12/30/08

greenwich letterpress





















found on print & pattern, the greenwich letterpress is a nyc based letterpress company (i think it might be in the west village on christopher street, which would make sense), but their cards, especially this one in particular, are very rennie mackintosh/vienna succession/arts & crafts movement/art deco.  they also have an etsy shop.

happy holidays!

12/10/08

cat power's album cover



















i saw the vinyl cover in a record store window tonight and am considering buying it despite the lack of record player in my house.  the album just came out.

"the seven year itch" opening credits



circa 1955

this bag i won on ebay!





















a vintage old stock aer lingus flight bag found on ebay.  only 15 dollars and sweet type running on the bottom!  this seller "timinbrooklyn" sells alot of vintage airline paraphanalia, which is pretty sweet to check out.

also i found this website of airline timetable images, including alot of vintage images (like the one below) from the 40s-60s when airlines had some pretty stellar design.



12/7/08

the reader's digest guide to sewing
















this is practically a required resource for anyone who sews or constructs garments, and has one of the sweetest covers i have ever seen.  i got this copy on ebay a few years ago while during my brief stint in the fashion department of my college, and the publishing date says 1976, which makes total sense.  i should have realized my fate was to be in communication/graphic design instead of fashion because i spent more time eyeing the cover instead of looking up how to make a french seam and not fail my construction class.

this sticker i found










found this on a box at work, which my co-worker nicely tore off and gave to me.  i love the "keep cool" lettering on the fish and how random it is. i will treasure it forever.

12/6/08

Bo Lundberg



























Bo Lundberg is a contemporary swedish designer/illustrator who is awesome. here is his site (bolundberg.com), here is his interview on grain edit, here is the flickr photostream from said interview

fifi lapin







fifi lapin is an illustrated take on fashion, and one of my favorite blogs.
there is also a shop for prints, drawings, and a t-shirt.
and an etsy shop.

12/4/08

the grid system




















the grid system is a website devoted to articles concerning the foundation of modernist design, the grid. check it here.

found on grain edit

also, check here for a online graph paper generator which will create specific grids and output it as a PDF.

11/28/08

frosk














































ballet photos













school of american ballet, 1974

school of american ballet, 1936

11/19/08

LIFE




















google is now hosting images from LIFE magazine, so that means thousands of LIFE photographs in hi-res form, like the above image of two kids playing with an Eames toy. if you add "source:life" to the end of your google image search it will search through the LIFE archive.

Klas Fahlen





















klas fahlen is a swedish illustrator, here is his site!

found on grain edit

11/14/08

my childhood...
















a wrinkle in time is one of the best books ever, and my copy, most likely from the 80s, is well worn but well designed. the cover art is super colorful and compliments the yellow border as well as the simple and elegant interior design. this was for the "young adult" set and made it easy to read and exciting to pick up. 

books i have stolen from my dad...



















































searching the basement or the corners of bookshelves, i would (and still do) steal or "borrow" my dad's old books from college in the late 60s-early 70s, when book cover design was an art form. to my credit, sometimes I would replace the book with my ugly, boring modern version (such is the case with the Dubliners above).

11/12/08

glass milk bottles





















i found some glass milk bottles from the same dairy farm in ny in the food emporium in union square, in the city. they don't look as awesome as the ones pictured above (those are on sale for $25 here and are from 1952), but they are the same shape and use some pretty sweet old script. 

11/10/08

this dress from hayden-harnett...


















...even though i usually can't stnad the touch of velvet i think i could deal.
cotton velvet with gold trim, hayden-harnett, $315

10/28/08

10/24/08

19th century fenian brotherhood mugshots





























"Identified as felons and Fenian political prisoners, the subjects of the photographs in these two albums include some of the leaders of the Fenian Brotherhood and its Irish wing, the Irish Republican Brotherhood. One of these, the early activist Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (1831-1915), recounted sitting for his portrait:

After being shaven I was led to have my picture taken. The photographer had a large black-painted pasteboard prepared, with my name across it in white, and, pinning it across my breast, he sat me in position. I remained sitting and looking according to instructions until he had done, and he never had the manners to tell-what artists never fail to tell me-that I made an exceedingly good picture. [O'Donovan Rossa's prison life: six years in six English prisons (1874) p.73]'"

found here, on the nyc public library digital collection, from 1865, mountjoy prison. was the standard 19th c. british prison uniform a three piece wool suit or was it just for the photograph? damn, they all look so modern. go here for more on the fenian brotherhood.


10/22/08

Françoise Hardy!





























































the muse of many, (including nicolas ghesquière), francoise hardy was leader in the french pop style of the 60s. she is talented and has a perfect sense of style, je t'aime. 
"oh oh cheri" + "voila" + "viens" are my favorite songs.

