Vintage Letterhead Inspiration

I'm always amazed at publication/typography/general graphic design work pre-Adobe Creative Suite... much less of the early 1900s.

The blog, www.letterheady.com, compiles old letterheads for your consideration and graphic inspiration. Gorgeous!

Happy holidays from Gmail

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/spread-some-holiday-cheer-one-card-at.html

Darn it. They've already ran out =/ But there's some great ideas if anyone's interested in reproducing them. I feel kinda inspired to make my own now.

Japanese Chair Design

Not exactly typography related - but definitely an innovative design that must be shared!

Neutra Typeface Music Video

Sung to the tune of Lady Gaga's Poker Face.

Hmm, do I love any font enough to make a video for it?

And here's a sample of the beloved font.

AOL --> Aol.

There are always logo/branding redesigns, but Aol.'s new identity is more than just an update:


The biggest changes, typographically, are the use of title case, and the addition of a period (to suggest “confidence, completeness [...] that AOL is the place to go for the best content online, period”). Of course, the new logo is also in white, so as to "reveal" itself from a variety of different backgrounds. Check out this video to see what that means:



A great post on the blog "Brand New":
"Aol. Generation. Next."

And a New York Times article on the change:
"AOL Revamping Its Logo, Hoping to Revive the Brand"

This is just a sneak preview, so we'll see the full change (especially the website update) on December 10...

Doppelganger... sort of.

I was on another blog, when I saw an advertisement for B&G Photography, owned by a couple that does wedding photography. Glad to see they love the ampersand, too! haha


But I can't figure out why they're called B&G. Hmm.

Typography fans in the NY Times!

Just came across an article on typography purists, written by Alice Rawsthorn in the Design section of the New York Times. A highlight:

“I think sometimes that being overly type-sensitive is like an allergy,” said Michael Bierut, a partner in the Pentagram design group in New York. “My font nerdiness makes me have bad reactions to things that spoil otherwise pleasant moments.”

Reminds me of the whole Ikea catalog controversy back in August. The article goes on to discuss historically inaccurate use of fonts. For example:

Take “Titanic,” in which the numbers on the dials of the ship’s pressure gauges use Helvetica, a font designed in 1957, some 45 years after the real “Titanic” sank. Helvetica was also miscast in “Good Night and Good Luck,” which takes place in the early 1950s.

Wow. Getting upset with that is beyond even me!