The Danish artist Sven Brasch (1886-1970) created some of the best posters of the period 1910-1940 The site presents few examples, 17 only, of his art works for Hollywood movie posters, posters for events, magazine and book covers, ads from 1920's and 1930's and a self-portrait.

It was created by Peter Holst Eriksen, a collector of Sven Brasch's works as an attempt at introducing Brasch's unique and sophisticated universe and also to promote his book "Plakatens mester - tegneren Sven Brasch, which is probably very good. Few more and small images of Brasch's works here.

Posted by Bibi on January 24, 2008 05:03 PM in Art, Design, Posters, Vintage ||

Joy Ang is a Canadian multi-artist: illustrator, photographer and designer. On her portfolio there are few, but lovely, whimsical illustrations, sketchbook images, design projects, and photos. She also started a blog with craft projects, the crafty joy, with images of her amiguri creations.

Posted by Bibi on January 23, 2008 06:44 PM in Design, Illustration ||

On November 9, 2006 Jonathan Glancey started a blog at the Guardian Unlimited's Arts blog dedicated to the Classics of everyday design. The almost weekly articles keep going updated, and now there are 40 (and counting) Classics of everyday design.

Forget about icons, design of a kind that doesn't swank around in style magazines is all around us. Jonathan Glancey dedicates his blog to the finest examples - and he needs your help to point them out.

Among the classics listed, until now, many of them can be found on almost everywhere, and some are very British. My favourites would be: paperclip, the Swiss Army Knife, the Biro, or Bic Crystal ballpoint pen, Daleks, Lego, the Slinky and one of the greatest inventions of humanity, the anti-stressing Bubble Wrap. (Merci Bertrand!)

Posted by Bibi on January 23, 2008 10:17 AM in Blogs, Design, Gadgets, LEGO ||

If I had space and money, I would love to have one of those book shelves with a bench, designed by Stanislav Katz. And in the case of having both, and the oportunity to buy it, I would change the pink for blue. His book shelving with the illusion of cubes in perspective is also neat. (via MoCo Loco)

Posted by Bibi on January 17, 2008 08:39 PM in Books, Design ||

I don't remember having seen wood toys prettier than those by take-g toys. Takeji Nakagawa, aka Take-G, creates adorable toys and crafts, like the wonderful wood robots. The robots and his other crafts are actually art works, sold only at exhibitions and art galleries. About his work:

Yosegi-Mokuzougan, or joined wooden block construction, is craft skills where combinations of original and unique colors and textures of different kinds of wood are utilized to express artistic patterns. In Japan, the Hakone-Odawara region is famous for this traditional handicraft. Products of the Take-g Toy’s have expanded this traditional craft skill, which usually employs two-dimensional patterns, by using three-dimentional patterns, instead. We use four different kinds of wood, a keyaki (a Japanese tree of the genus Zelkova), a teak, a walnut, and a white ash.

Arata Sasaki interviewed Takeji Nakagawa for Hitspaper. The interview is available in Japanese and English.

Posted by Bibi on January 17, 2008 04:34 PM in Art, Design, Toys ||

Here are my collection of links with cats, specially saved to blog today. And before you run away complaining "Oh no, cat pictures!", take a look on the images and their descriptions. They have cats, of course, but they aren't all just about cats.

The toy above, called Gato, was designed by Israel Chavira. This cat loves honey, probably cause his bee body type. A silly curiosity: the Spanish word "Gato" means cat, chat, Katze, katt, gàtto, and it has the same writing for Portuguese, gato.

Among the hundreds of cool scanned images of Modern Mechanix, the vintage articles with cats always get my attention. And, of course, I saved them to share: Cats Are Fun to Photograph, From Cats to Cataclysms, Cat Pictures Used to Scare Away Birds, Blows Glass Globe Around Cats (no cats were harmed!) and Things I Learned from Ten Thousand Cats. The last article is from 1934, but some things about what we know about cats didn't change.

By A. J. Adamson

ONLY by dealing patiently and kindly with a cat, particularly during its early life, may you develop the sort of animal everyone wants as a companion and pet. Unlike dogs, cats will respond only to kindness. Punish them and they grow surly and spiteful. I speak from rich experience, having bred fully 10,000 cats during the last quarter of a century.

The old idea was that every animal should be punished when caught in a wrongful act, but cats do not understand the meaning of a whipping. They are weak-willed and easily tempted and must, therefore, be guided in paths of righteousness.

