Slide ephemera

 

I've been sorting through a bunch of old family slides, and enjoyed the look of some of the printed ephemera that accompanied the golden age of slides (1950s-'60s). We miss out on such printed matter in today's digital photography. Click to enlarge.

Luddite Pinterest board

A photo tour of my home office pinboard can be viewed on Facebook here.

Happy 2012

I did a new snowflake for 2012 to accompany the ones from 2011 and 2010. These are not proper six-sided snowflakes; maybe I should be reported to the Campaign for Real Snowflakes?

Small possessions

Sixteen small objects I own that carry some degree of sentimental value to me. Details here.

Happy 2011

After making a new year's paper snowflake last year, I decided to continue the tradition (although this year's looks more like a doily than a snowflake). May joy be yours in 2011.

Typographic oddities in Scotland

Photos of signs I took years ago in Scotland and England. Lots of interesting typography and handlettering there. The one of the old cigarette machine appears to read "ever open kids" but actually reads "ever open kiosk."

Cookbook ephemera

My coworker and fellow designer Janelle inherited this 1936 Household Searchlight cookbook from her grandmother. It has a cool sculpture-embossed cover and beautifully worn tabs, plus lots of old clipped recipes stuck inside.

Dust to dust

I saw this sign at the cemetery; it's in a glass case and is deteriorating in an interesting way, with fallen bits collecting in the bottom of the case.

Official Skee-Skate

I won this at a silent auction fundraiser for the Dundee skatepark; it's a very early skateboard, circa 1961. So it's an antique, just like me. Pretty cool, but a deathtrap to ride.

Happy new year!

To celebrate the beginning of 2010, I made this paper snowflake.

ho ho ho

Box lid I found on the street in Portland.

Consolidated screw

Sign on a wall in a small town in Oregon.

Aha

Details from an old amplifier box in my garage. I find the icons intriguing; any guesses as to what they mean? Not what they really mean, what they could mean. My thoughts:
Left: box may be safely levitated
Center: suitable for Oregon weather
Right: good for use in castles

Urban grit Newberg style part III

The third and final installment of gritty old typography found in Newberg, Oregon.


This sign near the skatepark makes me happy each time I see it.


Wash me. I think these letters are styrofoam.


Many years ago Darby's was a cool old diner on the main street. It's long gone, but this sign in the alley behind it lingers on.


This hand-painted sign is on one of those old quonset huts.


I wish I could tell what was painted on the front of this abandoned bus. Bi-La-Vonne?

Happy 4th of July

This warm-hearted message brought to you by a guy in my neighborhood, who feels this sentiment is important enough to share with anyone driving behind his trailer. I believe this is an excerpt from the text on the statue of liberty, but I could be mistaken.

R.I.P. Shaw's

Shaw's is an old restaurant here in Newberg that had this great yet odd lettering on their sign. They recently went out of business, and I went by there to see if I could get this old sign. It turns out the letters were so old they just crumbled off when they were removing them, so there was nothing to salvage. Oh, well, at least I got a picture before it disappeared.

Instant nostalgia

Ahhh, looking at these old Polaroids take me back; those were the days when I was young and happy... Actually, these were taken a couple days ago. My girlfriend Laura had a Polaroid camera squirreled away, and it still had some film in it. The first shot didn't develop the top half of the image, so we tried to get in the bottom of the frame, and the whole picture (more or less) appeared. It's funny how the faded colors and poor chemicals give these an instant patina of age.

The craze and menace of skateboards

I scored this 1965 Life magazine at our office Christmas white elephant gift exchange. The title of this post is the cover headline. I like the classic wipeout on the right of the spread shown. I think skater kids today should start saying things like "too much moxie breeds mayhem in the streets, dude." Click to enlarge.

Fireplace wall

This is the wall around my fireplace. My ex-boss Tim Cobb gave me the numbers from an old gas station sign. I added a health book cover and a piece made from a flattened Burger King fries package (second from top), along with various art pieces I have made. The bottom piece is a paper and wax collage featuring a bio of an old Quaker named Preserve Brown, not a relative as far as I know.

Grand Duchess Charlotte, overprinted

This postage stamp from the 1920s featuring Luxembourg's Grand Duchess Charlotte is overprinted with the word Officiel; I like how the dot of the "i" lands right in her eye.