Graphic design 1945-1969

http://www.manhattanrarebooks-modernfirsts.com/images/deighton.jpg

http://wiedler.ch/download/felix/books/451_jacket.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2401/2273057639_9cb85d7b8a.jpg

Despite Shepard Fairy, Soviet poster design is still brilliant: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bpx/sets/72057594117941491/

Oh Clarendon. Talk about thin line between love and hate. Can you still think a font is attractive when it's on the side of half the buses in the city advertising Starbucks' new instant coffee? Or in the TV ad for Madea Goes to Jail? (Really there are a million examples... it's fucking everywhere. It was four years ago, but now it's really out of hand.)

I still think of Clarendon as National Park signage font. Fortunately the NPS has started switching away from it.

http://grainedit.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/citroen-brochure-2.jpg

http://burlesquedesign.com/mike/somuchpileup/danreisinger/10.jpg

http://www.productmanualarchive.org/manuals-brands/Sears/sears-8m-calculator-box-JB.jpg

http://www.earlesfork.com/PHOTOS/rely_brochure.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/184/368460509_86c62126b5.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/172/417089104_e580bd9ef5.jpg

http://www.etapes.com/files/images/cathy/auriac2.jpg

http://grainedit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/donald-brun-poster.jpg

HEAVEN: http://grainedit.com/tag/1960s/

dopeness here: http://grainedit.com/2008/05/12/53-years-of-latvian-magazine-jauna-gaita/#more-636

I still dig Clarendon. I've been hating Algerian a ton lately though, not that they have anything to do with each other except being pretty ubiquitous.

grainedit is supreme for this sort of thing

probably worth a look
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/ken-briggs-at-pump-house-gallery/
(London exhibition)

I want to frame that calculator ad. Seriously, I do.

Oh nevermind... it's THE BOX. Even better.

Opening credits to Department S

Pretty sure the Department S logo used to be the logo for Super Valu grocery stores.

http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/chau1/img/edgar/1/1.gifhttp://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/chau1/img/edgar/1/2.gif

Just reminded myself of this one (warning: Blue Note cover):

http://www.orinjj.force9.co.uk/JimmySmith/pix/hi/50s/newsound/newsound1-1.jpg

I wish I could nail down what the text font is there, in the title. It's not quite Clarendon, and WhatTheFont seems confused by it. Custom job, I think.

century schoolbook?

Close. But it's close to a lot of things.

This thread is making me think/worry that innovation in typography stalled after this era, and unless some people get crazy creative in a hurry, we're all doomed to mine the past. A lot like jazz.

(The spartan limitations of internet typography don't help.)

Question for mr telecom.

This image: http://dropular.net/content/_fixed/ipsa5g8mf_2965627507_2f0f0f2f15_o.jpg

Do you know details about it? Because I'm thinking of basing a design on it, and I want to give it its due.

Question for mr telecom.

This image: http://dropular.net/content/_fixed/ipsa5g8mf_2965627507_2f0f0f2f15_o.jpg

Do you know details about it? Because I'm thinking of basing a design on it, and I want to give it its due.

Erik Nitsche is the designer. Check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Nitsche
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eriknitsche/

for all the background.

This thread is making me think/worry that innovation in typography stalled after this era, and unless some people get crazy creative in a hurry, we're all doomed to mine the past. A lot like jazz.

I think it's very hard to popularise newer fonts tho because of the ubiquity and recognisability of the old standards.

It's good really that it's not so easy to get hold of decent stylish fonts tho (without paying).