Before all those stupid mania of LOLcats (I'm tired of them), there was The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats, a comic strip created and illustrated by the cartoonist Aloysius "Gorilla" Koford, according to Adam Koford his grandson. From 1912-1913 he produced a comic strip which was featured in 17 newspapers, including the Philadephia Star-Democrat, the Tampa Telegraph, and the Santa Fe Good-Newser. It featured the exploits of one Meowlin Q. Kitteh (a sort of cat hobo-raconteur) and his young hapless kitten friend, Pip. Adam is sharing those "treasures" (the comics are brilliant), and until now there are 340 images on the Flickr set. BTW, there is something on those comics that reminds me Krazy Kat. (via Will You Look At That)

The iCat is a project developed by Philips Research Technologies in 2005. I think iCat is a bit scary.

iCat is a research platform for studying human-robot interaction topics. The robot is 38 cm tall and is equipped with 13 servos that control different parts of the face, such as the eyebrows, eyes, eyelids, mouth and head position. With this setup iCat can generate many different facial expressions - happy, surprise, angry, sad - that are needed to create social human-robot interaction dialogues.

A camera installed in iCat's head can be used for different computer vision capabilities, such as recognizing objects and faces.

The giant Plant Cup designed by Gitta Gschwendtner, was available at YouSayTomayto for $338.00. You can't buy it for now, however, you can take a look on set of pictures Plant Cup, with more demonstrations of its uses by Eek, the grey cat, and Miss Moneypenny. Grey cats rock.

Posted by Bibi on September 28, 2007 09:53 PM in Cats, Comics, Design, Friday Cat Blogging, Technology, Toys, Vintage ||

The image above is one of the wonderful hand drawn illustrations made by Si Scott . The art director and designer creates beautiful ads with using lines and typography. That illustration was made for Resonate series, a new monthly music collective which is going to be released every month in a poster packaging format with a different animal each time. There are more two images of those series at Type for you and an Interview from a year ago. The short video bellow (30 seconds) shows his drawing process.

Posted by Bibi on September 25, 2007 11:35 PM in Design, Illustration ||

The agency Cayenne Italia produced a brilliant campaign for Italian Instituto per il Commercio Estero (Institute for the Promotion of Foreign Trade) highlighting two remarkable Italian products, known for their excellent quality: food and fashion. The campaign "The Italian Food Collection" was firstly created to the Japanese market:

The objective, effectively summed up in the title, was to communicate to the Japanese consumer - notoriously fascinated by Italian fashion - that the best of "Italian Style" is to be found in the wine and food sector as well, which boasts top-quality brands. [...] The campaign, which enjoyed a huge success, was considered a particularly innovative, high-impact operation, to the point of winning numerous prizes at the international level, among them the GOLD in the food category of the Epica Award 2003, one of the most prestigious European advertising contests. UN.I.P.I. representatives attended the awards ceremony held in Dublin on 23 January 2004.

Due to campaign success of the visually beautiful and attractive ads, it was possible to obtain the support of the ICE for the realisation of a communication campaign in the United States. Playing with the same concepts, food and fashion, Cayenne Italia created one more great campaign for the ICE: "The Taste of Italian Style". Check the irresistible ads for both campaigns bellow.

Continue reading "The Italian Food Collection" »

Posted by Bibi on September 23, 2007 03:50 PM in Design, Fashion, Food, Food ||

I love books and I love plants, that's why the growing book, designed by Eric Zhang looks almost a perfect idea. Almost, because it doesn't look very practice to put in the shelf with the other books. My cats would love it, too. (via Coisas)

People can plant whatever they like in the left side of the book, they should care for it, whatch its growing. During this process readers do not only learn the meaning of life, they create life themselves.

Posted by Bibi on September 20, 2007 06:41 PM in Books, Design ||

There are some crazy users on Flickr, and crazy means crazy in the best possible way, who like to share vintage images. Miss Magnolia Thunderpussy likes to share "some" stuff: almost six thousand of images divided in 90 sets and counting. It's a paradise of 1940s and 1950s pictures, navy images from around the world, WWII images, pulp book covers, posters and more memorabilia. Among all those cool stuff, here are a list of suggestions (according to the posts of this blog). (via PCL LinkDump)

- British Posters from the Second World War: A selection of posters issued by various Government and non-Government bodies during the Second World War.

- Der Landser: with four hundred pictures taking during the WWII. Der Landser" was the name given to the ordinary German soldier in the Wehrmacht, and was used during both World Wars. The term is no longer used for German soldiers.

- Fruit & Vegetable Crate Labels: more than three hundred Examples of classic designs from the USA, Canada, Spain and Australia. I love this ad.

- Now read on . . . : Book jacket art. A hilarious collection with several pulp book covers.

- Posters from Occupied Netherlands - World War II. A selection mainly of Nazi and pro-German posters.

- Robert Doisneau: 65 pictures of this master of photography. He dismiss presentations, but just in case Robert Doisneau was a French photographer noted for his frank and often humorous depictions of Parisian street life.

- The Accordion and its role in world peace: 51 pictures of accordion players. Probably just for enthusiasts.

