August, 2009 | the mehallo blog. beta.

2Edged Magazine: The sex issue

From Greece: 2Edged Magazine issue 5 was released this week. 284 pages of graphic design, motion graphics, photography, animation, art and music.

Download your free copy here.

Tags: art, cool finds, design, fashion, music, photography, publication design by steve
1 comment . . .

Escalators are good for animation

From Milan, escalator animation by Mister Kama.

Found via PSFK

Tags: cool finds, illustration by steve
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IKEA, hacks and history

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 . . .

What do you know about Futura?

‘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 . . .

Modern height

Dive in: Slovakian artist Roman Ondák’s Measuring the Universe runs thru September 14th, 2009 at Museum of Modern Art in NYC. More details here.

Roman Ondák discusses Measuring the Universe at MoMA

Found via BMD Love Blog

Tags: art, cool finds, exhibitions by steve
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Modern wheels

Award-winning cover design for the 1975 Dodge Dart’s user manual

RIP Cash for Clunkers. The program – which ended today – may have totally changed the look of our roadways.

Art found via Graphis Annual 76|77

Tags: design history, thoughts by steve
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National waffffles! 2009

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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Moderno wallpaper, from Austria

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 . . .

‘Adobe Illustrator’ from the early 1960s

Part 1

From a half hour show documenting the early development of computer-human graphical interaction.

Part 2

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

The originals

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.