the mehallo blog. beta.

Vintage lingerie ads by René Gruau (1909-2004).

Plus, check out Dior’s pre-Galliano-firing Spring 2011 Gruau tribute.

Tags: design, design history, fashion, illustration by steve
2 comments  . . .   

‘Depero Futuristi is a team at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center re-imagining Balli Plastici, the ‘plastic dance’ created by Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero in 1918.’

More info here.

Copies of the final project are available for educational/promotional purposes, contact the team for details.

Tags: art, design, design history, education, illustration by steve
7 comments  . . .   

A collection of Czechoslovakian book covers. More over at 50 Watts.

Found via Mirko Humbert

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, illustration, publication design by steve
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Cover design by El Lissitzky for Roget Ginzburger’s Frankreich (France) 1929.

From Neues Bauen in der Welt, a book series on modern architecture published in Vienna.

Below, recent release by Brooklyn-based Dream Diary, El Lissitzky.

Dream Diary: El Lissitzky

Tags: cool finds, design history, music, photography, publication design by steve
5 comments  . . .   

Eiffel Tower under construction, 1887-89.

Spectra*Paris: Frozen Night

Tags: design history, music, photography by steve
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‘Seven feet tall, weighing 265 pounds, humanoid in appearance, he could walk by voice command, speak about 700 words, smoke cigarettes, blow up balloons and move his head and arms.’

Westinghouse’s Elektro from his appearance at the 1939 World’s Fair.

More info (and construction diagram) here.

Meat Beat Manifesto: I am Electro, feat. Elektro

Tags: design history, exhibitions, music by steve
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‘These photographs were taken using Kodachrome film by the improbably and wonderfully named Chalmers Butterfield, probably in 1949.’

Click on the images for larger images/zoom features/jump.

DJ Munoz/London Calling: You Drive Me Crazy (Yellow Drill Remix)

Images found via Peter Serafinowicz

Tags: design, design history, music, photography, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .   

‘Here are four contenders for future moral condemnation: Our prison system; industrial meat production; the institutionalized and isolated elderly; the environment’

Often I just look at the news and wonder how fucking stupid we’re going to look to future generations.

We have a lot to answer for. I found a great breakdown in The Washington Post. Read it here.

and
Above – just to contrast – is Walt Disney’s original plan for EPCOT, outlined in a 1966 short film. Made a couple months before Disney’s death.

Tags: design history, thoughts by steve
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‘Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2,053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998.’

Over the years, the US has set off over a thousand nukes. Something I never really knew.

Skip thru to the early 1960s and the multiples of blasts end up looking like Christmas lights.

Found via Marian Bantjes

Tags: design history, education by steve
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The work of Lim Heng Swee.

Pink Floyd: Breathe in the Air/On the Run (demo versions)

Found via Robert Boord

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, illustration, music by steve
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‘Can we add serifs to Gotham?’

One thing I like about Obama: He knows good design.

In 2008, his campaign lifted political propaganda out of the long ass slump it had been in. The fonts of choice were Eric Gill’s Perpetua and Tobias Frere-Jones’ Gotham.

And revealed this week: 2012 graphics featuring a custom slab serif version of Gotham.

So when The President calls wanting a font change, Hoefler & Frere-Jones were ready to oblige.

Found via Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Tags: design, design history, fonts, typography by steve
2 comments  . . .