My last day in Berlin for the year, so I decide to drop by a museum that don’t know thing one about, save for its intriguingly all-encompassing name: Museum der Dinge, the Museum of Things.
Well. Aren’t they all?
Ye-es, technically correct, but the categories that museums typically set for themselves are very, very narrow. Things […]
I’m not sure what attracts me to these metal box signs. Perhaps it’s their bulky physical presence, the seams, the dents, the peeling paint, the dirt — or the simple fact that they were crafted by hand. An internal backlash to years of staring at 2-dimensional representations of mathematical constructs?
Yeah, I think that might […]
Another generous helping from Berlin’s graffiti/street art scene, a kaleidoscope of ornamented walls from (at least) three eastern ‘hoods — Prenzlauerberg, Freidrichshain and Kreuzberg. The first Berlin graffiti post befindet sich hier.
One of my private Berlin pleasures … a quick currywurst at Curry 36 on Mehringdamm, and then a stroll through the graveyard at Hallesches Tor.
The contrast between the non-stop noise and action of the Kreuzberg street and the instant blanket of verdant silence that prevails in the cemetery could not be more vivid. Mature […]
Berlin is plastered with graffiti. And I love it.
Despite a recent crackdown, a decades-long history of (ahem) ‘public self-expression’ can be be read on walls all over the city, from ’80s wild-style to left-wing squatter provocations to the artsy paste-ups of the newly bohemian-chic Prenzlauerberg and Friedrichshain.
Though some of it would have been better off […]
Spotted in a working-class neighborhood in a northern part of Berlin — the storefront of a ’50s-era architectural glass workshop, sheathed in gloriously ’50s style tiny glass mosaics.
The signage is even more beautiful … yeesh, need I write anything at all? Those colors, that texture, the Bauhaus-meets-the-Fifties vernacular letterforms … Just. So. Cool.
I spotted this sign on the side of a recently renovated building in Berlin’s hipster-cum-yuppie neighborhood “Mitte“. Every year more and more money pours into this area, and more of the gorgeous multi-story turn-of-the-century buildings here — fallen into terrible disrepair during the 60-odd years of Communist rule — are brought back to life.
Because […]
The “Dissolve-O-Matic” is the latest in the series of illustrations created for Havi Brooks’ self-work products, in the quirky style semi-officially dubbed “Steampunk meets Yellow Submarine”… »
Leaving for Berlin in a couple of days!
Even though I’ll be hanging out on the eastern side of the city (P-berg, X-berg, Friedrichshain, Mitte), after arduous days of cafe-sitting and strolling along the Spree I’ll be laying my head in the slightly more fancypants western neighborhood of Charlottenburg.
How fancypants? I dug up a couple of […]
No, no, no, not rhino leather — it’s a rhino on leather.
See, a CD package I created for Albino! features a badass rhino on the cover. A friend of the band was so taken by the illustration that he carved it into a leather guitar strap.
He’s pretty new in the world of leatherwork, […]
Entering competitions isn’t really my cup of tea strong-ass coffee, but I’ve just discovered the massive coolness that is Threadless.com. Whoa.
I knew I’d found a home for my recently-excavated Kung Fu Girl illustration the second I arrived. Some judicious editing, new color selection, and the girl is online with a brand new name: “Can I […]
In anticipation of my annual journey to Germany, an alluring photo of a partially obscured green and white S-Bahn sign — these ubiquitous, illuminated typographic symbols beckon Berliners towards the over/underground network which (along with the U-Bahn) connects the re-unified metropolis with shining, singing rails.
o … sometimes my train of thought leaves from an unusual station.
During my morning perambulations a car cruised past, blasting bass-heavy tunes from enormous speakers. The sub-sonic frequencies made the vehicle’s bodywork vibrate so loudly that the music itself was completely drowned out.
You probably hear this particular kind of sonic sandwich all the time. In […]
The work of some smarty-pants at the Alberta Street Co-op — intended to quell the fears of the squeamish, or quash the hopes of vampires straying into the produce department?
Can’t say for sure, but it succeeded in inducing an involuntary chuckle from me.
Guerrilla artist/graphic designer Shepard Fairey is world famous (um, notorious) for papering the alleys, underpasses and abandoned storefronts of the world with starkly powerful images limned in black, white and red. I still remember the first “André the Giant Has a Posse” sticker I ever saw, somewhere in the San Francisco Mission District in 1989 […]
“Bring bad design to justice!” So command the Design Police.
It’s already old news that technology has placed the ability to commit design atrocities well within reach of the grubby hands of the masses, but as Sam Clemens remarked about folks who complain about the weather, “no one does anything about it“.
Until now.
The pen may […]
If you were a schoolkid in the ’70s who like to read, just seeing the words “Scholastic Book Club” will make your heart beat a little faster:
I remember in grade school how freaking fun it was to place an order for these inexpensive kids books, and that there may have been no greater thrill than […]
Gorgeous modernist signage for a cabinet maker’s shop in the Bergmannstrasse, Berlin, dating from (I believe) the late ’20s — early ’30s. The typography, the colors, the arched entryway and even the textures of the metal and painted surfaces … beautiful.
I can’t get enough of photographing signs, type, and even graffiti in Berlin … the […]
“Does this guy have some kind of cult?”
We’d just seated ourselves in the packed auditorium, and my colleague was eyeing the dozens of glazed-eyed autograph-seekers lined up for their moment with Edward Tufte. His seminar “Presenting Data and Information” had sold out well in advance, and the place was quietly buzzing with conversation and — […]
The fabulous commie sign over “Alex”, the famous train station in east Berlin more properly known as Bahnhof Alexanderplatz. It’s a beautiful sign, severely elegant — installed (I believe) during a retrofit in 1964.
This style of 3-D illuminated letterform is seen all over Germany’s capital city, a look that’s so appealingly tactile that I […]
