the mehallo blog. beta.

‘There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum’ -Arthur C. Clarke

Photographs by Burak Arikan. Details here.

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, photography by steve
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Nine women who changed the world. Article here.

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, fashion, photography by steve
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Herbie: The Love Bug (1968) was da bomb when I was a kid.

Had the story album (above) and the first two films were set in San Francisco (that was cool). Herbie Rides Again (1974) had Helen Hayes in a funky Cable Car thing and I remember that Stefanie Powers was super cute.

Had posters, toys, tiny cars (that I’d take to the mechanic to fix when I broke them. Really). And I once got in trouble for painting a 53 on my mom’s old Volkswagen hatchback (I didn’t care that it wasn’t a beetle. It had a VW on it). I didn’t stop there, I did something similar to a neighbor’s new Lincoln Town Car lift kit project for which I got in way more trouble for.

Here’s the website of the ultimate Herbie fan (and Disney employee) Hugh Chitwood. Found these funky images (below) at his site; they were used as promos for the Fully Loaded (2005) Lohan/Justin Long/Michael Keaton/NASCAR comeback.

Not bad for a car that was originally designed by dis guy.

1932 sketch for the Volkswagen, the ‘car of the people’

For more VW history, go here.
For more Herbie, go here (and follow the links at the bottom of the page).

George Bruns: Love Bug Theme

Tags: design history by steve
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‘In the 70s they called it war paint’ -Sven Voelker

A look at the graphic design of racing cars – an overview of the new book by Sven Voelker, Go Faster. Article and video here.

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, photography by steve
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‘And no matter what the locals tell you, don’t take the pink line to the yellow line.’ –Gizmodo

Speaking of the Underground, here’s Sam Lomen’s Underskin.

Found via Justin Nelson

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, education, illustration by steve
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Above, a compilation of BBC News Countdown music and graphics from 1999 thru 2007.

And, if you want to totally rock out – a cool downloadable MP3 compilation of the news music (used in the video above) – composed by David Lowe – can be snagged here. Facebook fanpage here.

Plus, here’s some funky remixes:

BBC News 24 Countdown Steve Beck Remix

BBC News 24 Countdown by kLemon

BBC News 24 Countdown SamUK Mix 2008

BBC News 24 Countdown TOTH Remix 2

Tags: cool finds, design history, music by steve
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Reanimating and recreating BBC graphics.

Here’s a few more (in addition to the work I posted on Wednesday); above a recreation of the classic BBC globe. And some other odd stuff I found while browsing around  . . .

‘A weird BBC World twister ident’

‘BBC 1 in a retro style’

‘BBC 2 tangled’

Plus
Some real BBC idents from over the years:

BBC 1

BBC 2

Tags: cool finds, design, design history by steve
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Dave Allen at Large show opening with sketches; theme music by Alan Hawkshaw

I grew up fascinated by comedy and comedians. One of the first from the UK that invaded my telly was Irish comedian Dave Allen. Allen had a comedy show on the BBC. And he simply sat there and told stories – with some short sketches thrown in.

Topics (his words): ‘Life, Death, Drinking, Religion and the English.’

The animated title design and music (developed in 1972, seen above) was really cool. The BBC would do wonderful things with title design. Even if the show didn’t have a budget to think of.

Here’s some highlights from a Dave Allen series from the 1990s:

Airplanes

Religion

Post Offices

Supermarkets

Tags: cool finds, design history by steve
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In 2007, Max Headroom came out of retirement to advertise digital tv (above).

And
Here’s a couple of the shorter spots:

Tags: cool finds, design history by steve
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‘You’re looking at the future  . . .  people translated as data’

The visionary Max Headroom series premiered on American television March, 1987.

It was just weird enough to not last too long on network TV. It did make some predictions about the future  . . . [Read more →]

Tags: cool finds, design history, thoughts by steve
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Part 1

George Stone, Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton went on to create 1980s icon Max Headroom – performed by (oft underrated actor/comedian) Matt Frewer.

This is the original British-made cyberpunk television movie, Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future (1985). In a world dominated by corporate-run television empires, reporter Edison Carter develops a digital alter-ego.

Wow, I sounded just like TV Guide.

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Tags: cool finds, design history by steve
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