From the reference box #20

This is a copy of, 'The Racing Pigeon: The British Pigeon Racing Weekly', 22 April 1967. A funny little newspaper devoted totally to racing pigeons and absolutely packed with information, adverts, stories and articles. Pigeon racing must have been very popular back then to get this much content week after week.

Here are some of the adverts and pictures that made me chuckle, and did you know the term, 'squeaker' refers to a young racing pigeon? See you learn something new everyday!



#20 - The Racing Pigeon, 22 April 1967

Auto Type

Make, model & engine size badges on classic cars always have great typography. I've been photographing them for a while now, and though it was about time they had post. Enjoy...

Paul Rand: A Tribute

How good was Paul Rand! This tribute is a nice little reminder of his work and his design philosophy. If this has got you yearning to see more check out the Paul Rand website which is packed full of all his work; identities, advertising, posters and books etc... as well as an extensive biography, lots of interviews and articles and some of his best quotes/philosophies;

"Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations".

For those of you stateside, you lucky people are going to have the opportunity to see this iconic design in the flesh at the 'Paul Rand: Modernist Design in Context' exhibition, October 16 - December 13 2008, in the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. The exhibition curator is Franc Nunoo-Quarcoo, author of 'Paul Rand: Modernist Design' and Professor & Chair of Visual Arts at UMBC. Somebody please bring it to the UK, pretty please!!

I couldn't let this post go, without posting some of his amazing work...



Tribute created by J Neeley, found on Rubbishcorp.
Images copyright Paul Rand.

Which? Magazine

I had a great find at the car boot sale on Saturday - a big box of Which? magazines from 1960 to 1981. There are a couple of years missing and quite a few of the 'Money Which?' and 'Motoring Which?' supplements are missing, but as a collection they are well worth the £10 I paid!

Above are a selection of the covers, they are really great, I personally prefer the more graphic ones, but there are some more photographic and also some which are more illustrative. They are quite text heavy inside, but remain clean and un-cluttered, with some lovely typography. Also because of all the comparisons and tests that they run, almost every issue has a really well-designed chart, graph, diagram or illustration making them valuable reference.



I will eventually scan in all the covers and create a 'Which? Covers' Flickr group, so watch this space!

Intrastate Commerce

'Intrastate Commerce' is a great Flickr set from Society in Decline that has pages of roadside signs from across America. It's fantastic reference, but there are so many, it takes a while to click through them all!

Via The Serif.

From the reference box #19

I'm not exactly sure what this is - I think it's a sales tag that would have been attached to purchased typewriters, but I love the 'Low's' type it's great. The red disc is weighted and engraved on it's metal centre with, '3 in 1 velus quality. The world over. Made in England. N0.100' on both sides. There is a postage stamp on the reverse with a date of 15.06.35 so I'm guessing it originates around that time.

So, #19 - Typewriter sales tag. Circa 1935.

Do not disturb

It never occurred to me that 'Do not Disturb' door hangers could be interesting and well designed, until I stumbled upon Michael Lebowitz's fantastic collection on the equally fantastic Grain Edit.

Lebowitz found the collection on the wall of his late grandfather's study - he was a foreign service man and during his travels had collected the door hangers, brought them home and stuck them on the wall of his study, eventually filling the whole wall!

They are really great, all different shapes, sizes and languages. Some are simple and well designed, some have humour and others are just functional, but they are all great pieces of ephemera - thank you Michael for sharing!

Via Grain Edit.