HOWDOOS ARE BACK IN STOCK!

The first batch of our HOWDOOS - business cards for everyone + anyone, flew out the door at an unexpected speed, but don't worry if you missed out as our Etsy store is now fully stocked again!

HOWDOOS are hand letter-pressed business cards with a greeting on the front and 3 blank spaces on the back ready for your personal details. For more information see our earlier post here.

Energy Conservation stamp, 1974

Even in 1974 Energy Conservation was a concern. Thought I'd share this great block of USPS commemorative stamps from Karen Horton's wonderful Flickr stream.

The stamp was designed by Robert W. Bode and issued on 23 September 1974 to promote the importance of Energy Conservation and to coincide with the 9th World Energy Conference: 'The Economic and Environmental Challenges of Future Energy Requirements', held in Detroit, Michigan from 23-27 September.

I love the big, bold pink 'ENERGY' type (pink & orange are one of my favourite colour combos) - what's not to like!

Whilst doing some research I found a cool 70's poster on Etsy that features this stamp.

Image copyright Karen Horton. Via Vintage Postage Stamps.

Jumpology!

How fantastic are these jumping photos by Philippe Halsman? I love them.

A Life photographer with over 101 cover shots to his name, a regular contributor to LOOK and the Saturday Evening Post, Halsman was often commissioned to shoot the rich, famous and influential people of the 50's. During this time he had the wonderful idea of Jump! - once the official shoots ended he would ask the stars (no matter how famous or important) to jump. The resulting images (above) are brilliant and show the celebs in such a natural, relaxed way.

"Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Salvador Dali, Weegee, Jack Dempsey and even the Duke and Duchess of Windsor agreed to take a leap of faith. In that era of live television along with the popularity of the big glossy magazines, one’s image was not nearly as protected and shaped by handlers as it is today. There was a feeling of innocence, a desire for spontaneity, and Halsman, with his playful and charming personality, knew he had to get almost everyone to oblige his demand: JUMP!"

Halsman called the series, 'Jumpology!' and for the first time they are being exhibited at the Laurence Miller Gallery in New York (exhibition runs until 28 May 2010). For those that can't make it over to NY there was a book of the images (below) published in 1986 which is still available here and here.

Images copyright of the artist, taken from Laurence Miller Gallery.
Via The Photography Post and Notcot.

Andy Smith Newspaper

I was very excited last week when the postie delivered a big white envelope with an Andy Smith illustration on the back (even though it had been screwed up to fit it in the postbox!). It was his new promotional newspaper created by the Newspaper Club in an edition of 500!

The paper is a collection of 12 posters created originally by Andy as silkscreen prints. Some are old favourites and a few are new (to me anyway), but they're all fantastic. I especially love the cover (above) with the fading effect.




Thanks Andy!

International Exhibition of Calligraphy

These beautiful examples of calligraphy are part of the International Exhibition of Calligraphy. An exhibition started in St. Petersburg, 2008 by MVK (International Exhibition Company) aiming to, "reveal the cultural and educational value of calligraphy pursuing a personality intellectual development".

Last year saw a second exhibition held in Moscow and this year (September 10-12th, 2010) it will be showcased in Velikiy Novgorod - quite a symbolic venue for Russian calligraphy.

"The chronicled history of Velikiy Novgorod dates back to the origin of Old Rus. The script culture arose with arrival of Christianity. Novgorod Psalter is the oldest book of Rus’. It is a tiny script book consisting of bound wooden tablets created between old 900’s and early 1000’s. It was Veliky Novgorod where the birchbark manuscripts (the written records of XI-XV centuries) testifying to the high literacy of the Novgorod population were found."

The exhibition organisers are then hoping to initiate the International Exhibition of Calligraphy in all the major cities of the world starting with Paris, New York and Jerusalem. Fingers crossed it will make it to the UK at some point.

Images copyright the International Exhibition of Calligraphy.
Via Ephemera Assemblyman.

Vintage Luggage Labels

I love these vintage luggage labels from rosiesnumberoneboy's Flickr set, especially the BOAC one - such lovely designed items, "from the great days of travel"!

Images copyright rosiesnumberoneboy.

From the reference box #72

#72 - Danish Industry or 'Dansk Industri' Stamps from 1968. From what I have discovered, they were designed by R. Nellemann and engraved by Polish born, Czeslaw Slania - apparently the world's most famous engraver!

"Engraving is an art process where lines, dots and dashes are cut into a soft metal plate with a tool called a burin. The engraving is done life size and in mirror reverse. Up to 10 lines per millimeter are cut at depths varying from 0.01 to 0.08 mm to give the effects of shadows, highlights and contours. Because engraving requires long years of study and an extended apprenticeship, it is used for high security documents such as postage stamps and banknotes."

You can actually see the dots and lines if you look closely at the stamps. I love the contrast between the graphics on the stamps (above) which are very simplistic and minimal next to the illustrations on the First Day Covers which are very sketchy and detailed...




The quote above is taken from Collecting the works of Czeslaw Slania a site dedicated to Slania's work. Check it out for more information about his career or about engraving.

Another Sellotape tin!

This weekend I found another Sellotape® tin (full of vintage cream and pearl buttons which was a bonus!) at a boot sale. This one seems slightly later than the other two I have (below) as it has metric measurements as the main dimensions rather than in brackets as previously.

Metrication started formally here in the UK in 1965, so this tin is probably from the mid to late 60's. I actually now think the other tins are likely to be from the early 60's as I first thought, and not the late 50's.

Have you spotted the slight change on the new tin too? A very small detail, but they've added a hyphen to 'self-adhesive' and have also rounded down the millimeter measurement from 25.4mm to 25mm on the 1" x 72 yds tins.


Check out my earlier post on Sellotape® tins, a bit of Sellotape® history and a selection of old adverts here.

From the reference box #71

#71 - Mapa de communicaciones, Espana or Map of Spain. I was surprised to see this was printed in 1984. I would definitely have guessed at mid 70's with it's black background and bold graphic.

I have no idea what the graphic is meant to be, but I like it all the same!

There are 70 other wonderful items in the reference box - have a root here.

The Bottle Cap Man

Doing some research yesterday I came across The Bottle Cap Man a website devoted to, you guessed it - bottle caps or crowns. The site, run by Kenny Yohn in Kansas City is a great resource for collectors and an amazing source of inspiration.

Kenny has an absolutely massive collection of beer and soda caps dating back to the 50's, the ones above are only a tiny selection from one of the soda sections. I haven't even looked through the beer ones yet - there literally are hundreds.

I feel a new collection coming on!

Images copyright The Bottle Cap Man.

New look NME

Yesterday saw the launch of a new look NME. The publication has a new editor and to mark the start of this new era has undergone a major revamp including an updated identity/masthead.

To celebrate the launch, this weeks issue is available in a choice of 10 different covers. Artists gracing the 10 covers are: Jack White, Florence And The Machine, LCD Soundsystem, Rihanna, Kasabian, Laura Marling, Foals, MIA, Biffy Clyro and Magnetic Man.

"We’ve brought together a really varied group of musicians from global icons like Jack White and Rihanna, innovators like MIA and LCD Soundsystem to exciting newcomers in the form of dubstep supergroup Magnetic Man," explained NME editor Krissi Murison.

I haven't seen any of the inside pages yet, but I think the new cover design is much cleaner and looks a lot more sophisticated than the previous style (below), so definitely a change for the better in my opinion.

Images copyright NME.