New York, USA

Henry Wolf was an Austrian-born American graphic designer, photographer and art director best known for his art direction of Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, and Show magazines in the 1950s and ’60s—an influential contributor to that Mid-Century Modern era whose style has enjoyed such a resurgence in popularity of late. In particular, he is known for his bold yet simple use of expressive typography, surreal photography, and conceptual illustration.

Henry was born in 1925 in Vienna, Austria, from which he and his Jewish family fled the Nazis beginning in 1938, traveling through France and North Africa, before arriving to the United States in 1941. He worked with photographers Richard Avedon, Melvin Sokolsky, and Art Kane before launching his own photography studio in New York’s Upper East Side.

He became art director of Esquire in 1952; in 1958 he became the art director of Harper’s Bazaar (succeeding Alexey Brodovitch); and in 1961 he started a new magazine, Show, for A&P heir Huntington Hartford. In 1965 he moved over to the advertising world where he directed numerous high-profile campaigns. In 1971 he launched Henry Wolf Productions, a studio devoted to photography, film, and design. In later years he taught graphic design at Parsons School of Design in New York, as well as the School of Visual Arts, and Cooper Union.

Henry was honored with many awards, but more importantly, he was admired by colleagues, peers, and competitors alike. Read a biography written my Milton Glaser here and view collections of his works here.

(an experiment by Moritz Resl in Vienna, Austria)

“This experiment shows what a font would look like if it consisted of all typefaces installed on my system. Every character from a to z is drawn using every single font with a low opacity. In total there are over 900 typefaces in my library. I didn’t exclude the ugly ones.”

Thanks to Jeff Werner for the link.

Berlin, Germany

An impressive joint venture of the Buchstabenmuseum (Museum of Letters) and a dozen dedicated students from the University of Applied Sciences in Coburg has transformed a former beauty salon into an impressive museum experience in the heart of Berlin. An elevated walkway in the museum serves as a central element and leads the visitors throughout the exhibition spaces where “the letterforms are featured as heroes.”

What began as a school assignment developed into a thesis exhibition and leaves a lasting legacy for the benefit of anyone interested in typography and signage. Beyond ideation and design, students also gained valuable hands-on experience by spending a week at the Lichtenfels Innovationszentrum (a makerspace) building and assembling fittings and display components.

Read a full account of this great student-led project here.

The Buchstabenmuseum was founded as a nonprofit organization in 2005. Its founding was inspired by an enthusiasm for typography and a passion for preserving typographical signs and characters. The museum aims to collect, restore and exhibit letters and characters from Berlin and around the world. Hundreds of letters have been saved from neglect or destruction and placed on display in the museum. Through the systematic preservation and documentation of these historical objects, the Buchstabenmuseum has become both a reminder of past eras and a laboratory for ongoing discussions. It is currently the only museum that focuses exclusively on individual letters as symbols.

Buchstabenmuseum — Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 13, 10178 Berlin-Mitte

Warsaw, Poland

Neon signs, made using electrified, luminous tube lights containing rarefied gases, were introduced in December, 1910 by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show. Claude’s associate, Jacques Fonseque, subsequently realized the possibilities for a business based on signage and advertising—by 1913 a large sign for the vermouth Cinzano illuminated the night sky in Paris, and by 1919 the entrance to the Paris Opera was adorned with neon tube lighting.

A decade later, in 1929, the first neon sign in Poland went up in Warsaw. Popular from the start, the earliest neon signs were made to order—free in design, shape, and color, and significantly influencing other forms of advertising like poster design and typography. Designed and built by prominent architects, graphic designers, and artists, and overseen by a chief graphic designer in the state-run company Reklama, Polish neon signage was renowned for its outstanding technical and artistic qualities.

A new book, Polish Cold War Neon, tells the fascinating story of neon in Poland by preserving and celebrating the remnants of this rich and influential history. During its peak, Reklama maintained over 1,000 neon signs, whose playfulness and folly stood out in dark and oppressed Poland, ornamenting otherwise drab cities and towns. The book offers stunning photographs by British photographer Ilona Karwińska, along with archival images, original neon designs, and interviews with their designers to reveal the untold story of Polish neon.

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New York, USA

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.”

Remarkably, less than 5% of the world’s population even knows that the Declaration exists. Do you know your human rights?

To celebrate the milestone 60th anniversary (10 December 2008), designer Seth Brau created an engaging type-based video. Enjoy it, here, and please do what you can to help disseminate the Declaration, an important and timeless treatise for all humankind. You can find over 337 different language versions of the Declaration here.

www.powertotheposter.org

Billed as “a graphic design democracy project,” Power to the Poster is “a restless, hopeful movement with eyes set on new possibilities for change leading to the prosperity of the collective…,” and exists “to bring people together around a ready supply of well-designed, wild postings that comment on the issues of our time.”

A selection of 11×17 posters in PDF format are for anyone, anywhere, to download, print, and post. “The hope is that this site gets people talking about where we’ve been and where we’re going in these historic times.”

Posters shown above are a small assortment of a collection that you can view and download here (by various artists, designers, and contributors). Thanks to friend Andre Meca for the link.

(further to my post yesterday, with some type mixed in…)

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Old lettering and alphabet ephemera make me happy… is that odd?

(source)

Brooklyn, New York

Dana Tanamachi is a graphic designer and custom chalk letterer… her evocative work speaks for itself. See more on her website here...

Shown above: chalk lettering used on a wine label, poster, and magazine cover… (thanks to GDC colleague Brian Branch in Moncton for the link).

Munich, Germany

I love stumbling across old trade magazine covers like this…