Categories: General updates, Inspiration, Rants
Poring over some photo-lettering specimens—one of my preferred pastimes—I stumbled upon an advertising postcard that had been mailed to the original owner of my Lettering Inc. book back in November of 1960. The postcard was exciting enough to me on its own; I presume very few examples of this kind of ephemera have survived, and […]
Categories: Inspiration
Just had a chance to watch the beautiful 3 Union Shop, a short documentary about the Colby Poster Printing Company, written and co-directed by C. R. Stecyk III of Dogtown fame: I’ve been collecting Colby posters for a few years (they even had a role in inspiring some of my wedding collateral), and I had the […]
Categories: Case studies, General updates, Inspiration
Voilà, a couple of new limited-edition letterpress prints, hot off of the Heidelberg Windmill! Both were typeset by hand and printed with antique wood and metal type, and both are for sale in my Etsy shop. You can get 15% off your order by using coupon code STEPAHEAD when you check out. (more…)
Categories: Case studies, General updates, Inspiration
Music has always been a gigantic source of inspiration for me as a graphic designer (see my wedding invitations, for example), and I’m proud to introduce the first specimens in a series of audiophile prints exclusively for the Three Steps Ahead Shop on Etsy. These examples were all inspired by music of the 1960s, specifically […]
Categories: General updates, Inspiration
The Duro Decals brand, which still exists today, has been knocking out good, wholesome, sturdy display type and lettering (in decal, sign, and stencil form) since 1938. The Chicago-based company begat “Duro Dan,” their quirky advertising mascot, a sort of elvish, mustachioed gnome-like character that touted Duro’s wares during the middle of the 20th century. […]
Categories: Inspiration
Don’t know much about this little Cosmonaut, but he sure is cute.
Categories: Inspiration
This is a very proud acquisition for me: it’s the original, hand-constructed artwork that was used to create a mid-century modern Austrian poster, advertising the Wiener Städtische Versicherung (Vienna Insurance Group). I’ve done a little searching, but I haven’t found any of the actual posters; it’s possible that this was never produced, or it might […]
Categories: Case studies, General updates, Inspiration
One of the ongoing projects we’ve been working on at the International Printing Museum has been The Ludlow Project, an effort to augment our collection of Ludlow matrices to be as complete as possible. Months ago, we decided to bring the campaign to Kickstarter, where there have been a significant number of successful letterpress-themed projects. […]
Categories: Inspiration, Rants
While I’m on the topic of prop documents, this has been bothering me for months: a while back I was watching TV1, and I saw a poster in the background that looked quite a bit like Saul Bass‘s famous Vertigo one-sheet. The typography is almost identical in style. The colors too. The imagery and composition—same […]
Categories: General updates, Inspiration
I’m really proud to announce the “official” launch of the Three Steps Ahead Etsy Shop, where we are selling a diverse and frequently updated array of vintage goods and graphic design related pieces. Our current listings include: Canvas prints of Three Steps Ahead original designs, such as the “NYC: Isle of Manhattan” poster, derived from […]
Josh Korwin has been running Three Steps Ahead, a creative design studio, since the late 1990s. He has been a typography nerd for as long as he can remember, and rabidly collects (and sometimes sells) just about everything with neat type or lettering on it. While graphic design and web design fill most of his days, he dabbles in photography and letterpress printing.
