I saw this check in Uniqlo recently and loved it, then realised the reason I loved it was because it reminded me of the Castrol GTX cans I used to love when I was a boy… and *then* realised that there was no yellow in that packaging, and that my mind had somehow interleaved the yellow into my recognition and recollection. The mind is a curious thing, at least where retro engine lubrication semiology is concerned. #check #uniqlo #red #yellow #white #green #castrol #oil #retro #tin #logo #design
A quick sketch of Michael Caine in the film ‘Youth’. Caine and Harvey Keitel bumble through the upper-class nothingness of the film, kind of like Vladimir and Estragon turning up in a Chanel commercial. Despite (or perhaps because of) being monumentally pleased with itself though, this film is not Beckett. And then Paloma Faith turns up…
Festive decorations in John Lewis in Oxford Street in London yesterday. Merry Christmas everyone!
Some very nice things in the bi-annual Penguin Collectors Society package that dropped into my Fort Knox Letterbox today, including this lovely chap. #penguinbooks #penguin #books #publishing #collecting
The Park Keeper loves a good stapled laminated KEEP OFF notice.
Nice simple logos in Lidl. It’s what generic mass-produced food is all about #logo #design #Lidl #supermarket #photo
The civic offices in Glamorous Morden (‘Gateway to the Gateway to the South’). Somehow I really enjoy looking at this building. It’s like a slice taken out of BBC Television Centre, with similarly appealing 1950s colour details. And on bright cold London mornings it looks splendid. #morden #London #architecture #bbc #tvc #1950s
I love the ‘This’ at the start of this title (and the sly double meaning of 'Business’ at the end). So of-it’s-time dismissive! Other books in the series probably included 'This Welfare State Nonsense’, 'This Television Rot’ and 'This Popular So-Called Music’. #penguinbooks #slimming #attitude #books #design #typography #popmusic #pop #television #tv #nhs
The Little House Near The Dairy. #urban #architecture #moss
You read it here first… as long as you read it in 1956 #london #geology #britishmuseum #research #magazine
Bought this at a secondhand book shop yesterday. It’s from 1976. Because nothing is classier than the Cheaper Wines. #penguinbooks #wine #1976
#bookcover #classy
“…and good old e.e. cummings!”
“Ah, e.e.! e.e.!”
“Don’t laugh.”
“Sorry.”
#eecummings #spittingimage #laurenceolivier #johngielgud #poetry
I think this may well be the greatest advertisement ever created. #muppets #crumpets #advertising #London
Why not do yourself a favour and buy the bookish music fan in your life something special for Christmas - and get 10% off in the process - by visiting standarddesigns.etsy.com and entering the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY at the checkout. Easy!
Spoiler alert: it’s all Twitter, WhatsApp, and talent shows at the weekend. #pelicanbooks #penguinbooks #aztec
If you’ve not seen the video for David Bowie’s new song ‘Blackstar’ yet, here it is. I like how Bowie’s gift for appropriation has now extended to The Frug, turning it into The Frug For Really, Really Depressed People. But then, I know nothing about choreography.
See my David Bowie literary prints at standarddesigns.etsy.com
David was unimpressed by the vegetarian option. #davidbowie #bowie #vegetarian #photo #lunch
You know it’s nearly Christmas when Kellogg’s stick the Norman Rockwell Santa on their Corn Flakes boxes. It’s nice, but what I really love is the type that ‘Corn Flakes’ is set in. It’s just so 'back then’. #cornflakes #typography #design #packaging #christmas #normanrockwell #painting #illustration #santa #kelloggs #retro
I *really* hope this company is run by a Mr Norbert Dentressangle. Such a fascinating name - the logo… maybe less so? #logo #haulage #graphicdesign #design #european #europe #boringlogos
Choosing a blue. But which blue is the right blue? #blue #print #printmaking #colours
A lovely night in, circa 1973-ish. Pass the Campari, darling. #1970s #recordplayer #interior #lp #curtains #homedecor
You thrilled to ‘Choose Your Garage: 1’ - now, prepare to go crazy apeshit bonkers for 'Choose Your Garage: 2’. #garage #diagram #diy #homedecor #homedecorating #illustration
Proofs are back from the printers… These new prints are a bit niche. Well, a lot niche really. But I know clever people like you will get them. #print #silkscreen #notactuallysilkscreen #typography #Paris #may #1968 #homedecor
The neighbours have gone crazy for fireworks this year so the sky round our way currently looks just like this back cover of a 1958 Penguin Poets volume on William Blake. #fireworks #williamblake #penguin #penguinbooks #poetry #poet #blake
I have maybe listened to ‘Nebraska’ a few times too many in the past few days. #blackandwhite #springsteen #brucespringsteen #nebraska #industrial #cars #factory
“Captain, have you noticed the hastily blocked-in yellow area on the horizon?” “Actually, Ginger, I did it myself - I’m thinking of applying for art college. What do you think?” “Er… yeah?” #ladybirdbooks #ladybird #books #illustration #artcollege #artschool
Twenty years ago today Pulp released their album ‘Different Class’, with its lovely interchangeable front covers (in a trendily retro 70s rounded-corner square window with extra outlining). Marvellous stuff. Here’s my print of the album, available from the Standard Designs shop via this link: http://ift.tt/1OedhAp
