Hello sun!

Made this today. It's been sunshine-y lately and so I got inspired. Hello, sun. I want more of you, please.

Thinking about selling this as a print on my Etsy. What say you, dear peoples?

Philosophy & Good Design at the Thrift Store

Thrift stores are a funny thing. Each time I walk into one, I'm both appalled and exhilarated. Appalled by the excessive junk that we dispose of on a daily basis, and exhilarated by the potential of finding something overlooked and forgotten. The exhilaration of possibility is what drives me. Wednesday, I walked into a thrift store that we haven't visited for quite some time and I stumbled upon some wonderfully forgotten paperbacks on philosophy and theory. Forgotten textbooks, discarded after a yard sale, perhaps. I wasn't actually seeking out these particular books, but the covers were what piqued my interest. Nice, simple graphic covers, with bold colors and text. I guess you could say on a philosophical level that I didn't find these books, but rather they found me. How profound.


The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner. No mention of cover designer. Simon & Schuster, ©1953, 1961.


Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science by Werner Heisenberg. Cover design by Guy Fleming. Harper & Row, NY. ©1958, this edition 1962.

This last one isn't on philosophy, but was found in the same section:


The Enduring Art of Japan by Langdon Warner. Cover design by Roy Kuhlman. Grove Press, NY. ©1952.

Not sure what was erased in that upper right-hand section—original price, perhaps? Instead of photoshopping it out, I decided to leave it be.

Wednesday Ephemera

Funny how time flies. Didn't even realize that it's been about two weeks since I've last posted something. First off, I'm happy to say that both Pasha and Diana received their Ward-O-Matic Etsy prints. We tracked down Diana after a couple of days of searching. I'm happy that they both seemed happy to receive the prints. It's a great thrill to know that your work is hanging on the walls of complete strangers' homes. I guess it's an aspect of being an artist to have your work shown and presented in a manner that's out there, and not laying around in your basement or buried deep within the confines of your hard drive. Enjoy your prints, Pasha and Diana! I had a lot of fun making them!

Okay, now onto some serious vintage ephemera. I have to come clean here: I've been holding out on you all, so to make it up to you, here's a bunch of old stuff from my collection (Click on each to view Flickr page):

Let's start of with a cool book cover for The Plague And I, by Betty MacDonald, who also wrote The Egg And I. Published in 1948. No mention of illustrator:



Next, Damascus Cook Book cover, illustrated by "Butte":



No mention of date, but probably late 40's to 50's. Inside, there are some sweet two-color illustrations:







Next: Gordon's Vodka booklet cover (probably late 50's to early 60's) illustrated by Kelly Oechsli. Kelly gets instant street cred for illustrating Muppet and Fraggle Rock books for kids later on:



More nice illos by Mr. Oechsli inside:



I love this wraparound illustration for this Carnation Easy-Does-It Cook Book. Great characters, great color:



Inside, there are tons of wonderful ink illos. Here's but a small sample:



More wraparound goodness on this Creative Cookery brochure from Swift's Premium. Again, no mention of artist:



Of course, it's much better to see it larger.

Fire Safety Suggestions brochure from the 50's:



This is a fun one from 1958. Fire Chief Hook'n'ladder fire prevention pamphlet illustrated and designed by the incredibly talented Albert Aquino:



This pamphlet opens up in the middle. Notice that you can see the slight dark silhouettes of the Fire Chief in the house, pointing to areas where a fire could start in each room. Actually, that's what they want you to see when you hold the pamphlet up to the light. Man, I love that lettering:



Here's the back to the pamphlet, with all the Fire Chief silhouettes in the house. Problem is, the white emblem on his cap makes it look like his eye, and the bill of the cap looks like his nose (in the silhouettes):



Last, but not least, we have Mothers At Work, a pamphlet on, well, mothers at work. Around the house. 1960's. Part of the MetLife Insurance pamphlet series. Oh, yeah. No mention of artist:











I have two others from this series. Some day I'll get the entire set. (Like I have the time.) The other two:



There. How's that for a bunch of old, musty ephemera for this fine Wednesday! Enjoy.

And the winners are...

Ava chose #15: Diana
Ezra chose #252: Pasha

I don't have Diana's contact info, so Commenter #15 Diana, if you're out there, please get in touch with me. You won!

Pasha, I do have your email, so expect an email from me later on today.

CONGRATULATIONS to the winners! And a BIG THANK YOU for everyone else coming out and participating in my first ever Etsy Giveaway! I think it's safe to say that I'll definitely be doing this again. It was a lot of fun for me. Hope it was the same for you.


If you liked what you saw in my Etsy shop, don't be afraid to stop by again.