This exceptional Flickr set of vintage ads contains a few Knoll ads from the 50s and 60s that are utterly perfect.
Category: Design
Bauen+Wohnen
Bauen+Wohnen / Building+Home / Construction+Habitation was a Swiss architectural magazine that existed from. Richard Paul Lohse was responsible for the design from 1947-1956, and in 1952 he designed a special version for the German market that featured his trademark overlay style.
A recurring theme that I’m beginning to notice with classic Swiss Style design is the use of color to identify each magazine issue. Helmut Schmid also did it with his redesign of Die Neue Gesellschaft, and we’ve seem to have lost this simple, but beautiful approach to visual identity. You really don’t see this type of thinking with mainstream publications today. Instead, you’re bombarded with headline-cluttered covers that confuse you instead of inviting you. There are exceptions, though.
Anyway, this collection designed by Lohse is breathtaking and upon seeing these covers I’ve immediately begun the hunt to find them. Joe Kral has uploaded his collection to his Flickr Page and you can get more info on the magazine here and here.
10 Penneth
The always inspiring Craig Oldham has created a small booklet titled 10 Penneth that spawned off of a lecture series he gave to graphic design students. The booklet is a series of short essays that help students become better graphic designers and better understand the profession.
The design aesthetic doesn’t fall in line with what usually gets posted here, but I think the principles behind it are the same. The execution is beautiful in my opinion, minimal and visually interesting.
I personally love any project that educates students on graphic design, especially when they’re free! That’s right, Craig will send you a free copy of the booklet as long as you cover a small postal fee. Just shoot him an email.
New Posters on Blanka’s Flickr
The stuff that gets added to Blank’s Flickr page always leaves me amazed. I have no idea where they get all this vintage work from. They’ve recently updated their page with a ton of posters by Hans Neuburg, Herbert W. Kapitzki, Armin Hofmann and Josef Müller-Brockmann, many of them I’ve never seen before.
Wim Crouwel Archive
This is one of those online gems that only come around once a year.
This Dutch site contains an archive of over 500 original designs by Wim Crouwel, most of which I’ve never seen before and that I think are some of his best. Pure brilliance. What’s even better is that there’s a sharp, hi-res version of each. Picking one out of the bunch to display here was a really tough decision.
You will get lost in this for hours, I guarantee it. If the link doesn’t work just search for Wim Crouwel.
If anyone can give me more info on the site and the collection, I’d be very grateful.
Quadradão
Here’s some stellar work by Brazil studio Quadradão. The work definitely has a nice authentic feel that reminds of some of the great classic pieces from the 50s and 60s.