Design from Brooklyn with Love

Just came across this Flickr photoset by nevolution. Beautiful hand-painted signs titled Take Away.

It is true that I am slightly obsessed. I do love the ampersand. But amidst the slosh of typographic nerds that float the design-y seas, I may be the least of the amper-lovers.

For one, I do not have the appropriate ink. And while half my identity is wrapped up in its form, I have been surprised at the passion of others for its form and history.

I will spare you the backstory of the ampersand (found on Wikipedia and most of the following links), and get to the fun stuff.

My first discovery, a couple months back was the lovely flickr group, Ampersandland. This pool, a collection of found instances of the form is a real visual treat (at least for the obsessed), one to check in with every now and then. Then, received with a wide smile from Duane King at BBDK, came this gem: The Ampersand Blog! Here you will find everything pertaining to the ampersand, from written documentation to its less attractive iterations. The gods of type design, Hoefler [ampersand] Frere-Jones also pay homage to the mark with a descriptive entry on the history of the ampersand and it’s place within their type families. Even Adobe takes a stab at the subject, with an educational page on their site.

No thanks to this club(!?) for the worst bastardization of the symbol ever.

Photo by Cassidy

I admit it. I have some obsessive compulsive tendencies sometimes, but I just keep finding all these great collections of stuff online. I couldn’t resist posting a collection of collections. Enjoy. (Oh, and I’d like to give a special shout-out to Leo Reynolds who’s collection of collections is incredible. A few of his sets are featured below.)

Dutch Design

Letter and Digit Mosaics Mosaic

Fire-Poi Typography

Jet Set Ruins

Mosaics

Olde Typography

USSR Posters

Signs

Penguin Book Covers

A.M. Cassandre Posters

1970s Logos

Blue Note Record Covers

19th Century Shipping Posters

Bottle Caps

Vintage Bottle Caps

Business Cards

Bauhaus

Cuban Posters

Skateboard Stickers

Shipping Containers

Atari Game Manuals

The End

Apparently enamored with letters and boozing, I stumbled upon another couple fun Flickr sets today. The first is quite a scattered collection of bottle caps, spanning all periods and genres. The second lays claim to both a deeper history and a substantial pool of retro typographic inspiration.

My German roots have been calling me back to my heritage of late. Somehow I’ve been itching to tap in to my ancestry, noticing a strange new attraction to the German language, culture and even design. But I didn’t expect it to manifest itself in beer memorabilia.

As my girlfriend and I were driving along a quaint roadway recently, on a short getaway in Vermont, we came across one of the many barns in the state full of antiques. There, sitting in piles alongside vintage dresses and half renovated furniture, were these (mostly) German beer coasters. For years now I have been collecting coasters on my travels, journaling my way through public houses and bars. As I haven’t done much overseas traveling in the last few years — and the design in the states is admittedly lacking in inspiration — I’ve also been fairly bored with the hobby for awhile now. Now, in this dusty roadside bar, the type-loving half-breed that I am was in awe to find them. Now I’m happy to share, in a nice, new flickr photoset.