Penguins and Pelicans

Don't you just love old Penguin and Pelican books? Do you remember these? Fabulous covers with bright, bold illustrations.


Like many, I prefer books from the 60s/70s. This Pelican has to be one of my all time favourites from university.

I know it's not fresh news, but if you're a book lover and are interested in seeing how jacket design has changed over the years, Things Magazine has created a fantastic gallery of Pelican books dating from the 1930s to the 1980s.
I also found a really interesting post on the development of the classic Penguin logo over at one of my new favourite design blogs delicious industries.




UK graphic designer Littlepixel has produced some great work reimagining classic records as vintage Penguin books. Really first-class.


I was also drawn to Julian House's prints shown at his first exhibition "The New Spirit Happening" seen over at the brilliant Analogue Books' store. Julian is co-founder of Ghostbox records who records under the name The Focus Group. He is an acclaimed graphic designer with Intro, known to most for his work with Primal Scream, The Prodigy, Oasis, Stereolab and Broadcast.
Julian's exhibition took the form of a "collection of ephemera, screen prints and moving image that hints at the supernatural phenomena and events taking place at the new spirit hall in Belbury, a fictional provincial English town". Definitely a strong Penguin influence there!

Bold birdies

Love these bird silkscreen prints by beethings. Fly over to her etsy store where you can buy a three-bird pack for the price of two. Those blue jays are really sweet!

AQ-V - Vintage Americana

Love these fine art reproduction mini prints of original WPA artwork by AquaVelvet. The Work Projects Association commissioned various artists to create silkscreen, woodcut and lithograph posters during the 1930-40s as part of President Roosevelt's New Deal. Combining simplified graphic illustrations with bold, hand-lettered typography, they were both eye-catching and effective in promoting health and safety programs, travel and tourism, educational and cultural programs and community activities. Amy's repros are printed on archival bamboo fine art paper and have an ample white border for framing. Fabulous!

You can find out more about Amy Henderson /AquaVelvet here and by following her lovely visual language blog, focused on graphic design, illustration and typography. Amy is giving away this beautiful Montana print on her blog, but hurry, entries close at the end of August. Enjoy!

Come fly with me

Two fantastic promotional brochures for General Motors' "Futurama II" exhibit at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. This was the most popular exhibit, "a ride into tomorrow", imagining life in the year 2024 . Includes a map of New York City and fab space age illustrations. Two great pieces of mid-century ephemera, available from PaperHistory, here.

London in the sparkling sixties

It's been a while since I showed you some of my etsy finds. You know how much I love London, so here's yet another amazing vintage teatowel from one of my favourite stores callmejasper. That woman never ceases to amaze me, just look at those graphics! This would look great framed or on display in a mid-century kitchen. Fabulous!

Surely

you need a vintage wooden caravan music box that plays Eidelweiss? You can buy it here then hop over to Sweet, Sweet Life* to learn how to make Charlie and Lola a house like this to go with it.


* Tutorial to be posted by Sunday.

Calling all Culture Vultures

Bob and Roberta Smith Blocks - Tate

If you've been following you'll know that my kids love art. We have a wonderful museum in Montpellier which runs art courses for adults and children all year round, including school holidays. Dylan and Savannah went on the Emil Nolde course at Easter culminating in a huge chalk fresque, mostly drawn by Dylan in the heart of the city. I love to see my children at ease in art galleries and museums. Savannah's very receptive to this environment in particular.

If you're looking for new ideas for gifts and are short of inspiration, why not shop in online museum and gallery stores? I always find unusual birthday and Christmas presents at the Tate, the V&A, the Design Museum and MoMA, but there are so many other great addresses across the globe. I intended to show you a few of my favourite objects from museums and galleries in Great Britain, before searching in other places across Europe and elsewhere. However, I've been pipped to the post - a group of four men in the UK have also seen the potential in this museum market and recently created an online culture lover's dream called CultureLabel. This has to be one of my best finds in 2009.

The new CultureLabel website aims to bring together over 20,000 culture-related products curated from museums, galleries and cultural institutions in Great Britain. These four cultural entrepreneurs plan to trawl the rest of the world in the future. What can I say? A culture shoppers dream, thousands of amazing, original, artist-designed products and a chance to visit - at least virtually- hitherto unknown places such as Baltic, the Royal Armouries (fantastic place) and the Lighthouse all via one platform. I love it!!!
Spread the word, but before you take a peek, please be warned, time flies when you're on this site, there's so much to discover!

Iggy Peck, Architect, - IKON

What's inside - by Hazell Nicholls - Keep Calm Gallery

Build a Taxi Kit - Museum of London


London in a Bag - Museum of London

Wake Me-Up Tube Stickers - Museum of London

Clifford Richards Fairy Wings - the V&A


Milko C Backpack - The Lighthouse
History Timeline Lunchbox - English Heritage

My Sweet Dog -Baltic

Samourai Magnetic Armor set - Royal Armouries


Making Stuff for Kids - The Lighthouse