Pac Man Cookies!



















I plan on making these for every occasion.
found on cute overload

10/6/08

Polaroids on Polanoids














Polanoid is a polaroid database where you can search or submit polaroids, which is brilliant.

Album Art




















ffffound on fresh good minimal

I'm more of a Bourbon girl,




















But this packaging design/concept for Douglas Laing & Co, Ltd Scotch is pretty sweet.  As the Dieline pointed out, it takes the whole "whiskey as medicine" route and it works pretty well.  Some of the lettering looks off but the shape and color palatte work.  Reminds me of the Christopher Brosius "I Hate Perfumes" store/line of scents based out of Williamsburg.

10/4/08

Old Photos














turn any JPG into a weathered photo, which you could do in photoshop but this is so much easier/faster. link








Square America is a collection of photos found in estate/yard sales or flea markets that give a glimpse of real life in America

double exposed polaroids
















10/1/08

Black Metal Dialogues



















read this, for the love of god and metal.

Les Shadoks


found on genevieve gauckler's blog, i am in love with this popular cartoon from 1960s france.  
the style reminds me of early sesame street, Asterix, and school house rock, as well as modern 
cartoons like Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, (aaaaaaand I still watch cartoons because I am 5).  

go here for the first episode on youtube.

6/4/08

5/27/08

Muxtape & Mux Find

Someone created a search engine for Muxtape, called Mux Find making it that much easier to use and cooler.

5/26/08

FAME, I'M GONNA LIVE FOREEEEVERRR!

"Becky is a...


Grapheme-colour associator and Ordinal-linguistic personification, higher synesthete."




MY SYNESTHESIA IS FAAAAAMOUS!
(from the other bloggggg)

Parsons Senior Show



























The BFA CDT senior thesis show was pretty sweet, except for the whole "we ran out of alcohol, sorrrrry" thing which did not happen last year and made me greatly regret not bringing my Jim Beam with me.  Despite sobriety, the show did not fail to impress.

3/2/08

Cytowic

"It is not a hallucination but it is hard for me to describe.  As I look at a page, I see the colors there even though I see the color of the real ink that's before me.  I know it isn't there for real, but I still can't help seeing it.  There is still a sensation that the color is there. I can't remember when I didn't have it.  It's not something that I do.  It happens all by itself.  Letters and colors seem exactly as they are since forever." - MT

* page 43 In Cytowic's "Synesthesia; A Union of the Senses"

2/24/08

Eidetic Memory

Recently I was told about eidetic memory.  Basically eidetic memory is an extreme case of photographic memory.  Apparently in some cases individuals (many are children who have no concept of their irregular processing) can see an image/text/stimulus in front of their face for a period of time after they see the actual object.  It is another example of a process of perception which strays from the established norm and involves the relationship between stimulus and memory.  An article on eidetic memory can be found...here.

2/22/08

Stamps/Color
















Gavin Potenza of Exploratory Design in Portland designed these stamps as a personal project in 2007. The color and transparency is evocative of the color change in numbers when their environment changes. I saw this on Grain Edit.  

Korewa nandesuka?

I should probably explain what Synesthesia is...


...according to the extensive wikipedia article (I swear that is not where my research came from), Synesthesia is "a neurologically-based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway."  Basically a synesthete experiences multi-sensory stimulation.  Some hear music and see a shape in front of their face, or can taste the letter "A."  Some have a severe case of Synesthesia, which can be hindering, but many do not mind their cross-pollinated sensory experience.  Many see this as a interesting phenomenon because humans are supposed to separate sensory perception according to evolution, so some have hypothesized that it is a more infantile/basic form of perception, (Simon Baron-Cohen).  

  I experience Grapheme-Color Synesthesia, as I see 0-9 as very specific colors and personalities.  i see letters as colors, but there are too many in the alphabet to concentrate on individually, so they aren't as strongly identified as numbers. In my mind numbers have a familial relationship and interaction.  When I see a group of numbers I usually chunk them and attach imagery to the colors as well as note the relationship between the numbers.  
  25 is pink & purple (twilight/dusk) and very feminine as well as a mother/adolescent daughter relationship where as 19 is black & yellow (bumble bee) and a father/grown son relationship.  if you gave me a sequence of about 3-4 numbers I could paint you a random landscape using the colors and relationship between the numbers.  This sounds insane, I know.  
 
  Memorizing numbers is really easy for me, but moving numbers, like in math, is really hard. When I was little I used to entertain myself during car rides with this and didn't think it was weird until I realized no one else saw things like this when I was a teenager.  My parents thought I wanted attention and my friends thought I was high. 
 
  This experience is echoed by many who have discovered their synesthesia, as many thought they were the only ones who had it.  It is quite amazing that something so seemingly individuated is so universal.  

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