Clem Snide “The Meat of Life” CD

I was fortunate to be asked to provide some design and layout for Eef Barzelay and Clem Snide’s forthcoming album, The Meat of Life, due out on February 23. The painting was done by my very talented friend Jen Uman, who has also posted some information about her process on her blog. The album is fantastic too—check it out when it’s available.

Tags: album art, CD, Clem Snide, packaging, printing

More vintage matchbooks

After the last treasure trove of matchbooks I came across, the idea of starting a collection of my own has been on my radar. I found a few on eBay that were from Torrance, California, the current location of three steps ahead and a subject of particular interest to me. The same seller had a bunch of interesting ones, so I figured I’d scoop up as many as I could.

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Tags: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, lettering, matchbooks, mid-century, packaging, paper, printing, Torrance, typography

Barton Bee Line Legs Box

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I just love packaging from the ’60s. This one may have been printed later (it says “Series ‘76″), but I’m pretty sure it had to have been designed in the 1960s and used a few years beyond its intended shelf life.

Tags: 1960s, font, lettering, packaging, paper, printing, type, typography, vintage

Vintage matchbook collection

At my fiancée’s grandparents’ house, I recently photographed a treasure trove of vintage matchbooks that her grandfather has collected over the years, mostly from gambling joints or local establishments in SoCal. He’s quit smoking since and these have just been sitting in a cupboard…until now.

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(I think the Space Needle might be my fave.)

Tags: lettering, matchbooks, packaging, paper, printing, typography

Hand lettered Italian wrapping paper

One of my favorite things is… well… brown paper packages tied up with string. Well, perhaps not so Sound-of-Music-literally. But I love getting interestingly-packaged items in the mail, especially from foreign countries. For example I wish I had taken pictures of the post-Soviet Belarussian packaging that my first fisheye lens, the Peleng, came in. (Luckily, others on the Internet have, but I swear the packaging mine was wrapped in was a lot more idiosyncratic.)

Anyway, the other day, my fiancée’s wedding shoes arrived from Italy, wrapped in this wonderful one-color patterned wax paper. “Calzoleria-Pelletteria Acessori POLUZZI, Bologna,” it proclaims, in beautiful hand-lettered and manually drawn style, touting Poluzzi’s “Vasto Assortimento” for ladies, men, and children. Clearly this design has probably been in use for decades upon decades. It’s dripping with mid-century, Old World charm… the kind of understated elegance that Italian fashion designers and shoe purveyors seem to naturally effervesce.

I love that they have this paper. I love that they still use this paper. I love that someone is still printing up this paper.

Perhaps I’m a bit overexcited. It’s just… for every single design relic of yesteryear, there have to be hundreds of needless rebrands. I applaud Poluzzi for keeping this artifact around. Even if only to inspire me from across the ocean.

Tags: fashion, italy, lettering, mid-century, packaging, paper, peleng, printing, retro, typography, vintage