Tag Archives: design

From back when copy, cut and paste weren’t keyboard shortcuts.

The cover of Print (America’s Graphic Design Magazine) July/August 1974

Well, it took 38 years for me to find out about it, then over a decade for me to track down a copy for myself, but now I have it! — Print (America’s Graphic Design Magazine), July/August 1974 — It has a feature story on art directing National Lampoon, and then they let National Lampoon take over a section of their publication for extra mayhem.

Wild.

Always remember to budget some time for creative research.

I feel the need for seed. Wait…

I thought I had a chance at this Northrup King Northern Grown Tested Seeds box at Saturday’s North Star Auction, but I’ll skip the middle part of the story and say it ended at $775 and I didn’t even get my hand up. One of the best vintage illustrations and designs I’ve seen, and also one of the best preserved. Magnificent!

Northrup King Northern Grown Tested Seeds box
Northrup King Northern Grown Tested Seeds box
Northrup King Northern Grown Tested Seeds box

Nothing sucks like Electrolux.

Seen at an auction, an Electrolux Users Manual, the front and back cover seen here.

Continue reading

These Suds Ain’t Duds

Midcentury-ish boxes of soap of the following brands: Oxydol, Ivory Snow, Nola, Vel and Duz
Midcentury-ish boxes of soap of the following brands: Oxydol, Ivory Snow, Nola, Vel and Duz

This last Saturday was laundry day at the North Star Auction in Mandan, North Dakota.

Also, back in the day, laundry soap and dish soap were often the same soap.

Check out the sweet package art.

Woe Is Me

Walt Kuhn for Life humor magazine, December 13, 1906

Dance with a Witch in the Moonlight

Collier’s Magazine, November 1, 1947

One of the finest Halloween covers in American magazine history.
Art by the brilliant Earl Oliver Hurst.

This Week in Ephemera

This is a score! The entire 1916 year of McCall’s magazine and in beautiful condition, especially considering these twelve issues are over a hundred years old.

Wisdom

Whisper admonished me for failing to reach a zen state because I stress about things I should no longer care about.

“If you give somebody a perfectly grilled steak and they take it and slather shampoo and gravel all over it and then complain that it isn’t any good, that’s on them, not you. Meow.”

Whisper is wise.