From the reference box #70

#70 - Commemorative, sailing themed stamps from the UK designed by Andrew Restall MISA and released on June 11 1975

These bold, colourful stamps illustrate Sailing Dinghies (7p), Racing Keel Boats (8p), Cruising Yachts (10p) and Multihulls (12p).

Below is the First Day Cover that my set came on...

See more Andrew Restall designed stamps from the reference box here, here and here.

Vintage Art Supplies

This great selection of 60's crayon + paint packaging is from the amazing collection of vintage packaging, ephemera and ads etc... in Christian Montone's Flickr photostream - seriously, I've spent ages looking through his sets and still not seen it all.

I actually have some of these myself. I'll have to dig them out of the reference box and post them up. meanwhile enjoy these...

Images copyright Christian Montone.

Farmers' Market Prints from Yee-Haw Industries

I love everything about these hand letter-pressed posters from Yee-haw Industries for the Knoxville Tennessee Regional & Organic Farmers' Market - the type setting, the fonts, the design and the giant, vegetable illustrations.

They're all available* from their Etsy store, be warned though, there are lots of great prints and posters in there - you will want to buy everything!

* UK peeps check out the shipping policies as there is a minimum order (but that shouldn't be a problem!)

Images copyright Yee-Haw Industries.

Mr Therm - the little gas man!

Remember our post about our vintage, Mr Therm playing cards (above)?

Well, I was recently asked by Mikey Ashworth if I would add it to his Mr Therm - the little gas man! Flickr pool which has a great selection of Mr Therm merchandise and promotional items (like the matchbooks and fridge badge below) as well as a bit of history behind the campaign.


It's not a large group, but it's definitely worth a look.

Fridge badge image copyright I like.
Matchbook image copyright Dan Chamberlain.

From the reference box #69

#69 - Dewhurst Butchers leaflet - 'Make a meal of our price cuts'. I picked up this leaflet at a boot sale for free along with loads of other ephemera that a stall holder was left with at the end of the day!

I love the bright yellow front and how it contrasts with the big red chunk of meat. It's a very functional design - there's loads of information and offers thrown in there but it's easy to read. It's not an amazing design by a long way, but it works, it's interesting and it definitely has a certain charm - I think that's why I like it.

I'm guessing, looking at the prices, that it's from the early 80's when high street butchers were still common and the competition was strong. I don't know why, but I do find it funny that butchers used to put out leaflets.

Dig deep into the reference box here, for more interesting ephemera and vintage design.

From the reference box # 68

#68 - set of 4 stamps celebrating 50 years of the BBC (1922 - 1972).

Designed by David Gentleman and released on 13 September 1972, these stamps have great illustrations of equipment significant in the history of broadcasting; 3p - Microphones, 5p - Horn Loudspeaker, 7 1/2p - TV Camera and 9p - Oscillator and spark transmitter (Marconi/Kemp experiments 1897).

Here are the first day covers for each stamp, which are also pretty cool...




See more David Gentleman designed stamps from the reference box here.

More Saul Bass Matchbooks

It was a while back when I posted about a lucky blogger finding some of these wonderful Hunt-Wesson matchbooks, designed by Saul Bass on a flea market. Well I still haven't found any at my local boot sale, but design:related member Karen Horton has just found almost a full set (14 of the 16 and lots of doubles)...

"while rummaging the Chelsea Flea Market with no particular agenda, I had a hunch I recognized a few Saul Bass designs peering out of a randomly assorted box. What made the Saul Bass designs stand out instantly is that they were the only matchbook covers in a pile of hundreds sans advertising-related text or graphics."




Nice one Karen, that's a great collection - I'm not jealous in the slightest (well maybe a little!)

Via Notcot.

Mac Fisheries

If you remember our post about Hans Schleger then you will hopefully recall his wonderful work for Mac Fisheries. During the mid 50's he created most of the marketing and promotional items for the company.

The photomontage style he used for their poster campaigns still looks really fresh and I love how the logo is incorporated into the lobster and salmon posters.

I had no idea though just how huge Mac Fisheries were and that they not only sold fish, but also poultry, frozen and tinned foods. There's a great website all about the company which includes a 'paraphernalia' section with loads of Schleger designed items including these great poultry posters...


food packaging...


and weirdly, some round playing cards?!...

The site was compiled and is run by Colin French. It's a great resource and well worth a look. Thanks Colin for sharing all this information!

Images copyright Mac Fisheries.
Via the great Quad Royal.

Howdoos

Yay! Our Howdoos have just come back from the printers.

Howdoos are business cards with blanks on the reverse ready to be personalised. There are currently two designs - hello in bright pink...


and nice to meet you in black...


Both cards are hand letter-pressed onto grey board, so the print has lots of lovely texture and they smell delicious!

We'll be selling them in packs of ten from next week, so watch this space.

Alice in Wonderland Adaptations

Everyone seems Alice in Wonderland crazy at the minute with the release of Tim Burton's long awaited 3D version of this Lewis Caroll classic and The British Film Institute are no exeption.

To celebrate the Tim Buton release at IMAX, The British Film Institute are showing the following adaptations; the 1933 Paramount version, Dennis Potter's 'Alice' (1965), Jonathan Miller's BBC adaptation (1966), 'Dreamchild' (1985 - made using Jim Hensen's Creature Shop creations) and Jan Svankmajer’s 'Alice' (1988).

They have also released the recently restored, footage of the very first Alice in Wonderland film from 1903 (screen grabs above) created just 37 years after the the novel was written. Donated to the BFI in the early 60's the film was in a very poor condition, but it's still really interesting to watch...



"Directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow, and was based on Sir John Tenniel's original illustrations. With a running time of just 12 minutes (eight of which survive), this 1903 film was the longest produced in England at that time and it represented a major investment for the pioneering Hepworth Studios that produced it. Some might venture to say it was the Avatar of its day."

There was no sound on the original film, so the piano accompaniment, 'Jill in the Box' was added after restoration to compliment the story. Read more about the restoration here.

All images and film copyright The British Film Institute.
Via Notcot and Cakehead Loves Evil.