Photography: Vintage American signage

Browsing through Instagram (an App for iPhone users to take photos and share them with the world) we discovered these wonderful photographs of mid-1900s, Googie-inspired signage by Bill Rose. Under the pseudo-name Recapturist, Bill documents these fantastic architectural monuments' combination of colour, typography and geometric and sometimes space-themed shapes to build up signage that, with the help of flashing lights, just popped out to lure in passing travellers. Sadly, many of these signs are falling into disrepair, but with the help of Recapturist, their existence and once-adored beauty will be preserved.

To see more of Bill's photographs or to purchase some of them as prints, go to Recapturist's website. 
You can also browse through his Webstagram account here.  

Packaging: Two Hoots wine labels

It's a hoot! In fact, its Two Hoots! Perth based designer Maegan Brown has graduated from the Curtin University of Technology in 2011, and already has a fantastic portfolio to show.

One of our favorite projects is called Two Hoots; label and packaging design for a range of wines. To capture the individual character and flavours of the wines, Meagan assigned an owl to each of the wines, and with the use of wood and earth-tone textures, she generated a heartwarming, playful and earthy character for the product. Just like a wine should be. It will surely drive us to drink just because it's so marvelously crafted!

To see more of Maegan's handiwork, click here.

Type Delight: Metropolis 1920

We are always on the lookout for new typefaces to play around with, so in our search we found Metropolis 1920. Upon first glance, this typeface made us melt a bit, and we are super eager to take it for a test drive!

The designer of Metropolis 1920 is Josip Kelava, born in Croatia but lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. Josip sourced his inspiration for this font from the industrial movement of the 1920's, and by making use of a double line technique, successfully managed to resemble a font that echoes the classic and elegant

 Art Deco movement.

To view more of Josip's work, go and have a look here.

To download this fantastic font (for free!), click here.

 

 

Packaging: Lucha Libre beer labels

There is so much fun to have with the iconic Mexican Lucha Libre, but thís put a broad smile on our faces!

Cervecería Sagrada's brand identity has been created by the Mexican graphic designer José Guizar. He drew inspiration from lucha in the 1950's, and each beer has been appropriately named after a fictional charachter: Black King for Imperial Stout, Blond Gomez for Lager and The Vampire's Son for Red Ale. You can therefore choose your poison, or in this case, choose your wrestling ring alias!

To see more of José Guizar's work click here.

Or for a short history lesson on the fantastic Lucha Libre, go and have a read here and here.

¡Tres cervezas por favor! Grrrrrrr...

Sign painter: Jeff Canham

Jeff Canham is a well renowned sign painter from San Francisco in the US. The thing that first caught our attention regarding Jeff Canham's work was his use of typography, but then we realised that these beautiful letters were hand-painted. Most designers will agree that with modern day technology, typography is easily accessible with uncountable amounts of typefaces to choose from, and all we have to do is change the size, tweak the kerning and leading and maybe have it in italics. Therefore we have the utmost respect for Jeff's hands-on work!


Sign painting is also a trade that very few people still practice, as it is being replaced by large printed signboards, 3D pop-out lettering and colourful blinking lit up signs. Jeff has been interviewed as a still active American sign painter for an independently funded movie planned to come out in this year. You can read more about the Sign Painter Movie here.


For more on Jeff Canham and his work, click here.

Illustration Inspiration: Steven Wilson

Steven Wilson is an illustrator from Brighton in the United Kingdom. His work is eclectic, colourful and you can even believe that it is in an animated state. He combines media such as paint, pen, pencil, collage, spray paint, Photoshop, Illustrator, and even play-doh to create his masterful outcomes.

Steven has worked on projects for MTV, Coke, Nike, Virgin, BBC, LEVI's, Penguin books, Ecko, Sony BMG, Wallpaper magazine, Universal, Blackberry, to name a few.

For more inspiring work go and get lost for a while in his website by clicking here.

If you would like to own some of his work you can buy some on Etsy here.