February, 2011 | the mehallo blog. beta.

The Influencers

‘The Influencers is a short documentary that explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends and creativity become contagious today in music, fashion and entertainment.’

Trailer above. Watch the film here.

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

Vintage Chicago signs

Part one

‘Every forth purchase is an impulse purchase’

Powerful advertising everywhere!

Incredible footage, includes early shots of Walgreen’s, A&P and Kresge (which became Kmart).

Part two

Part three

Found via Okay Type

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

Hadank

‘Hadank is a display typeface developed from hand-lettered words in a German printer’s letterhead from the 1920s’

Andrew Leman makes props for the motion picture industry. And along the way, he’s built a collection of fonts to help with making said props authentic.

Order his Hadank fonts here. Website (with interview video) here.

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, fonts, typography by steve
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‘Published posthumously in a limited edition of 250, features 142 sets of roman and italic typefaces, a wide selection of borders, ornaments, symbols, and flowers, as well as Greek, Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, Phoenician, Armenian, Coptic and Tibetan alphabets.’

My birthday was last week and to my surprise, my wife got her hands on Taschen’s limited edition reprint of Giambattista Bodoni’s masterwork, his Manuale Tipografico (1818).

Bodoni had almost unlimited funding and resources at his disposal – so the details in his large body of types (he just kept going) is beyond what is seen in most revivals of his work. ITC Bodoni comes damn close, but a lot of Bodoni’s original designs end up on the cutting room floor.

My Jeanne types (named for my wife) have roots in Bodoni – and I used some digital resources to research his Manuale. But it is great to now actually have a print edition in my collection – cause I’m not done with tinkering.

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, education, fonts, publication design, typography by steve
6 comments . . .

ATF kit

‘Features over 100 cards with specimens from the 1951 type catalog, showcasing dozens of fonts in their various weights and point sizes.’

American Type Founders was the largest metal type company in the world. They came to an end in 1993 in an ill-planned bankruptcy auction.

Tons of type history (literally) were melted down for scrap. Many records and original drawings were destroyed.

Pictured, Just My Type’s recent acquisition: ATF’s 1951 merchandising case.

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

Google (Art) History

‘Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces’

Google’s new Art Project – set up in collaboration with 17 museums from around the world. Start here.

Tags: art, cool finds, education by steve
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Smart (Art) History

‘Smarthistory is a multimedia web-book about art + art history’

Smarthistory is currently seeking funding thru Kickstarter. Details (and video) here.

Website here. They have at least 300 art history videos (like the one below) completed so far.

Raphael’s Alba Madonna, 1510

Tags: art, cool finds by steve
3 comments . . .

Mona Lisa eyes

‘Silvano Vinceti claims he has found the letter S in the woman’s left eye, the letter L in her right eye, and the number 72 under the arched bridge in the backdrop of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting’

Article here.