Illustrated Book Of The Week : Shop America

If you put all my favorite things into a pot, stirred them up and made them into a book. You might well get this.

Shops! America!! Mid Century Design!!! Who could ask for anything more?





Shop America is a large format collection of 'style suggestions' for shop design from the Thirties and Forties. Idealised images of dream stores from one of the most romantic eras of design in the Twentieth Century.





Everything from sporting good shops and pharmacies





to cosmetic stores and opticians





The use of colour is particularly inspiring - just look at the tones suggested for a supermarket (Much as I love Waitrose, this is far more alluring, isn't it?)





And the illustrations are incredibly stylish - even the sweetshops have a hint of 30's pulp fiction..





Others are straight out of classic film noir. I could swear that this woman is about to pull a revolver out of her purse and shoot the other chick dead. I've watched enough Joan Crawford films to know, eyebrows like that can only mean one thing...





...Trouble.

Shop America: Mid-Century Storefront Design, 1938-1950 Edited by Jim Heimann, with an essay by Steven Heller is available from Taschen Books

Better than Brimfield, Lilles' 'Grande Braderie'

After ploughing through endless blogposts on the marvels of Brimfield , we thought it was time to blow our own trumpet a bit. Well not exactly our own but that of our dear French neighbours. I visited northern Frances’ ‘Grande Braderie de Lille’ which is held every year over the first weekend in September and literally takes over the whole town for about 48 hours. It really is a must for all those lovers of French linens, pastel enamels and all those other typically ‘frogie’ items, that make Paris’ flea market a must on any visit to the Capital.

For this post I’ve focused in on all the fantastic graphics and patterns on offer. I was travelling by train so was not able to make any major purchases, but looking back at all these photos is almost as satisfying.

Bloody Good

The sun is shining, the skies are blue, and it's time for the graduate degree shows - how inspiring!

By far the best graduate show that I've seen this summer is D&AD's New Blood showcase - which highlights the most interesting new talents in advertising, design and illustration from around the country. It's always stimulating to see what the new generation is producing, and the direction that they are taking - and this year there was a particularly strong group of work that fused retro and modern styles to make work that was completely contemporary.

Take Matthew Bromley's work. Elements of skate-punk, graffiti and comic strip are mixed with a mid-century palette and graphic style to make something very fresh.

Plus - he made life size masks. Always a winner.

Then there's the more obviously retro-referenced work of Robert Fresson and Edward Tuckwell (both graduating from the exceptionally good Illustration BA at Falmouth).

Robert's work is beautifully intricate and very English. This image immediately makes me want to go on a picnic.

On the other hand, Edward's pared down graphic style pays perfect homage to Film Noir.

This book jacket of his is so beautiful I'd like it on my wall.

Someone else obviously inspired by classic Americana is Aaron Alexander from Staffordshire University - this packaging for fireworks may well have been my favorite thing in the whole show. Far too nice to blow up.

Finally - huge compliments to Simon Cook (that's his stand at the beginning of this post). His website Stone and Spear is packed with fantastic things. Charming, naughty and with the most brilliant use of colour - his work gives me the thrill of the new that you always hope to get at graduate shows.

With talent like this, blogs like grain edit are going to have the time of their lives. I can't wait to start seeing these guys work on billboards, books and products.

Illustrated Book Of The Week : Let Me Drive

What do you want to be when you grow up? A fireman? A nurse? A fairy princess?

If, even now, the answer is "a railway driver", then we have the book for you.

Brian Fawcett's 'Let Me Drive' is the ultimate 1950's how-to manual for the junior steam engine fanatic. It's not really a story book, more a beginners guide to the technicalities of working on an 'iron horse'.




Opening a page at random you're informed that "Mid Gear keeps the valves covering the steam ports to the cylinder, and can be used to stop in the event of a Regulator Rod breaking when the valve is open..."

Fascinating.




Still, even if the text is a little dry, it's the unusual combination of 'Boys Own' type illustrations with technical drawings that makes us want to jump aboard and stoke the engines.




Time to go into the attic and dig out the old Hornby set, I think.

Happy Birthday Curious Eye

Today is The Curious Eyes' first birthday, in celebration we purchased this Mickey Mouse fireguard panel this morning in Spitalfields Market.

Illustrated Book Of The Week : They Put out To Sea

It's been quite sometime since the last appearance of our occasional item 'Illustrated Book of the Week' This one however seemed to fit in quite well with our recent travel posts. The bright colours and boldness of the plates put a smile on our face.

Illustrated book of the week : A History of Machines

I have a set of six of these titles from ‘The New Illustrated Library of Science and Invention’. This one is a French edition, the rest are English and were once to be found in the library of St Mary’s School

They were designed by Erik Nitsche, who according to his wikipedia entry ‘was a pioneer in the design of books, annual reports, and other printed material that relied on meticulous attention to the details of page composition, the elegance of simple type presentation, and the juxtaposition of elements on a page. His hallmarks were impeccably clear design, brilliant colours, smart typography, and an adherence to particular geometric foundations.’

Which is apparent in the stylish pages of these school text books. We felt tha this one made a particularly good follow up to Kapoor’s cannon. There is a set of 12 of these inspiring titles on Ebay at the moment if anyone is interested. We will show more from our collection in the coming weeks

Illustrated book of the week - The Motor Manual

While we're on the topic of transportation. Perhaps some of the magnificent creatures in the last post were modelled on the principles of this weeks illustrated book. 'The Motor Manual'. Published just after the Second World War, this 'practical handbook for the motorist' provides us with some gorgeous vintage visuals.

I particularly like the way that these mechanical pictures act as 'anatomical drawings' of 1940's cars. Most of it looks pretty familiar, but if you're wondering what the 'strangler' is, we now call it the 'choke' - a still violent, but slightly less vivid description.

I find the technical illustrations strangely inspring. But better yet are some of the ads that run through the manual.

Who knew that dip-sticks could look so good?