I need to try making my own, I like creating characters/letter forms in Illustrator. Fontographer still the app of choice?

http://www.penguinsciencefiction.org/

This thread is making me think/worry that innovation in typography stalled after this era, and unless some people get crazy creative in a hurry, we're all doomed to mine the past.

not sure about this. while there was an insane explosion of font styles in the earlier part of the 20th century that i doubt we'll ever see again - the 90's had a pretty decent typography revolution of it's own. stuff like David Carson and his ilk really challenged all traditional approaches to typsetting we'd seen up until then. we did have an explosion of new phonts too with desktop publishing making it easier than ever to create your own letterforms and also the web bringing in demand for even more simplified fonts. sure, not many have/will stick around but there's definitely going to be a lasting influence on typography coming out of the digital age. maybe it's too recent for us to be truly aware of it - or how it will shape things going forward.

my thesis in college was on font styles as signifiers of overall shifts in design styles throughout the 20th century.

TCRODTT, that sounds interesting! Is it online anywhere?

I feel like with typography, it's sort of that dilemma where to some degree it's been done and perfected. Over centuries certain styles were created that became standards and for years and years and still those basic styles get tweaked. The grunge fonts era created an explosion of new ideas, but mostly faddish ones that are already dated, and in sacrificing legibility, don't seem like they'll have much legs. The type designers today are left with either subtle updates of classic forms or novelty faces. Maybe it is a question of distance...I say 90s grunge fonts are dated, but personally I'm a big fan of the sort of 50s/60s phototypesetting styles that most people have avoided for the last 30 years as cheesy, because it's easier for me to idealize and romanticize the 60s then the 90s. I'm talking about liking stuff like Banco or Brush Script, but not really caring for most of Emigre's fonts of Neville Brody's stuff. I'm sure in a few years everyone will start using Industria Inline or something. Stuff like Banco is the kind of thing lazy designers use in silly ways, but while in college I saw a copy of the original type specimen sheet and taken in it's original context and used well, it just looked awesome. I guess everything has it's place!

Personally, I'm really bad at even recognizing typefaces, and getting started with hand typesetting, I'm going to purchase just a few basic fonts and use them for everything. When I bought my type cabinet, I got a really really great deal on a large amount of Futura Demibold, so like it or not, I'm going to make that work. The guy selling it said he didn't think he'd be able to get rid of it easily. I think the people who are doing hand typesetting these days in the letterpress community seem to be really attracted to more old-fashioned serifs, wedding typefaces, display faces, etc.

ban bank gothic

I never really liked the 90's grungy-busy thing at all, even when it was new - it always felt like it was setting itself up for instant datedness, kind of like all the "computer" fonts of the 80's representing fake futureism. I've been digging a lot of the old serif fonts lately, mostly out of necessity because I deal with a lot of stuff from 16th and 17th century at my job and kind of have to design around that.

As for Banco, it will always just be "Thrasher Font" to me, just like Mistral is "NWA Font":
http://www.nebraskaskateparks.com/skateparktourEast-5-2005/norfolk/thrasher52405.jpg

I think this is the best thread there's ever been on ILX.

TCRODTT, that sounds interesting! Is it online anywhere?

nope. this was a decade ago, sorry.

A few nice bits and bobs collected here - DavideLevine's collection from Expo 1958 Brussels on flickr.

The same fellow had a huge collection of travel related graphics from the 1920s and 1930s. Amazing.

And from a link from that site I noticed this poster for a shooting festival in 1963
http://www.posterpage.ch/exhib/ex190tel/p133189s.jpg
(the site is one huge collection of posters from all over the place - well worth a look if you graphics junkies haven't already been there)

Access forbidden!

Damn - it worked yesterday. Maybe they don't like hotlinking?

http://www.alamedainfo.com/Expo_67_Pavilion_of_Ethiopia_PC_001.jpg

http://www.alamedainfo.com/Expo_67_Montreal.htm

Access forbidden!

― caek, Monday, May 4, 2009 11:11 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

Back up now. Worth a look.
http://www.posterpage.ch/

http://blog.iso50.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Picture-32-450x645.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v280/tomasutpen/album7/mjqsherrif.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v280/tomasutpen/album6/californiadreaming66.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v280/tomasutpen/album5/garlandofred56.jpg