Scientific Research

From 1956.

Quizkids 1960

Lucky brainboxers were well served with enchanting geometric designs back then.

Gill Sans and Perjury

After seeing how the old war horse Gill Sans was pushed and pulled about in this little sign at our registry office yesterday I have to admit that perjury was the last thing on my mind. Mission accomplished, little A6 vertical sign!

James - Laid

My new albums-as-books print is of James’ 1993 album ‘Laid’. A core slice of tuneful, writerly goodness, given a delicate polish and the occasional synth wash by producer Brian Eno. An album for all occasions, really.

I’m very, very busy with new prints and other such flittery matters… of which, more soon.

This James print is available right now in my Standard Designs Etsy shop. Enjoy!

Coming Soon in Late-1960s Academia...

Personally I can’t wait to get my hands on ‘Statistical Analysis in Biology’. I hear it’s a hoot.

Read around the Fountain: Standard Designs re-imagines classic Smiths’ albums as books

Read around the Fountain: Standard Designs re-imagines classic Smiths’ albums as books:

Back in 1986 the Smiths drew their literary battle lines with distinct passion, as Morrissey famously offers up in “Cemetery Gates” that “Keats and Yeats are on…

Vanyaland in Boston has a lovely write-up of my Smiths albums-as-books prints.

Isosceles International Airport

I love it when Air Traffic Control goes all Pythagoras above me.

IKEA Chocolate Is An Object Lesson In Pan-Continental Empiricism

I love this packaging. It simply says:

This is a big slab of brown something-or-other, and at the same time you buy it there will be many, many people across Europe speaking all kinds of languages you couldn’t possibly ever learn, not all of them, who are also buying it too. And to quote Keats, ‘That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know’.

Or something like that. I can confirm however that it is indeed 63p worth of happiness.

LS Lowry at Tate Britain

The Lowry show at Tate Britan (until 20 Oct) is, if not a greatest hits show, full of great hits. Over only a handful of rooms you get an impression of an artist who was not only consistent in his technique but also in his world view (which then informed his technique). It’s relentless, but the relatively small scale of the show means it ends leaving you wanting more. At least, it did with me.

And here’s a very nice 1957 BBC documentary on Lowry. There’s another one on the Tate website from the late 1960s or early 1970s, I think, which shows him working at the same easel, with the same painty piece of board behind it, as seen here. That’s what it’s all about.

A Panther Is A Pelican. Almost.

This past weekend’s book-buying turned up this head-scratcher. The Penguin/Pelican cover layout has been aped often of course, but this… I like on its own merits. I think.