause other than marketing. Materials were in scarce supply, so manufacturers were forced to change their designs. In some cases a tin box was replaced with a cardboard box; for canned goods, labels were reduced to just one third of their normal height, so that they formed a strip around the can rather than covering it completely. You couldn't help but make a parallel with the current concerns over climate change, and wonder at how little we're really doing to change things.

The museum is at Colville Mews in Notting Hill, and currently has a show about the history of Which? magazine, running to 3 December. We highly recommend a visit.

Please read carefully

More BOAC goodness from the last Ephemera Fair.

This is the on-board safety leaflet from a BOAC flight, dating from around 1952 (we think).

We're totally in love with the shot of the girl on the cover. She's so wholesome, and cheerful, and looks generally thrilled to be wearing a lifejacket. "Gosh, I say Roger, I know we're plummeting toward the ocean awfully quickly, but this lifejacket is really terribly comfortable, and you do look so very handsome in yours."

She's looking far more serious on the inside of the leaflet though. But at the same time, resolute, and in no way reacting to the sheer terror of imminent death. Plucky old thing.

And that script typeface for the Safety Leaflet title. What on earth were they thinking? This is your Cocktail Menu perhaps? This is your Safety Leaflet; not so much.

We just like the fact that they were using actual photographs for their leaflet. Unlike the illustrations now used on flights, which seem to portray people made out of plasticine. (This one's from a BA Boeing 767, circa 1992.) Presumably if the people look soft and squishy, you feel less worried about the effect of the massive impact on their, and by implication, your bodies.

But we'd rather have a plucky young lass, what?