Paper Parasol Press Blog » vintage

Fun and Game Fonts

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 00:40:45 +0000

If you ever happen on San Francisco near Pier 39 to see the seals (or, what seals decided to stay), walk a few piers down to Pier 45 at Fisherman’s Wharf. Grab a calm chowder in a bread bowl on the way. Oh, and be sure your pockets are filled with quarters because at Pier 45 you will find Musee Mechanique (careful, the website contains creepy cackling!). I’ve been here twice two years in a row to marvel at the turn of the century coin operated machines. There’s this certain nostalgia that swells inside me, even though I grew up with game systems. Nothing beats the quarter machines or when you’re little, the constant begging to borrow a quarter from the parents for a few minutes of gratification.

Besides the plethora of games and images from days past, there are some amazing fonts. Here are some of my favorites:

Reminds me of the font Budmo, but so much better. I love the colors and the wood grain! Who doesn’t want their palm read for a mere 50 cents?

Love the script of the company’s name on this pin ball machine. As always, the classic sans-serif, is clean, modern, and wonderful.

Yum on the kerning of this vintage photobooth. How about that Western-inspired font, EYE LEVEL ?

The Inquest is one of my favorites at the museum. The buffalo really don’t do much except shake their heads, but the entire oddity of it fascinates me. Yes, that is a dead person under them – WEIRD, huh? I LOVE it.

Polish Design

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:48:40 +0000

Sure, I am Polish, (Can you tell by the last name?) but how incredible is Polish design? One of my favorite design blogs, Pan Tu Mie Stał (You were not standing here) is jam packed with great design and illustration – especially the vintage stuff. It also comes in an English version! Let us take a moment to just swooooon. In fact, I cannot wait for my Cześź t-shirt to arrive to the States! (Yeah, I couldn’t help myself; I am a sucker for condensed fonts and Polish characters.)

Let’s look a little more at this lovely blog, shall well?
Yes please on the vinyl!

With so much turmoil in the country’s history, Poland has shown strength with visual design – a mix of Modern, metaphors, simplicity, the past, and keeping ahead of the curve. When I came across this vintage Polish stamp collection, it was like unearthing a visual treasure! Here are some of my favorites.

Polish stamp with CCCP space program imagery. Check out that 60’s rocket blasting into orbit

These basketball ones from 1963 are nothing short of amazing. The figure hardly looks like any silhouette of a basketball player, but it has a nice graceful feminine quality to it.

How wonderful is this one with Laika, the first dog the Russians sent into space? Unfortunately, she was sent up there with the known fact she would not return. Despite this, her image has graced Soviet stamps and posters. There is also a monument of her in Moscow.

A small and beautifully designed mid-century stamp. My font love for this little guy is IMMENSE

more classical and Soviet inspired designs.

Folk inspired stamps

1964 Tokyo’s Olympics.

Fun illustrations with the stamps. What about those amazing mushrooms and that cat meowing… maybe crying?

For more Polish stamps, visit my vintage section on Flickr. I am hoping to pay homage to Warsaw’s Wilanów Poster Museum in October. Has anyone ever been there? It looks like a place I could easily spend hours in. I think a trip to Polska is far overdue. I need some old-fashion root-searchin’ and art inspiration.

Cheers and hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

thrift store finds

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:23:35 +0000

I love coming across old index cards, yellowed by age or these alphabetical index cards in a lovely little case. One day, I will figure out to do with my French cards, index cards, and graph paper.