September, 2010 | the mehallo blog. beta.

Junk food, painted

‘Each one of these paintings is five or six feet tall and takes Pamela two months to finish.’

The work of Pamela Michelle Johnson. Interview here. Website here.

Found via Bit Rebels

Tags: art, cool finds, culinary by steve
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Color coded Safeway, 1953

David Rose: Holiday For Strings

Found via Pleasant Valley Shopping

Tags: cool finds, culinary, design, design history by steve
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Illustrated ‘Food Mart’ renderings, circa 1962

Vintage architectural renderings of storefronts by an anonymous artist. These were found in a photo album.

It’s amazing how many of these appear to be prototypes for stores that did exist. Wonder what the story is behind them (one agency created facades for many major chains)??

More here.

Sir Julian Gould: Movin At Midnight

Found via Justin Panson

Tags: art, cool finds, culinary, design, design history, illustration, typography by steve
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The Safeway

Old Safeway (and other market) footage, with a version of Charlie Barnet’s Skyliner (1944) – performed by Gloria Tracy.

Tags: culinary, design, design history by steve
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Marina-style shopping

‘the ‘Marina’ type, named after San Francisco’s Marina Boulevard store . . . The mosaic murals were created by John Garth. They depict food being transported from the four corners of the globe.’

Though abandoned by the company, this ‘googie-style’ seabird facade (above and below) was THE brand for the Safeway supermarket chain.

The Marina market even made an appearance in one of my favorite films, Bullitt (1968). It was part of the famous car chase thru San Francisco (clip below).

The last Lucky

The final Lucky store that bore the Raymond Loewy facade was located in Palo Alto.

There was a strong preservation effort for this location. Palo Alto is quite picky about big boxes invading.

Now abandoned, the store saw its last customer in 2005.

Photo by mehallo, taken 1998

Tags: culinary, design history, photography by steve
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Design legend Raymond Loewy (1893–1986) came up with the look – and façade – for the Lucky Supermarket chain – now owned by Savemart of Modesto. Yellow and green were part of the brand. And the type: An art deco script.

Somewhere along the way, as Lucky found itself sold and passed around, the original design vanished into history.

Today’s version of the Lucky logo, unfortunately, looks like a rough Adobe Illustrator live trace – just to keep the name afloat. Brand equity and all that.

The Super: Petrini’s, an old Lucky

I designed a postcard series in 1999 called, 20th Century Obsolete. It was about things unique to the 20th Century, things that no longer exist. They’re now available as notecards and prints. Snag your own here.

And,
In my opinion, Lucky today isn’t quite the Lucky it once was. (Read my next post, I’ll have it up by early evening)

Tags: culinary, design, design history, photography by steve
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Inside Trader Joe’s

‘Even in the early days, Trader Joe’s appeal was its narrow but zany selection and loyal customers’

Fortune takes a look at the Secret World of Trader Joe’s. How it works and how they’re trying to stay small.

The formula doesn’t always work. Back in the 1990s, TJ founder Joe Coulombe purchased one of my favorite food places: the Bay Area Petrini’s grocery chain, only to make changes that confused customers. Since the store was a full size supermarket, the odd ‘less is more,’ Trader Joe’s approach – which resulted in less merchandise and a drastic change in shopping experience – alienated regulars. Petrini’s changed hands one more time and was gone by 1999.

Photo of a reusable TJ shopping tote by mehallo

Tags: culinary, thoughts by steve
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