Winnipeg, Canada

Best wishes go out on this special day to my father, John Jacob Peters (born in Russia in 1920 amidst the turmoil following the Bolshevik revolution). May your 90th year bring you ongoing peace, joy, and fulfillment!

This photo of dad is from the late 1940s (scanned by my brother Jim, thanks). Within the past month dad’s undergone successful cataract surgery on both eyes—and can once again see perfectly without glasses for the first time in nearly 50 years!

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

I’ve been laid up the past few days with a bad cold/bronchitis—but being couchbound has provided the opportunity of adding a few sort categories to this blog. I’ve added Humour, Quotable(s), and Vintage—the above images (don’t you just love historic photographs?) are from Lumas, Life, and the like….

Eastern Europe (a half century ago)

Jane (Maraid) McDevitt has compiled a remarkable Flickr collection of matchbox labels predominantly from 1950s and 1960s Eastern Europe. “Why did this area of the world embrace modern design and imagery when many countries, including Britain, still preferred the Victorian aesthetic?” she ponders. “As with advertisers, governments were quick to realise the potential of these far reaching messages. Propaganda was popular but so too were public service announcements including fire safety, hygiene, money saving, alcohol abuse and road safety—this combination of subject and design has left behind an invaluable archive of its time.”

I’ve posted on matchbooks, matchibako, and vintage matchbox labels before (here and here). What I find particularly compelling about this medium is its inherent viral quality—small images that communicated to a very large number of people, while also delivering an appropriate, value-added aesthetic quality (a vivid example of how design both shapes, and is shaped by, culture). Designers and illustrators today would do well to learn from the distilled palette (tiny canvas, bold line art, flat colours) that reproduction processes of the day imposed on the graphic artists of yore.

Images shown above: Matchbox covers from the Czech Republic, East Germany, Poland, and Russia. See over a thousand others here.

Vienna, Austria

Dr. Stefan Jellinek (1871-1968) produced numerous publications warning about the ill-considered and foolhardy use of electricity in the home, at work, and in leisure activities. Original illustrations by well-known graphic artists such as Josef Danilowatz, Franz Wacik, and Eduard Stella helped conveyed the (mostly hidden) dangers of electricity effectively. These drawings are from a 1931 book entitled Elektroschutz in Bildern (Electrical Protection in Pictures).

Above images: Electrocution as the result of urinating on power lines (while barefoot), multi-tasking with a hairdryer, and attempting to read outdoors at night (while barefoot)—who knew? Find many more shocking ways to off one’s self in a Flickr collection here compiled by Bre Pettis.

(thanks, Gregor)

Pontedera, Italy

Remember Vespa? I sure do… first rode one during driver training and then tested on it for my German motorcycle license back in 1972. Recognized as the epitome of Italian design, manufactured in the tens of millions, and distributed to almost every corner of the earth, this iconic little scooter from the 1940s really is the cat’s pyjamas. Enjoy a fine selection of vintage Vespa images here.

Frederick the Great (aka ‘der alte Fritz’)

This bit of obviated profundity is a direct quote (as relevant today as in days of yore) from the man often admired as one of the greatest tactical geniuses of all time (go figure), of whom the Austrian co-ruler Emperor Joseph II (aka Holy Roman Emperor, 1765-1790) wrote: “When the King of Prussia speaks on problems connected with the art of war, which he has studied intensively and on which he has read every conceivable book, then everything is taut, solid and uncommonly instructive. There are no circumlocutions, he gives factual and historical proof of the assertions he makes, for he is well versed in history… A genius and a man who talks admirably. But everything he says betrays the knave.”

Image: Bodies of Confederate soldiers, killed on 1 July 1863, collected near the McPherson woods, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; photographer: Timothy H. O’Sullivan, (1840-1882).

From silhouettemasterpiecetheatre.com…

On this day in 1948 the Marshall Plan came into effect. Much of Europe was devastated with millions killed and wounded during World War II. Fighting had occurred throughout much of the continent, and sustained aerial bombardment meant that most major cities had been badly damaged, with industrial production especially hard-hit. Many of the continent’s greatest cities lay in ruins. The region’s economic structure was also ruined, and millions had been made homeless. Especially damaged was transportation infrastructure, as railways, bridges, and roads had all been heavily targeted by air strikes, while much merchant shipping had been sunk. Although most small towns and villages in Western Europe had not suffered as much damage, the destruction of transportation left them economically isolated. None of these problems could be easily remedied, as most nations engaged in the war had exhausted their treasuries in its execution.

The only major power whose infrastructure had not been significantly harmed in World War II was the United States (it had entered the war later than most European countries, and had only suffered limited damage to its own territory). American gold reserves were still intact as was its massive agricultural and manufacturing base, the country enjoying a robust economy. The war years had seen the fastest period of economic growth in the nation’s history, as American factories supported both its own war effort and that of its allies. After the war, these plants quickly retooled to produce consumer goods, and the scarcity of the war years was replaced by a boom in consumer spending. The long term health of the economy was dependent on trade, however, as continued prosperity would require markets to export these goods. The Marshall Plan aid would largely be used by the Europeans to buy manufactured goods and raw materials from the United States.

(Read more here).

Images: Marshall Plan poster (created by the Economic Cooperation Administration, an agency of the U.S. government, to sell the Marshall Plan in Europe—the blue and white flag between those of Germany and Italy is an incorrect iteration of the flag of the Free State of Trieste, a City state created by the United Nations Security Council in 1947); Burned out buildings in Hamburg after the bombing (taken in 1945 or 1946 by the UK government).

Since 1903…

The first box of Crayola crayons was sold 106 years ago for five cents and included the same colors available in the eight-count box today: red, blue, yellow, green, violet, orange, black and brown. Nearly 3 billion crayons are made each year (an average of 12 million daily)… find all 120 Crayon colour names (along with hex codes and RGB values), Crayon-inspired colour palettes, and more trivia about the ubiquitous little “oily-chalk” wax sticks here. (thanks Gregor)

Zürich, Switzerland

Otto Baumberger (1889–1961) was one of Switzerland’s first poster designers. As an employee of Wolfensberger AG in Zürich he gained a sound knowledge of lithographic techniques—which he used to advance the medium as evidenced in his design of over 200 posters. The diversity of his work exemplifies Swiss poster art in the first half of the twentieth century, showing the development from the painterly artist’s poster to corporate design shaped by graphic art. (I feel fortunate to have three of Otto’s posters in my personal collection).

Posters: “Educated shoppers shop at Globus,” 1934; Motor Comptoir, 1932; Qualité for PKZ, 1932; Swan, 1919; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 1928; Zürich airshows in 1932 and 1937. (images via designboom)