My partner and I have run our label Moodgadget with a logo that, from the beginning, we intended to be an animated character. After 4 years of talking about it, over the holiday we finally made it happen. This is just one of many episodes coming together and I can’t wait for you all to see the rest. Below is a bit more information if you’re still scratching your head:
GENERIC MAN [the man behind the Moodgadget logo]
Our logo for the label has always been a mystery to people. The reason we picked it was because in our minds, it had life to it. Not only can Generic Man sit on a record sleeve, but he can sit in scenes, float across landscapes in his pod and hopefully one day people will be able to sit inside one.
The idea for this series is to have like-minded music lovers and/or new listeners realize their individuality as a listener. Most people don’t stop listening to TOP 40 music (which is totally fine) and never will think twice about this because they don’t care to dig for something they don’t know about. For those of you who have found this video, maybe you can relate to Generic Man.
Directed by Adam E. Hunt
Story by Jakub Alexander & Adam E. Hunt
Music by Teeel – Triangle Waves [Out on Moodgadget February 22nd, 2011]
As for the song in the video, it’s from artist Teeel whom we debuted on the ISO50 Dry Waves compilation. It’s beautiful slow synth material that oozes melody. Enjoy the free MP3 below.
It’s a new year and along with it comes a remarkable collection via Flickr from one my most-favorable categories: Mid-century Modern. These chairs come from the 50s, 60s, and 70s; while some lived on, a number fell by the wayside for obvious reasons.
Some of my favorites in this collection include the iconic Eero Aarnio Ball chair, Eames Molded Plywood chair and of course the Eames Lounge chair.
Massimo Vignelli said in a recent short documentary that “good design lasts longer” and its quite true. Although, without the preservation or relocation to a safe location, I’m not sure how much longer some of these works will last in the wild. It really is pleasant to see that gems like this subway map are still out there.
This map is at the 57 Street F station in New York City. Let’s just hope that the maintenance crew doesn’t come by and slap a Twilight poster over it.
Swiss Airlines has a rich history that has been hidden in the archives for quite some time. On March 26th, 1931 when Swissair formed, I doubt anyone at the time really considered the history that they were going to be making with the company’s design. Balair and Ad Astra were the two companies that merged to form Swissair. Throughout the years they’ve changed logos many times but there was one that was most memorable (above). Quite possibly it was the best logo that the company has ever used.
Thanks to SR692 for collecting this information so that we’re able to walk through past logos used by Swissair. Some great, some not so great and a few that were very, very experimental. Hit the jump to see how the company logo changed throughout the years.
Recently I’ve stumbled upon SR692—quite possibly the best collection of SwissAir collateral. It is definitely the biggest collection and had these gems stowed deep within. Most of these posters were came from the 50s to the 70s archives on the site. The few I’ve posted are very straight forward as you can see. Simply utilizing the generic airplane icon, a headline and the SwissAir logo—part of what makes these posters so unique.
Just hearing the name Volkswagen makes me think deep history. Especially now after stumbling upon a Volkswagen archive that has scans from Everett Barnes’ collection. It’s well worth checking out if you have the time. The collection starts from the early 1930s’ and goes all the way until 2005. It has nearly more images and spreads of brochures and random Volkswagen nostalgia than you can shake a stick at.
You may find this entirely crazy but growing up I was only graced with the opportunity to play an Atari once. Even though I wasn’t born in the 70s and barely born in the 80s, the Atari console seemed really cool but I still never owned one. I hope I’m not the only one out there that wasn’t able to log hours on an Atari as a kid. Looking back at them now, I would have bought the 2600 in a heart beat for the sake of the small yet stylish wooden veneer accent.
These drawings were really making leaps and bounds between concepts. In some of the drawings parts were nixed and replaced with other ideas. The cooling fans for example get moved back and forth as the concept progresses. Seeing stuff like this is very inspiring; it gives me a target to aim at for progressing my own sketches for future projects.
It’s funny how a lot of those things that you thought were boring when growing up, are now actually really fun things to do. I never would have thought I’d spend a sunny Seattle Saturday sifting through tubs and tubs of posters and ads. But its a damn good thing I did because I found these vintage Porsche ads. I was tempted to purchase all of them but instead I wrote down some info and looked them up online. All of these ads I found on eBay and were from the 1980’s. A few of them might be late 70’s, but it’s tough to tell.
The thing I really like about these ads is that they feel authentic. That’s not to say that ads nowadays aren’t authentic but there is certainly more than enough CGI being done to them. It also seems like it’s rare to see such nice large type of this treatment in ads anymore.
Sander from the comments informed us that Helmet Krone was the designer behind these ads—more info here.