- The Saturday Evening Post: 18 beautiful covers of that classic American magazine.

- Transport & Travel Posters: 259 images of ads, pamphlets and posters.

- US Navy posters: mainly recruiting posters from World Wars I and II.

- Variety, Vaudeville & Circus Acts: Vintage photographs of performers and acts - from variety shows, vaudeville and burlesque shows, and circuses.

- Vintage Advertisements: 149 images of vintage magazine ads, from costumes to food.

- Vintage Advertising Posters: with 72 very pretty images, many of them are also on the "Transport and Travel Posters" set. The collection contains one of those vintage disturbing ads.

- Waves & Navy Nurse Corps Recruiting Posters - World War II, with fourteen posters.

Related posts:
Ad*Access
War Posters
The Art of War
Spanish Civil War
Robert Doisneau
Museum of Russian Poster
Antique Produce Crate Labels
Posters of the Russian Civil War
Canadian War Poster Collection
Military Posters of 20th century
From Lebanon to Japan in Posters
The Saturday Evening Post Covers Collection

Posted by Bibi on September 20, 2007 06:16 PM in Design, Illustration, Photography, Photography, Posters, Pulp, Vintage ||

I'm old enough to remember the glorious days of arcade games like Frogger. But I noticed I did't have experience enough with "Fliperamas", the Portuguese word for arcade games, informally called "fliper". The only arcade game I remember playing was the classic Pinball. I'm saying this because the images displayed on The Control Panel Overlay Museum are totally unknown to me.

At least I know some of the games listed on the page by name, based on my brief experience playing video games: Asteroids, Elevator Action, Frogger, Ms. Pac Man, Pac Man, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong. Well, it's too late to complain now. (Thanks Bertrand!)

More arcade nostalgia: The Video Game Revolution and 1980 games.

Posted by Bibi on September 14, 2007 09:22 PM in Design, Games, Vintage ||

Tapedeck is a project of neckcns.com, built to showcase the amazing beauty and (sometimes) weirdness found in the designs of common audio tape cassettes.

There's an amazing range of designs, starting from the early 60's functional cassette designs, moving through the colorful playfulness of the 70's audio tapes to amazing shape variations during the 80's and 90's.

It's called a "nostalgia" site, and I hope it is nostalgia for all my readers. I don't believe I have readers to young to have ever used them. (Thanks Damien!)

Curiously, in the last years emerged a whole cassette tape culture transforming the audio tapes in icons. Vintage Japanese cassettes from 1980's are now been used to create transformer toys. The Italian designer Marcella Foschi transformed them in charming retro wallets, while in the U.S., Alyce Santoro used recycled audio cassette tapes and cotton to make pretty dresses. Those were some examples.

Etsy has tons of products made with cassete tapes or images of them, from T-shirts to cassette belt buckles, passing through necklaces, ipod cases, earrings and card holders. Using the iconic image of the cassette, the design site FRED life created a neat cassette tote bag. (via Smidigt)

I still have hundreds of those audio tapes on my closet. I should give them a proper funeral and take some pictures of them before I do it. However, I saw many great ideas about what I can do with them at Design Boom. One of them is to do a USB Flash Cassette Mod. The BBC, they also link to an article with 10 uses for audio cassettes. Another good idea is to make a cassette tape evening bag with that tutorial. That is, after I learn to crochet.

Posted by Bibi on July 28, 2007 02:21 AM in Design, Fashion, Gadgets, Toys ||

Replace a good habit for a bad one: stop smoking and go read a book. To help you, try, TankBooks - Tales to take your breath away. The ThankBooks pay a homage to the iconic and successful design objects, the cigarette packs.

Tank is launching a series of books designed to mimic cigarette packs – the same size, packaged in flip-top cartons with silver foil wrapping and sealed in cellophane. [...] The launch titles are by authors of great stature – classic stories presented in classic packaging; objects desirable for both their literary merit and their unique design.

The titles available, for now, include classics by Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Leo Tolstoy and Franz Kafka. A package of “The Metamorphosis” for me, please. (via hombrelobo)

Posted by Bibi on July 24, 2007 10:58 PM in Books, Design ||

I propose a toast to this post with a cup of red dry wine (my favourite drink: long live to the alcoholic drinks! Here is an amusing article from Modern Drunkard Magazine even for those that don't drink: Ten greatest alcohol icons of all time. The article explains the story of those icons, when they first appeared, why the icon works, a dark secret and when they claimed to fame. The list includes:
- The Striding Man of Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky;
- The Hamm’s Bear of Hamm’s Beer;
- Captain Morgan of Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum;
- The Guinness Toucan of Guinness Stout;
- Mr. Boston of Mr. Boston Distillery;
- The Girl in the Moon of Miller High Life Beer;
- The Blue Bull of Schlitz Malt Liquor;
- The Wild Turkey of Wild Turkey Bourbon;
- The Jäger Deer of Jägermeister Liqueur;
- The Bacardi Bat of Bacardi Rum.
(via Slashfood)

Read also: The best brands of the world.

