Obsessions

Keeping Everyone in the Loop: 50 Years of Chicago "L" Graphics

A recent visit to Chicago reminded me of how enamored I am of its rapid transit. It's so much a part of what makes Chicago unique and exciting to me. Chicago is one of those cities with a "sound" to it—San Francisco being another—and the elevated "L" system is the reason why. Much of the [...]

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Many Happy (Tax) Returns: A Marxist Doctrine

With all of us looking at the Fiscal Cliff on the horizon, who better to explain things than Marx . . . . . . GROUCHO Marx. About 15 years ago, I traded my signed copy of The Groucho Letters to the animation creator/director Tom Warburton for his 1942 edition of Groucho Marx's second book, [...]

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Winsor McCay Illustrates "Temperance -- or Prohibition?," 1929

While strolling through a used-books store in Los Angeles over 20 years ago, I spied the dust-jacketed binding of a book with a familiar illustration style. Much to my delight, I'd found a little-known 1929 first edition volume published by the Hearst Company concerning Prohibition—and primarily illustrated by the brilliant comic-strip artist and animation pioneer [...]

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Watty Piper's 1930 "The Little Engine That Could"

When I was a very young child (circa 1960), one of the first books I was given was a 1930 edition of Watty Piper's The Little Engine That Could. I've loved trains since I was a kid and I'm convinced this little tome was an early contribution to what's become an obsession. It would be [...]

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"Writers I Have Loved"--The Graphic Reflections Of Joshua Landsman

I've known Joshua Landsman for over 45 years. We went to the same junior-high/high school in Evanston, lllinois, and even worked on our school newsletter together. I was always in awe of his writing talent—and sense of humor. He's since written screenplays and one-act plays—his "Frank Talk About Matters Big And Small" played at Chicago's [...]

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Fight Talk: A WWII Poster Campaign

The Second World War saw the participation of countless corporations steering and converting their talents and resources toward the war effort. At the end of the war, many of these corporations took advantage of their contributions to produce promotional pieces that highlighted their involvement. For instance, the Chrysler Corporation published a four-volume set of small [...]

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Litho-Mania: Marketing with Lithography, Circa 1939

My last post concerned the photoengraving industry of the pre-Depression period. This week it's pre-WWII lithography! Litho Media: A Demonstration of the Selling Power of Lithography, published in 1939 by Roger Stephens and edited by H. Homer Buckelmueller and Colin Campbell, is a 206-page, 12-by-15-inch slipcased bible produced to help publicize the successful and effective [...]

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"Your Story in Picture Leaves Nothing Untold"—A Two-Volume Testament to the Pre-Depression Craft of Photoengraving

Anyone following the posts I've done for Imprint should be left with the impression that I get off on tasty examples of graphic art. Regardless of how well and even superior the reproduction of images is now, thanks to new technology like the iPad, there's nothing like leafing through some of the publications that presented [...]

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The Bottle's the Thing: The Branding Evolution of Soda Pop

My fascination with brand design started with the soda-pop realm. I'd always loved leafing through old magazines and usually paid more attention to the advertising in them than the articles. Because my father had a collection of Life magazines beginning with the first issue in 1936 and continuing through the World War II years, I [...]

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Clutter My World

I wish I’d come up with “Clutter My World,” but I stole the line from Laura Levine. That Laura is one smartypants—rock photographer, illustrator, filmmaker, and owner of the business I’d most like to work for—Homer and Langley’s Mystery Spot, in Phoenicia, New York. The seven-room shop is named for Homer and Langley Collyer—brothers who died [...]

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