Construction Time Again #building #work #depechemode #diy
My secondhand copy of this book (from 1977) has a few - very few - half-hearted underlinings. Says it all, really. #business #economics #relativelydull #quiteuseful #pelicanbooks #penguinbooks
Them’s some good offerz, Tintin. Mebbe… takem? #Tintin #herge #tintininamerica #gangsters #oil
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less, you know… condensationy” #robertfrost #window #condensation #coldmorning #brightmorning
«Mais où sont les revolutionnaires, Trevor?» «Ils sont tous skiving, innit Beryl. Au lit, pour le forty winks chaque jour!» «Paf! C'est alright pour some, eh?» #paris #may1968 #mai1968 #poster #posters #graffiti #student #sorbonne #franglais
Autumn is mostly made up of diagonals. I think it’s scientifically accurate to say that. Yes, yes it is, I’m 110% sure. #Autumn #photo #garden #diagonal #science #inaccuracy
Still working to make this chap’s visual descendants appear next month. #newwork
“Television - the drug of the nation”. My lab notes as another RX is planned. #television #disposableheroesofhiphoprisy #tv #planning #notes #science #maths #commercialbreak
Not *that* Charles Hawtrey. Not Private Widdle. No, the other Charles Hawtrey. #carryon #charleshawtrey #play #theater #theatre #learnyourlines
OK, Mary. Toffees - yep, like those. Fudges - okay, maybe sometimes but not with the toffees, thanks. Chocolates - lovely but really not right now Mary, not after those toffees and fudges. And sweets. AND SWEETS? What are you trying to do, Mary, kill me? Your book should carry a health warning. What do you mean, ‘Not all at the same time’??? #cookery #confectionery #paperback #food #publishing #books
Did Henry Moore really make slides for children’s playgrounds? Maybe *every* Henry Moore is a slide in a way (but only if you can slide down it without the gallery staff noticing, eh?). #henrymoore #sculpture #art #1960s #photo #sixties
Christmas gingerbread in October in IKEA. #early #christmas #ikea
The exterior of Tate Britain still shows the damage it suffered during the wars - the Abstractionists vs the Pop-ites during the mid-1960s (after which abstraction was forced into chilly exile, i.e. the art schools); the Performance Artists vs the Rest of the World in the 1970s (abandoned due to utter indifference); and the Brief Scottish Figurative Invasion of the mid-1980s (which ended terribly for all concerned, and without anyone capitalising on the lucrative t-shirt merchandising rights). #art #Tate #tatebritain #auerbach #architecture #frankauerbach #news #london #artschool #exhibition
This is Frank Auerbach in his studio in the 1960s, as depicted in the catalogue for the Tate show. I’m guessing that the message we’re supposed to take from this photo of the impressively regular Mr Auerbach is that he was (and probably still is)… impressively regular. #branflakes #frankauerbach #tate #tatebritain #artist #studio #fibre
Went to see the Frank Auerbach show at Tate Britain today. If you go, take an hour or so to go round it. The paintings look simple (bedside table de Koonings, in a way), but they contain a lot. This is one of my favourites. Colour and drawing describing space, which is a difficult trick to pull off. Oh, and the big stodgy lumpy early ones are fun too. #tate #frankauerbach #exhibition #art #drawing #painting #london
This Pelican Book is from 1972. Indeed, the typography here couldn’t be more early 1970s if it was wearing tartan flares, calling a factory out on strike or appearing alongside Robin Askwith. #1970s #pelicanbooks #penguinbooks #typography #graphicdesign #seventies #70s
Condensation - it’s when nature plus double glazing come up with their own Instagram filter (everyone’s in the app business these days) #autumn #photo #window #condensation #nice
Aha, it’s National Poetry Day. In the early days of Standard Designs I did a range of portrait drawings, including these poets. You can see more via this link
I wonder if whoever did the cut & paste illustration job here took the ‘exercise’ part of 'exercise book’ a little too literally. #graphicdesign #learntoread #exercisebook#school #illustration
Pretty pink pricey pasta packaging promotes pictorial… er… pinspiration.
#printing #packaging #advertising #design #italian #p
Rotring pens. Very tricky to clean properly, but even when they’re utterly caked in ink like this one was they can be made good as new again. Art is a struggle, and like all other struggles it requires patience, resolve, and lukewarm soapy water. #rotring #pen #design #drawing #art #engineering #freedomfortooting
“If that glass is for soft drink you should know we don’t do cola or lemonade anymore,” the nice lady at the IKEA café till told me yesterday, “it’s fruit drinks only now.” My heart sank a little as I was quite looking forward to some pep-inducing cola with my New Vegetable Balls (do please write your own punchlines) but I’m happy to report that the Apple Drink Sparkling is a delight: it tastes quite factory-fabricated in that mitteleuropa way. Which is kind of like saying “it’s from space!” with diminished ambitions. Hey-ho. #ikea #drink #europe #comfort #eurovision