Posted by Bibi on July 22, 2007 11:53 PM in Design, Food, Food ||

When I saw the picture above one word came to my mind: Patinho! If you aren't familiar with Portuguese, patinho have the same meaning as "kitty" has to cats and puppy to "dogs", it's a little duck in a much more cute expression. The patinho is the latest finished project of Florentijn Hofman, and it's called Canard de bain (Rubber duck). The little duck isn't so small, as you noticed compared with the boats. The dimensions of the giant inflatable rubber coated PVC creature are 26 x 20 x 32 meters. The Canard de bain is, or it was, in France at the river Loire.

A yellow spot on the horizon slowly approaches the coast. People have gathered and watch in amazement as a giant yellow Rubber Duck approaches. The spectators are greeted by the duck, which slowly nods its head. The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relief mondial tensions as well as define them. The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!

I always wanted that kitsch object, a rubber duck, but as I never had a bath tube, I didn't buy one. Now I want that one and I need a lake it. All the donations to help me to buy a lake are welcome. By the way, Florentijn has many other interesting projects to see on his site. (via Wooster Collective)

Posted by Bibi on July 18, 2007 04:49 PM in Art, Design ||

There is no revolution without propaganda, all kind of propaganda, which includes a lot of printed material, like posters and pamphlets. Propaganda, to be efficent, has be emphatic with it's message, using strong colours, or powerful messages or, and, be visually attractive. It has to convince the people, persuade them to believe in their reality and do what they want.

The Chinese Pamphlets has several of examples a cartoon books, pamphlets, postcards and magazines used during the early years of the People’s Republic of China between 1947 and 1954:

on topics such as foreign threats to Chinese security, Chinese relations with the Soviet Union, industrial and agricultural production, and marriage reform, were produced by both Kuomintang (Nationalist) and Gongchantang (Communist) supporters.

Known as the “street literature” of the revolution, those materials were published in Hong Kong and in Mainland China and distributed to the population of the provincial cities and villages. Some of the books available on the site remind me comic strip books, maybe graphic novels. Don't forget to take a look inside them. (via IWR Art)

Posted by Bibi on July 17, 2007 12:45 AM in Design, Vintage ||

People have phases in life. I had a phase of destroy pencils biting them, until broken them. I stopped doing that moving to another bad habit: biting pens. I used to destroy the pen caps with an impressive speed, specially in test days. I don't do that any more, because I rarely use pens and when I use them, there is not time enough to start bitting it.

Too bad! The brilliant French designer Clement Eloy developed what could it be the pen of my dreams: Suck My Bic - a pen that has a flavoured candy pen cap. Perfect! It should fill my needs for candy and pen bitting, and it fits and my pens, since I have several Bics on the table. Available in five different flavours, if it was in the marked and I was in the school, I would buy a box of it.

Enjoy to take a look at the other amusing creating of Clement Eloy, like mugs, tables, glasses and his famous Hotdoll, a love doll for dogs. (via Tastespotting)

Posted by Bibi on July 13, 2007 03:43 PM in Design, Food, Food ||

What I most appreciate in designers nowadays is that they learnt a lesson: design don't need to be pretty and unusual only; they have to have something else. like looking funny, and they have to be functional. The neat Moppel LED Lights have those things. Shaped as dinosaurs, aliens and other funny creatures, those flexible lights are powered by USB or 3 x AA batteries, a perfect company for your (my) computer. (via Smidigt)

PS.: ei Manuel, acho que você vai gostar desse daqui.

Update: more about Moppels at The Gadgeteer post Moppel LED Bendable Light Figures.

Posted by Bibi on April 2, 2007 01:31 PM in Design, Gadgets ||

You just need of time, talent and the right materials to make a awesome Steampunk Keyboard Mod like the one above. It's an excellent tutorial, step by step, with videos and pictures. I would love to have a knack for doing this kind or patience to try it. (via BB-Blog)

Posted by Bibi on March 22, 2007 07:04 PM in Design, Geek ||

The product designer Sam Buxton gave a new life to flat stainless steel cards, transforming them into wonderful tiny sculptures.

By deploying a chemical milling process he had discovered in the electronics industry, Buxton created a flat fine stainless steel card the various parts of which unfolded into a 3-D replica of himself working at his computer. When a manufacturer spotted it in the Design Museum’s 2001 exhibition Design Now – London, the business card was put into mass-production as the first in the series of MIKRO-Man fold-up sculptures.

Explore also Mikroworld, the home of Mikroman. (via MetaFilter)

Posted by Bibi on March 15, 2007 07:02 PM in Design, Sculpture ||