december!

We've had a family-filled and snowy December. Passing time making and knitting, with interludes of cocktails and shoveling.

Hoping you all are having a gleeful holiday too!

Designs for the Printed Page

Designs for the printed page.
A thoughtful promotion for Fortune magazine designed in (1957?) by the incredible and witty Leo Lionni. More spreads here.

Lionni interprets each design's intent…

page 4
Variations in size and color on a constant theme (a trademark perhaps?).

page 5 In black space (often more effective than white space) delicate lines weave a strong pattern.

page 14
Photography can have the quality of design if it follows the principles that govern design.

page 15
A half-page sacrifices half of its space to create its own generous margin and to move its center of gravity toward the middle of the page.

page 24–25
When a design expands from the center to the margins the space seems larger. ariations within repeated symmetries add vitality to the forms.

Make sure to watch: Leo makes a mouse!

DR. DADA

I just had to share this irresistible arrangement with you. (found outside MCAD's library). Dr. Dada brings a little humor to health issues.

morgan press

From Wood 2.
Morgan Press printers and typographers.
Design: John Alcornx. Author: Morgan Press.

Published: Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. : Morgan Press, [1964?]

more wood here!

cafe wallpaper

Check out these wallpapers found in our very own, Minneapolis College of Art and Design's cafeteria! Recently, I asked my Intro to Graphic Design students to engage with their local environment & beautify it. Their wallpaper patterns had to address subject matter, narrative, sequence, scale and image
quality——they definitely rose to the task; each of them created 6ft strips of amazing pattern!

Work by: Lottie Anderson, Sydney Appleton, Racquel Banaszak, Clint Bohaty, Kelsey Dusenka, Kelsey Elder, Laura Hedrick, Abbey Freundschuh, Aurelia Gustafson, Samuel Hertogs, Mina Jang, Chad Lorence, Sherri Mueller, Heather Nguyen, Emily Pope, Keith Possehl, Olivia Rodriguez, Lauren Sidell and Heather Tubwon

Delaware

does it again!
"We are alive ou+side +he compu+er."

record guild

where is my muffin man?! I'm loving these googly eyed illustrations.
happy friday!

More cardboard kiddie records here.
and a whole lot more here.

The Record Guild of America, Inc.
NYC

meet, eat and support!

Powderhorn Empty Bowls: One of my favorite events of the year and one that i'm involved with on many levels. If you're in the Minneapolis area you've got to attend. Here's the jist: select from a amazing array of handmade bowls made by local artists and craftspeople, fill with hearty homemade soup/bread, meet your neighbors + make a freewill contribution (you get to keep your bowl)! Donations support the foodshelf at the Division of Indian Work, Sister's Camelot and upgrading Powderhorn Park RecCenter's kitchen. So many levels of awesomeness! i'd love to see you there.

Notes:
If you'd like to volunteer making soup, serving, donating materials, etc. email Monica at monicakmcdaniel@gmail.com
+
I checked the emptybowl website and it appears to be corrupt, see the flyer for date, time and details.

dear anna:

EEEKS, it's been a long time between postings. I've been swamped with teaching, getting organized and the day-to-day. Recently, I discovered a slew of my scanned ephemera on an old external harddrive of mine. Perhaps you'll enjoy this sampling of leather cards as much as I do. hope everything is going swimmingly with you all!

all addressed to anna.
most date between 1905-1907.

more cards from my collection here!

polaroid yumminess

Documents from travels past. I love the unpredictability of the real print, chemical mixing, waiting…

more blurriness here.

I'm ready for a great roadtrip.

in blue

pretty pretty. those eyes, those hats…

from Estonian Maret magazines.

pioneer

Pioneer childrens magazine from Estonia. It kinda reminds me of an outdoorsie Highlights. Aren't the illustrations superb! + I love the off-registered printing on the gem stamps.

To see more please visit my flickr.

ANCIENT MAN

I'm very fond of this book.

Ancient Man
The Beginning of Civilizations

Written and Drawn and Done into Color by Hendrik Willem Van Loon, A.B., PH.D.
New York. Boni & Liveright. 1920


and his Dedication:

To HANSJE AND WILLEM.

My darling boys,

You are twelve and eight years old. Soon you will be grown up. You will leave home and begin your own lives. I have been thinking about that day, wondering what I could do to help you. At last, I have had an idea. The best compass is a thorough understanding of the growth and the experience of the human race. Why should I not write a special history for you?

So I took my faithful Corona and five bottles of ink and a box of matches and a bale of paper and began to work upon the first volume. If all goes well there will be eight more and they will tell you what you ought to know of the last six thousand years.

But before you start to read let me explain what I intend to do.

I am not going to present you with a textbook. Neither will it be a volume of pictures. It will not even be a regular history in theaccepted sense of the word.

I shall just take both of you by the hand and together we shall wander forth to explore the intricate wilderness of the bygone ages.

I shall show you mysterious rivers which seem to come from nowhere and which are doomed to reach no ultimate destination.

I shall bring you close to dangerous abysses, hidden carefully beneath a thick overgrowth of pleasant but deceiving romance.

Here and there we shall leave the beaten track to scale a solitary and
lonely peak, towering high above the surrounding country.

Unless we are very lucky we shall sometimes lose ourselves in a sudden and dense fog of ignorance.

Wherever we go we must carry our warm cloak of human sympathy and understanding for vast tracts of land will prove to be a sterile desert--swept by icy storms of popular prejudice and personal greed and unless we come well prepared we shall forsake our faith in humanity and that, dear boys, would be the worst thing that could happen to any
of us.

I shall not pretend to be an infallible guide. Whenever you have a chance, take counsel with other travelers who have passed along the same route before. Compare their observations with mine and if this leads you to different conclusions, I shall certainly not be angry with you.

I have never preached to you in times gone by.

I am not going to preach to you today.

You know what the world expects of you--that you shall do your share of the common task and shall do it bravely and cheerfully.

If these books can help you, so much the better.

And with all my love I dedicate these histories to you and to the boys and girls who shall keep you company on the voyage through life.

HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON.

1 2 3 4 5...

Found! A mini collection of weekly Milwaukee bus passes between the years of 1930–1979. I would love to know more about the keeper of these—certainly the owner held a steady job.

The transit system changed names over the course of 40 years as did the design; great shifts in color palettes and typographic sensibilities. We've got some great fluorescent inks that my scanner couldn't capture...

The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company > T.M.E.R.& T. Co. > Milwaukee & Suburban Transport Corporation > The Transport Co. > Milwaukee County Transit System

more here
+
a refresher of who and what was in the news 100 years ago + Washington's teeeeth. thank you Library of Congress for keeping me off the streets.