Categories: Case studies
This one-off sailor jacket and canvas tote bag was emblazoned with the wordmark we assembled, inspired by one of the best boat names ever. Typefaces used are Blaktur, the over-the-top Germanic “fett” Blackletter by House Industries, and Loupot, styled after the lettering of Charles Loupot, a prominent mid-20th-century French poster artist.
Categories: Inspiration
Some people hoard animals in need of a good home; I hoard posters. While my friends (link 1 and link 2) were in town, we headed over to Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles, where a street fair augmented the already-festive atmosphere of the oldest part of LA. I spotted this hard-to-miss, day-glo poster and […]
Categories: Inspiration
After restoring my 1958 Dan Reisinger poster from the Brussels World’s Fair, I immediately sent off this poster for similar treatment. Depicting the Atomium, the still-standing symbol of the 1958 Expo, this poster seems to have been issued in a number of different languages (as was the Reisinger poster). I have the German edition—Weltausstellung Brüssel. […]
Categories: Inspiration
It’s taken me a while, but I finally got around to having my Dan Reisinger 1958 Brussels World’s Fair poster restored. “Restored” is perhaps a strange term here—when I received it, it was in its original condition: folded five times. These posters advertising the 1958 Exposition in Belgium had been mailed out in envelopes, and […]
Categories: Case studies, Inspiration
For no good reason at all (or maybe because I’ve spent much of the day so far looking at infographics), I have decided that today is DIN Day. In honor of DIN Day, I have designed a birthday card concept that is also an homage to the talented Mark Weaver. I’m also just obsessed with […]
Categories: Inspiration
Just scored this wonderful Dan Reisinger poster on eBay, from the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. It even came with the original envelope in which it had been mailed to Sarkes Tarzian, Inc. / WTTV in Bloomington, Indiana, from Brussels, Belgium in 1958. According to Wikipedia, Mr. Reisinger won first prize for this poster design for […]
Categories: Inspiration
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 […]
Categories: Case studies, Inspiration
A few months ago I posted a teaser image from a project I was not yet ready to announce. The project has actually been complete for a little while now, so I can finally go into detail about it, as I am wont to do. Connie Dial is author living in Los Angeles county, and […]
Categories: Inspiration
I’m a sucker for well-designed books—the paper, the printing, the typography, the illustration, the binding. Yum. Unfortunately, well-designed, well-printed, well-typeset books are the exception nowadays, not the rule. I learned by watching the Antiques Roadshow that it became common practice in previous centuries for publishers of expensive books to sell them by subscription or in […]
Categories: Inspiration, Rants
After my recent post on harmonographs, I ponied up for a copy of the Photo-Lettering Alphabet Thesaurus, Volume 2. And now that I can read the book in “full resolution,” I learned a bit more about these mysterious space drawings. The following is transcribed directly from the book: The figures on the following pages are […]
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.
