New York, New York
“Barbie celebrated her 50th birthday on 9 March, which marked the opening day of the American International Toy Fair in New York where she made her debut in 1959. The doll was inspired by German doll Bild Lilli, itself inspired by a German newspaper comic strip. Ruth Handler, wife of Elliot, a co-founder of Mattel Inc., purchased three Bild Lilli dolls while vacationing in Europe in 1956. When she got home, she gave one to her daughter Barbara and the other two went to Mattel where the design was reworked—thus Barbie, named after Ruth’s daughter was born.
Like Bild Lilli, Barbie was tall and slim with long legs and a tiny waist. No other doll in the American market looked like her. She was an instant success; Mattel sold some 350,000 dolls in the first year of production. Over the years, over a billion Barbie dolls have been sold in 150 countries—Mattel claims that three are sold every second.
Mattel acquired rights to Bild Lilli in 1964 and stopped its production. But Barbie has remained a subject of controversies—many of which now center on the unrealistic body image she presents to young women—and lawsuits. The most recent of these was launched by Mattel against MGA Entertainment Inc., makers of Bratz dolls. Mattel won a court order banning MGA from selling their infringing Bratz doll on 3 December 2008, a decision that MGA announced it would appeal. Barbie sales are still going strong—she remains the most popular doll for girls. But she may need freshening up for her 50th birthday; last year’s fourth quarter sales worldwide fell 21 percent.”
The above is from the February 2009 issue of WIPO Magazine (World Intellectual Property Organization), a free publication that comes out bi-monthly from Geneva. What the article does not mention is that the sassy Bild Lilli doll (developed by Max Weissbrodt of the O&M Hausser toy company in Neustadt/Coburg) was originally marketed to adults in bars as a joke or gag gift (the doll was based on a racy German cartoon character which itself debuted on 24 June 1952, created by Reinhard Beuthien for the tabloid Bild-Zeitung in Hamburg).
Images: Barbie from 1959; her swinging predecessor Bild Lilli.
Vienna, Austria
Found signage, letterforms, pictographs, symbols, etc. from many different countries, compiled “with a desire to explore contrasting (cultural) backgrounds, juxtapositions, and motivations re: the shaping of intentional and concrete forms of communication.” (from the site’s German intro, here). Displaying thousands of images (organized by an ‘interesting’ taxonomy) and with almost daily additions to the collection, it’s worth a visit.
(via slanted).
Berlin, Germany
If you appreciate or collect classic or art photography (or new imagery, for that matter) you’ll likely love Lumas… enjoy.
West Virginia
Here’s a nice find… from Westvaco’s Inspirations for Printers 1953-1955, designed by Bradbury Thompson. Inspirations for Printers was a graphic arts publication issued by the Westvaco Corporation (formerly named the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company) with the objective of showing typography, photography, art work and other graphic inventiveness on papers manufactured at its mills. (Via Parisian graphic designer Peter Gabor’s Galeries Pédagogiques de Design & Typo).
Confoederatio Helvetica
Bibliophiles and typophiles alike will enjoy this richly annotated collection of “book (design) stories”—from new typography to swiss style—here (with a full index showing the nearly 600 titles here). Takes me back to growing up in Basel-Land (just a few km from Münchenstein, where Helvetica was designed) in the early 1960s…
Images (from top): Stile Olivetti designed in 1961 by Walter Ballmer; Typographische Mitteilungen, 1925, by Jan Tschichold; Der Film, 1960, by Josef Müller-Brockmann, Jörg Hamburger, and Serge Stauffer; and Pontresina (ski-resort map) designed ca. 1935 by Emil Schultheiss.
London, U.K.
It’s hard not to be inspired by da Vinci—his sheer genius is undeniable. I was delighted to be able to take in an exhibition of 60 working wooden models of Leonardo’s inventions (faithfully recreated from his drawings by a team of skilled Florentine artisans) while visiting Wellington, New Zealand last November; the Leonardo da Vinci Machines Exhibition. So it was with great pleasure that I came across a post by Carleton Wilson re: the Universal Leonardo website, as inspiring and comprehensive an online resource regarding the great Italian master as the title would suggest—and definitely worth exploring.
Images of inventions from the ‘Browse’ section of the website: Leonardo’s self-propelled cart, flying machine, and giant crossbow.
Winnipeg, Canada
Working in the core of this city’s Exchange District for over three decades, it’s easy to take for granted the wonderful “texture” and “acquired patina” of this 20-block area (designated as a National Historic Site in 1997). I have yet to find anyone who’s documented the aging glory of the architectural jewels that comprise our downtown community (and the idiosyncratic signs that adorn their facades) than Bryan Scott… kudos to you! (I’ve mentioned Bryan’s oeuvre before, here, thanks to my colleague Adrian Shum).
All photographs were taken within a few blocks of Circle; all images from Love & Hate Winnipeg © Bryan Scott.
St. Petersburg, Russia
All too often we forget the hardship experienced by generations past, especially during certain wars, yet some people have a profound way of reflecting on times gone by, presenting their take on the world in a new light. These haunting, hybrid images of past and present St. Petersburg—formerly known as Leningrad—are the works of Sergei Larenkov. After studying old images of the city, Larenkov visited the same spots, capturing them on film. He then digitally superimposed the old image over new, producing these eerie and thought-provoking shots.
Like ghosts captured forever on film the scenes depict all too clearly a harshness that can result only from times of war. The 900-day Siege of Leningrad, also known as The Leningrad Blockade, lasted from 9 September 1941 to 27 January 1944—just over 65 years ago—and was one of the longest and most destructive sieges of major cities in modern history, and second most costly…
“During nine hundred(!) days a few million people in the city of Leningrad suffered from cold and hunger, being deprived of almost all supplies of food and fuel. Many thousands died; those who survived remember this not very willingly. The situation with food was so heavy, no food was sold/distributed among people except a few grams (not even tens or hundred grams) of bread, and not each day, that people had to eat stuff that they would never eat in normal life, like making soups of leather boots (because leather is of animal origin) or boiling the wallpaper because the glue with which they were attached to walls contained a bit of organic stuff. Of course many occasions of cannibalism occurred.”
See more images at English Russia, here. Thanks Adrian for the link.
Somewhere in Sweden
What goes around comes around, right? Henning Cedmar-Brandstedt kindly drew my attention to a sweet bit of serendiptous trivia today… it seems that in 1933, a mere three years after El Lissitzy designed his famous poster Russische Ausstellung 1929 (a copy of which I have hanging in my home and about which I posted last year here), the Swedish Socialist Party (Women’s League) created a valaffisch (election poster) which borrows directly the ‘merged heads’ (depicting gender equality) first used by El Lissitzky. The kicker? In a 2006 poll of Swedish union members the derivative poster was voted as “the best looking poster in Swedish history”—methinks El Lissitzky would be proud.
Thanks, Henning!
