Japanese Condom Packages

Oooo-kay. We’re looking at 15 actual condom packages that I have assembled for you. It took me a couple of minutes of head scratching, but I’m leaning towards “why not?” So what’s wrong with a love glove named “Monkey” or even “Kit Sack,” in fruit candy colors? Whatever. While the design may look like kid’s packaging to western eyes, there is no doubt the Japanese just see the world differently. Go Speed Racer, GO!

An AM repost from 12/4/08.

The Bonus Side of Cabinet Cards

All of us have seen cabinet cards, those 19th century portraits on heavy card stock you find for a buck in almost every antique shop in America. Did you ever consider the backs of these cards? Almost all have beautiful and graphic typographic or pictorial examples that advertised the photo studio or photographer. While many cabinet cards portraits (the fronts) can be relatively bland, you might want to flip the card over. Like a second chance lottery ticket—you just might have a second chance at something wonderful. These images are from Luminous Lint, the most comprehensive Web site on photography in the world. Luminous Lint is a labor of love by Alan Griffiths. (alan@luminous-lint.com)

These cabinet card backs are from the private collection of Anthony Davis, and were part of an online exhibition on Luminous Lint.
Antiq-photo Rainbow Creations
(www.19cphoto.com)

An AM repost from 2/11/09

The Beauty of Peach Labels: Sweet!

The University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences has a very cool, graphic collection of southeastern peach labels from peach crates. Here are 15 nice ones for your viewing pleasure. My fav is “RED WING.”

An Accidental Mysteries repost from December 24, 2008.

Sweet Playing Cards

SOME VERY COOL PLAYING CARDS designed by Felix Blommestijn found here.

Letter Perfect Seating

SOME 10 YEARS AGO IN DESIGN SCHOOL, DUTCH GRAPHIC DESIGNER Roeland Otten had an idea to make a set of chairs in the form of letter forms. Today, with help from Fonds BKVB and Materiaalfonds, he has made finished lacquered prototypes of all 26 letters. Otten is trying to find a manufacturer to help him produce the chairs in plastic for worldwide distribution. I think they are fun and worthy of production. Good luck Roeland, from Accidental Mysteries.

Via DesignMilk.

Three Things I Remember

(Above) A California license plate as I remember it, recreated here for you by piecing together letter forms from other license plates I found online.


(Above) The word “erase” painted on a parking garage floor.

I WAS RECENTLY IN CALIFORNIA FOR A MEETING. BEING A DESIGNER AND AN ARTIST, I NOTICE THINGS, sometimes too many things for my own good—especially if I am driving. I wanted to share with you three typographic things I felt worthy of sharing. Unfortunately, I only had my camera available for one of the three, and it’s the center, black photograph. The other ones, I recreated for you.

Let’s start with the license plate at the top. As I was about to cross a street, I noticed a man standing next to a car—it was something sleek and low to the ground. But it wasn’t the car that caught my eye, but the license plate. Whoa-a-a! I stopped to take a better look.

Since the owner of the car was standing there, I asked him about his license plate. I told him that I really “liked the design of the letters, the way he had created a pattern that became more than letters, but something rhythmic and patterned.” He looked at me like I was a little odd, but I went on to say how I had often thought about a vanity plate similar to his, something with a series of “W”s and “M”s that created a pattern... like making art from the letters and numbers. (Other examples might be a series like the letter “I” repeated, like this: IIIIIII, or a pattern like this: L7L7L7L, or VVVVVVV).

When I asked him why he made his plate the way he did, especially the fact that I noticed he had tucked the letter “N” in the series of “W”s and “M”s to break the pattern, he said he ordered the plate like that because “it would be difficult for the police to recall or focus on his plate as he drove by.” Wow! I thought. A pretty good idea! Especially with the letter “N” there, it was difficult to notice—sure to be wrong when recalled in court.

I was so focused on the man’s license plate that it wasn’t until later when my friend told me the car was a Ferrari. Now it all made sense— this was a perfectly legal way to be sure his license plate would not be remembered correctly as his speeding car sped by.

The center image: As I was walking through the parking garage at the San Jose airport, I noticed something rather cryptic painted on the floor of the garage. I stopped my fast pace for a better look and still confused as to what it said, I decided to take a photograph. It looked like a word of some kind, but was so odd. What did it say? Or was it a word at all? I wasn’t sure. After a minute, I figured out that it said “erase.” To erase what, I do not know. But I liked it.

Finally, in the bottom image, is the word “ELEVATOR.” This word was part of a professionally made logo on the side of a truck waiting at a stoplight, part of the name of a local elevator repair service. Graphically, I loved it. The actual company name is lost on me now as I was so fixated on the typographic treatment of the word “elevator.” Let’s just say it was part of something like “Acme Elevator Company” —for lack of a real name. This wonderful graphic treatment of the word “elevator” stuck with me. I hurried home and recreated it for you. It was really good, I thought.

Words, letters, fonts, symbols: they can be used to confuse, or to describe or to illustrate. They can instill mystery... and make you work harder to understand. All of these three typographic treatments were made for different reasons, all are visually compelling and I thought, worthy of sharing with you today.

Minimalist Posters of Popular TV Shows

HERE’S A SERIES OF POSTERS FROM THE DESIGN FIRM EXERGIAN, who presents here a humorous and minimalist graphic approach to popular television programs. I dig it.

Exergian is a design company who specials in “design for print and RGB media.” You can visit their Web site here.