Dick Bruna O.S.S.117 book covers

Dick Bruna O.S.S. 117 book covers

Iconic covers designed for a series of detective novels

Airline logos from China and Hong Kong

Airline logos from China and Hong Kong

Design from the Far East. Is it any good?

Saul Bass: The man with the golden arm (1955)

Saul Bass: The Man with the Golden Arm

Posters, lobby cards, album covers and the title sequence.

1980s horror movie poster typographyIt amazes me how few movies have an identity. While millions of dollars are spent on the marketing campaign of Hollywood movies, their logos or wordmarks are usually much cheaper: $35 (the price of the Trajan ‘movie font.’ on MyFonts.com). Logos [...]

1980s horror movie poster logos and typography.

Lettering and typography from the pre-Trajan era

Warner Bros. trailer typographyHollywood studios used to have their own in-house designers, which explains why some title designs have the same style. Until the late 1950s they were mostly created by National Screen Service, the company which controlled the distribution of theatrical [...]

Warner Bros. trailer typography

25 years worth of trailer typography: 1930-1955

handlettered-department-store-logosHave you ever visited a department store just to admire their graphic design? Me neither. But I might have done that if I was born 50 years earlier. Just look at the images above. Wow. And those are just their logos. Imagine what their posters, folders, price tags, receipts, [...]

Handlettered logos from defunct department stores

Script lettering from American department stores

Chevrolet chrome script lettering2011 marks the 100th anniversary of Chevrolet. The company started naming models during the 1910s, which carried names like ‘Classic six’ or ‘Superior sedan.’ Only the name Chevrolet sporadically appeared on grilles of early models. This changed [...]

Chevrolet chrome script lettering

Chrome script lettering from 1956 to 1971

Chevrolet speedometer design2011 marks the 100th anniversary of Chevrolet. During these 100 years Chevrolet developed over a hundred different types of cars, vans and trucks. All of those cars, vans and trucks have something in common: they all contain speedometers. Speedometers [...]

Chevrolet speedometer design

Design evolution from 1941 to 2011

Revenue beer stampsThere are a lot of somewhat hidden places on the internet. Fantastic content, located on search engine unfriendly websites like libraries, universities and auction websites. I found the first image of a beer stamp on an auction website, which led me to pages like the [...]

Revenue beer stamps

Engraved stamps from 1866 to 1971

9/11 Newspaper headlines: design and typography“Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” Until the late 1940s newspapers were the primary method of delivering the news. In addition to normal daily papers Extra’s were published when something big happened. These were sold on the street by newsboys. Today [...]

9/11 Newspaper headlines: design and typography

“Extra! Extra! Read all about it!”

Sanborn map company logo and letteringOnce I knew where to look I found a lot of Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. When I started comparing them I noticed the variety of logo/wordmark designs. Displayed above are 30 examples, but it could have been easily been 100. Which proves designers were [...]

Sanborn map company logo and lettering

Wordmarks from maps issued between 1885 and 1921

The Typography of Sanborn New York City MapsIn february ‘BibliOdyssey’ posted an article about Sanborn fire insurance typography. A fantastic collection of rich typography from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Their selection seemed quite random though. Finding more images wasn’t easy. I found [...]

The Typography of Sanborn New York City Maps

Title pages from maps issued between 1885 and 1917

Tour de France 2011: shoes and clothing logos

Tour de France 2011: Shoes and clothing logos

Graphic design in the Tour de France, part 7

Tour de France 2011: helmets and glasses logos

Tour de France 2011: Helmets and glasses logos

Graphic design in the Tour de France, part 6

Tour de France 2011: Wheels and tires logos

Tour de France 2011: Wheels and tires logos

Graphic design in the Tour de France, part 5

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