the mehallo blog. beta.

Built in knife rack by mehallo, hacked from an IKEA’s Molger bathroom shelf

I’m an IKEA hack. Because the products don’t always fit the space, don’t always work the right way or can be repurposed for other use. Form follows function – or form changes for better function – as it were.

IKEA is everywhere, almost. They seem to be in specific parts of the US, and then strategically all over the rest of the world. A photographer I once worked with noted that when they come to town, one can see them slowly change the look of a community. My dentist notes that they seem to open next to train tracks. [Read more →]

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, thoughts by steve
1 comment  . . .   

‘Foo-der-ah’ – as one of my students once called it. Paul Renner’s Futura is everywhere – and here’s a write up in idsgn’s ongoing know your type series.

Or – if you really want to get your hands dirty – snag a copy of the expanded edition of Christopher Burke’s wonderful biography of Paul Renner – detailing the creation of Futura – how knock offs were released before he even finished his drawings, his arrest by the Nazis, other fonts, sketches, experiments  . . .  But even more, the book details philosophy, beliefs and how they contributed to the creation of types that are as fresh today as they were in the 1920s.

Did you hear that IKEA???

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, education, fonts, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .   

Today is National Waaffffle Day – celebrating the day the first US patent for a Waffffle maker was issued to Cornelius Swartwout in 1869.

Celebrate your love of waffffles with a limited edition waffffles! shirt by mehallo. Available for both men and women. Part of The Moderno Collection at Cafe Press.

Photo taken at The Original Pancake House in Roseville, CA

Tags: culinary, design, fashion, mehallo merchandise, typography by steve
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Here’s a link to a cool collection of typographic wallpapers designed by Arno Kathollnig/Typoatelier. Including a fun ((t+y+p+o)-o)+e= version (pictured above) featuring my very own Jeanne Moderno fonts.

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, typography by steve
2 comments  . . .   

I miss these icons. Susan Kare developed them – and the standard city-named fonts – for the original Apple Macintosh in the early 1980s.

I particularly like the alert message guy in the right corner – a playful bitmapped take that has a similar feel as Oskar Schlemmer’s 1921 bauhaus icon.

My grungy Alta California font was inspired by Kare’s original San Francisco font; which, unfortunately hasn’t been available on a Macintosh for many years. I have a great respect for her ability to convey so many many different letters within a small 72 dpi black and white space. Unfortunately – thru gratuitous use – San Francisco did sort of become the Comic Sans of its day. Sort of.

Check out Kare’s online store for some fantastic tees and notecards. Rad digital art from a simpler era. An era that didn’t need gradients and drop shadows in order to dazzle.

And drop by the Japan-based Vintage Mac Museum to see some of Kare’s original icons in action.

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, fonts, typography by steve
3 comments  . . .   

Lite-Bright typography created by Brooklyn-based GrandArmy

More detail here.

Vintage Lite-Brite commercial

Found via Type Theory

Tags: cool finds, design, typography by steve
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Project Runway returns tonight. And note that fashion design is just one industry over from graphic design. What I like most is: students who watch can know what to expect from my critiques and timed exercises. In fact, just a few weeks back I used for class – almost verbatim – a challenge from Runway’s diet doppelganger, Bravo replacement The Fashion Show.

And ever since Runway’s been on the air, I’ve been able to do really tough critiques without too many screamfests resulting (well, mostly). And the peppy dance music then has a reason. But my Tim Gunn impersonation: needs a plenitude of practice.

Tags: design, fashion, thoughts by steve
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Found via ffffound, via iLOVE

Tags: design by steve
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Veer’s sixth annual Summer Activity Book for creatives, it’s too good to be true! Forty two pages as a handy downloadable PDF.

Found via Twitter.com/gingdd

Tags: cool finds, design by steve
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Line art by Steve Masseroni

gurus plant ideas
Steve Masseroni is an incredible artist I knew in high school. He was dabbling with working for Marvel Comics at the time, but set out in his own direction. In a afternoon critique in 1985, he gave me his favorite brush and a few tips on being an illustrator. [Read more →]

Tags: art, design, illustration, thoughts by steve
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Illustration for my high school yearbook, 1985

Fill out this survey about your senior year of high school!

1. Did you date someone from your school?
No one would date me.

2. Did you marry someone from your high school?
Nope. Married someone whose father went to my high school. Suzanne Somers went to my high school. We all talked about that. Her father was my father’s drinking buddy. She married a guy named Allen. He didn’t go to our school. He was Canadian. [Read more →]

Tags: art, design, education, flom by steve
10 comments  . . .