surplus

Ax-Mans' surplus stores are always a good rummage. the perfect resource where you can purchase sexy women posters, green vs. blue(?) bulbs, corks and always good colored masking tape (not shown). PLUS top-notch displays and commentary written by the staff.

from the MCAD archives

Minneapolis School of Art Letterhead from the 50s and 60s (previously named Minneapolis School of Art, it change it's name to Minneapolis College of Art and Design in the 70s).


MCAD's letterhead from the 70s — the corporate and quirky



MCAD's letterhead from 70s/80s (palette+brush), 90s (Blue M), 00 (Jancourt/Rezac pict system) and now.


Minneapolis College of Art and Design turned 125 this year. Also in 1886: Coca Cola was created, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) is formed and The Statue of Liberty is gifted to the United States from France.

Over the summer, my design partner Annie Wang and I spent countless hours in MCAD's archives searching and researching materials to use in their 125th anniversary book. A wealth of archival photos and ephemera detailing MCAD's legendary visiting artists, milestones and cultural shifts were scanned and photographed. In the end the anniversary book turned out to be an alumni portfolio rather than a comprehensive, MCAD-is-out-of-control-cool-artschool-casestudy. So, on occasion, I'll post some things that didn't make the cut, but things that we really like, beginning with this scanned letterhead ranging from the fifties to present.

deceiving

This 1940s Avon catalog raises a number of questions—was the Avon rep a lover of the ladies, was the husband a pervy scrapbook hound, did it cause a divorce, did the rep gasp when she opened it to show her customers' Avon's latest?

One of my favorite finds—lllllllllllllllooooove it.

k records studio tour

From my archives:
K records!

I just uncovered these photos that I shot while traveling with two friends, back in 98. My friend Barb set up a visit to K records in Olympia which was a incredible! The person working at K—unfortunately, I can't remember the name—graciously gave us a grand tour of the storeroom and the huge upstairs recording studio, which I believe used to be an old dancehall?? The walls were covered with these incredible characters and markings from the 40s. I've scoured the internet today trying to find information—I'm unsure if these artifacts still remain? Hopefully they were't painted over.

I wish my photos were better quality, but you get the picture. a few more on my flickr site.

it is friday!

Summary of a long rattling icy week.

It's something like-15° here and it's time for a sauna.

These images are scanned from one of my all-time favorites Fairburn System: The Fairburn System of Visual References. I occasionally pick them up on ebaby, I'll acquire the whole set someday.

enjoy the start of your weekend!

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

in blue

pretty pretty. those eyes, those hats…

from Estonian Maret magazines.

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.

summer miscellany

things things things that make me happy.

gauzy hooded towel
old pinwheel—a gift from nana to my kiddo
memoir from my philly trip
morning antics
+
good kitty stencil (midwest and east coast companions?!).

exhibition type

From my visit to the University of Michigan's Exhibit Museum of Natural History. This sort of typography maybe unfashionable or kitchy, but I love this type of display in all it's

g l o r y!

I can't get these out of my mind (via Bird and Banner).

overviews

locations: london, studio, bath, amsterdam, backporch