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Famous food trademarks

Neatorama takes a look at Morton Salt, Jolly Green Giant, Aunt Jemima, Heinz and more. Article here.

(with an update on Quaker, above, here)

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

Penney’s logo history

It all boils down to . . . Helvetica.

JCPenney started as The Golden Rule store – or so said the literature I read as a kid. Wiki says something else.

My mom worked for JCPenney for 22 years and they had a big anniversary in the 1970s. They had wooden rulers with ‘golden rule’ written on them as part of a anniversary suite of premiums. I remember lots of simple yellow (‘golden’) and black stuff, sort of a 70s take on Victorian style.

And I was fascinated with a logotype history chart that was part of a company history booklet. Above is an old photocopy.

Over the years, the company simply became known as Penney’s – logo treatments reflecting retail trends.

The possessive was dropped and the ‘JC’ was officially re-added in 1971 – the year its founder, James Cash Penney passed away.

Tags: design history, fonts, thoughts, typography by steve
4 comments . . .

Old Penneys

1963 logotype. Stonewood Shopping Center, Downey, CA.

Found via jrdub1

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

Logo porn

‘With over 1,000 examples in categories such as animals, circles, faces, or science, it’s fun to browse and serves as a curious retrospective of American entrepreneurism.’ -Fast Company

Eric Baker and Tyler Blik wrote one of the first logo books I ever owned. And their latest is the densely-packed American Trademarks: A Compendium.

Snag your copy here. Read the Fast Company review (with related links and a slideshow) here.

Found via Jamal Ahmad

Tags: design history by steve
1 comment . . .

Sacramento, shhhh

Logotype by mehallo

The secret to being in Sacramento, CA is knowing where the cool stuff is. And a lot of it is just under the radar. The right gallery on Second Saturday, the hole-in-the-wall that has the best burrito, what cool bands are in town.

Mark Bean started Secret Sacramento as a Facebook group. And it’s become wildly popular (over 3,000 followers as I write this) – and it’s spread to Twitter.

And launched recently, the Secret Sacramento website. The new site is kinda sparse – so if you’re local, login and post your own regional finds. Share your secrets.

where i fit in
In addition to designing the logo (above), I will be contributing content from time to time.

But shhhh, it’s all a secret.

Tags: cool finds, culinary, music, thoughts, typography by steve
1 comment . . .

Normandie, Fresno

A couple of weeks ago, I took a day off and drove to Fresno, CA to see Normandie. Nice small club, loud music.

Took photos. Click on them to jump/see larger versions.

Tags: music, photography by steve
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Trajan: The movie font

‘Try playing the Trajan drinking game’

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

Vintage logotypes

‘Collection of vintage logos from a mid-70’s edition of the book World of Logotypes’

Eric Carl’s Flickr set here.

Found via Oded Ezer

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

And, here’s a link to the ‘official’ Pespi rebrand strategy proposal [pdf]. The most involved snow job in the history of brand design. Worth downloading and . . . reading with awe!