Contiguous thought 
Category
History of Design
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May 03 2008Matteo Ferrari - “Automotive Monogomy” by David Goligorsky
Aesthetics, Art, Associative Thought, Bicycle, Data Presentation, History of Design, Quotes, Remix, Software, photographyOne of photographer Matteo Ferrari's personal projects includes finding people who have been driving the same car for decades. He then arranges a photograph with the owner to match a photograph from when the car was purchased. I came across this work via the blog of Yorgo Tloupas, the creative director and publisher of Intersection magazine, which I have been a fan of since I accidentally found issue #1 at a newsstand in Penn Station (NYC) back in 2001-ish. Back then, issues were imported from the UK and mine cost something like $11. Now, a subscription to ...
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Apr 30 2008Conférence Armchair by Jean Prouvé by David Goligorsky
Aesthetics, Art, Design, History of Design, Inspiration, Materials, Product Design, furniture, history, woodJean Prouvé has done some fascinating nearly-Bauhaus work, including this c. 1950 armchair. It does have Bauhaus school elements such as the sharp color contrast and choice of colors as well as the textural contrast of metal and Leatherette. I would very much like to admire this piece in person.
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Apr 04 2008Christian Dell by David Goligorsky
Aesthetics, Architecture, Art, Design, History of Design, Materials, Politics, Product Design, historyChristian Dell was a German silversmith who is probably best known for his lamp designs through Gebr. Kaiser & Co. They represent the use of bakelite and plastics in products as early as 1929. According to the Wikipedia page, Walter Gropius invited him to America after Dell was forced from the Frankfurt art school by the Nazis, but Dell stayed in Germany. Now... Walter Gropius was the founder of the Bauhaus school at Weimar before it was shut down by the Nazis. Gropius eventually found himself in America and became the director of the Harvard Graduate School of ...
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Mar 19 2008Schnell! by David Goligorsky
Aesthetics, Design, Engineering, Film, History of Design, Product Design, videoI really like the Trabant 601. I think the body styling is perfect for a utilitarian vehicle but easily crosses over into a sports car (these vehicles have a long history of modification for rally racing). This phenomenon is also apparent in my friend, the Volvo 240. It is at once unassuming and enticing. I came upon a commercial (shown below) for the Trabant from the 60's which shows just how schnell and robust the car is. My favorite part is the scene where luggage is teleported from the street into the trunk. Every ...
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Feb 12 2008Back to the Futura by David Goligorsky
Aesthetics, Art, Graphic Design, History of Design, Typography, historyPerpenduum took a trip to Portland, Oregon for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (images will follow when I find the disk space... come on Apple! Release that new MacBook Pro!) We stayed at the Ace Hotel, which ought to be a national treasure. The hotel has their own pencils which are black with brass-colored eraser couplings and pink erasers. The pencil is stamped with the hotel name in white Futura typeface. It's perfect. Born in 1924 via Paul Renner, it is one of the most widely used sans serif fonts. It can even be ...
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Jan 29 2008The Historic Lincoln Hotel, Urbana, Illinois by David Goligorsky
Aesthetics, Architecture, Art, Experience Design, History of DesignI don't know what it is with me, but I've been getting awfully caught up with turn-of-the-century design, architecture, fashion, and related literature. I've been aggressively reading Hemingway and Fitzgerald with sincere pleasure, imbibing the occasional 9 yr. whiskey, and thinking about the bygone era when a gentleman would remove his hat at the dinner table. My work lead me away from Boston for a trip to Urbana-Champaign, Illinois on account of some materials testing, and so I sought a hotel that offered more than the typical Hilton or Holiday Inn sort of venue. The search was successful and ...
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Jan 18 2008A brief history of the drinking straw, part 1: From Sumer to Stone by Christian Eager
Design, History of Design, history, patentsDrinking straws have a history. A long one. Natural straws were used by beer-drinking Sumerians 5000-700 years ago as filters for solid particulate byproducts of fermentation. The grass-stem straw reigned until 120 years ago this month, when Marvin Stone patented a process for manufacturing spiral-wound tubes. Marvin C. Stone, US Patent No. 375692 The material was paper, with a small amount of adhesive at one end that secured the straw around the mold, initially a pencil. The straw was then removed from the mold and dipped in paraffin; this hermetically sealed and further strengthened the straw. Stone didn't rest with one advancement in ...
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Dec 12 2007Eames Aluminum Group Advertisement by David Goligorsky
Aesthetics, Architecture, Art, Graphic Design, History of Design, Typography
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Dec 06 2007Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion Car by David Goligorsky
Aesthetics, Design, Engineering, History of Design, Past Future, Product Design, patentsCore77 just posted a link to a great collection of information on the Buckminster Fuller-designed Dymaxion car.
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Nov 30 2007Evolution of the Pecten Shell Logo by David Goligorsky
Graphic Design, History of DesignThe National Heritage Museum in Lexington, MA is running a Raymond Loewy retrospective. When this French-born engineer's parents died in the influenza epidemic on 1918-19, he travelled to the United States to live with his brother. His first job was to do drawings for women's fashion advertising. He went on to become a fundamental founder of the industrial design profession and broke into graphic design with great success. Now that I am aware of Loewy's contributions to graphic design, it is difficult to avoid the reach of his logo design. Shell is but one example of how ...
recent posts
- Matteo Ferrari - “Automotive Monogomy”
- Conférence Armchair by Jean Prouvé
- Art by the masses (Part 1 of 2)
- Lindy Hop
- The Better The Schooner
- Text Clock at Fuori Salone 2008
- Olle Eksell
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