Blog: Delicious things

HOWDOOS now on Folksy!


Our HOWDOOS - hand letter-pressed, personalisable business cards are now available on Folksy and Etsy. Get yours now!

Find out more about HOWDOOS here.

Chocolate Week






No, I haven't made it up. This week is National Chocolate Week (11-17 October), "a time of pure indulgence involving the country's best chocolatiers and chocolate shops holding events all over the UK".

So to celebrate I thought I'd share with you my best chocolatey find - chocolate type (above) from The Letteroom made using original Dutch moulds. These delicious looking letters are 17cm high and weigh in at 200 grams each. Now that's a lot of chocolate!

Each letter is available in either white, milk, dark or strawberry flavoured chocolate and can be personalised with wording or a pattern. They also sell mini (4cm high) letters for the less greedy!

Images copyright The Letteroom.

Vintage Milk Bottles











Who knew milk bottles could be so gorgeous, this lovely collection belongs to milk bottle collector and member of The National Association of Milk Bottle Collectors, Bill Kaiser. He has pages of bottles, the ones above are just a selection.

All the bottles have great graphics and decorative type, my personal favourites are the Crescent Milk graphic and the United Dairy type. It must have been lovely to start the day with one of these fine bottles on the table and don't forget how fabulous the bottle tops also used to be.

All the bottles above are available for sale on Got Milk Bottles. There is no mention of date, but my guess would be that they're from the 40's and 50's (I could however be very wrong!).

All images copyright Bill Kaiser.

Found Type #5






Some lovely found type from around the Delicious studio (top to bottom; 50's 'break glass' fire alarm, 'D' marked weight, vintage 'Halfords' oil can, vintage metal 'Shell' sign and nameplate from 50's/60's Vandome & Hart Ltd. scales)

See more found type posts here.

From the reference box # 83


#83 - Daiya Space Colt. This item is a studio favourite - a working, "friction sparking with siren" tin ray gun!

The Space Colt was manufactured in Japan by Daiya during the late 50's and early 60's. It's 16cm (approx 6.5") in length and when the trigger is pulled it makes a weird noise as the friction sparks light-up the red lens panels.

According to ray gun enthusiast Justin Pinochot it has "uninspired design", which I was quite offended by until I looked at others on his wonderful website. He has a massive archive of Japanese ray guns and describes the as, "The stuff of fancy, toy ray guns are powered by pure imagination, by our almost unlimited capacity to wonder. Yet they represent other things as well. They are weapons intended to protect us from our deepest fears of the dark unknown, and they remind us of our vulnerability in the face of an endless and mysterious cosmos. Ray guns are testimony to the fact that we often conceive of even the majesty of space as a backdrop for our conflicts and struggles, and that we finally set foot on the moon only as the result of a deadly, war-like, competitive "race" between two superpower nations".

Our example has definitely had an eventful life and came without packaging, but this is the box it would have originally come in. Loving the image of the spaceman!


See more reference box goodies here.

Happy Birthday Tigger!


Remember Tigger, our gorgeous cat? Well today is his 15th birthday!

He's spending it mainly eating his red salmon and sleeping in the sunshine, but took a break for a quick portrait.

Happy Birthday Tigs. x

Tue 22 Jun 2010

Posted under: Delicious things , Tigger

0 Comments

50's Posters discovered at Notting Hill Gate Tube


How fantastic are these vintage posters discovered in the depths of Notting Hill Gate Tube Station during some recent maintenance work?

In 1959 Notting Hill Gate Tube Station underwent modernisation - the original passenger lifts were replaced with escalators and the passages to the old lifts were sealed off and long forgotten.

That is until recently, when they were rediscovered along with these wonderful advertising posters still very much in tact. What a great find!

Hopefully they'll be saved and put on display in the London Transport Museum (fingers crossed), but at present they remain in-situ and this section of the station remains closed to the public :(

Huge thanks to Mike Ashworth, Design & Heritage Manager of London Underground for sharing these pics!





Via Kuriositas.
Images copyright Mike Ashworth.

Energy Conservation stamp, 1974


Even in 1974 Energy Conservation was a concern. Thought I'd share this great block of USPS commemorative stamps from Karen Horton's wonderful Flickr stream.

The stamp was designed by Robert W. Bode and issued on 23 September 1974 to promote the importance of Energy Conservation and to coincide with the 9th World Energy Conference: 'The Economic and Environmental Challenges of Future Energy Requirements', held in Detroit, Michigan from 23-27 September.

I love the big, bold pink 'ENERGY' type (pink & orange are one of my favourite colour combos) - what's not to like!

Whilst doing some research I found a cool 70's poster on Etsy that features this stamp.

Image copyright Karen Horton. Via Vintage Postage Stamps.

The Bottle Cap Man








Doing some research yesterday I came across The Bottle Cap Man a website devoted to, you guessed it - bottle caps or crowns. The site, run by Kenny Yohn in Kansas City is a great resource for collectors and an amazing source of inspiration.

Kenny has an absolutely massive collection of beer and soda caps dating back to the 50's, the ones above are only a tiny selection from one of the soda sections. I haven't even looked through the beer ones yet - there literally are hundreds.

I feel a new collection coming on!

Images copyright The Bottle Cap Man.

Vintage Art Supplies


This great selection of 60's crayon + paint packaging is from the amazing collection of vintage packaging, ephemera and ads etc... in Christian Montone's Flickr photostream - seriously, I've spent ages looking through his sets and still not seen it all.

I actually have some of these myself. I'll have to dig them out of the reference box and post them up. meanwhile enjoy these...









Images copyright Christian Montone.

From the reference box # 65



#65 – Cook books from The Stork Cookery Service - ‘Stork Goes Continental’, 1954 and ‘Party Time with Stork’, 1958.

I love the little Stork Magarine recipe booklets and after buying these two recently I decided to find out more about them. Unilever have a little bit of history here...

“Stork was first introduced as a branded margarine in the 1920. In the 1930's, Stork taste tests began on Radio Lyons. Advertising campaigns included "The Energy Giver" to dispel thoughts that margarine was unhealthy. The Stork Cookery Service was launched in 1939 to help housewives discover cooking with margarine when food rationing began.”

When rationing ended in 1954, Stork and The Stork Cookery Service reappeared in the marketplace and over the following 20 years they produced a huge range of booklets and books with instructions and recipes for all ages and all levels of experience; from ‘How to make a Sandwich’ to ‘The Art of Icing’.

Some of the recipes in the party one sound really good, I might have to get my pinny on and bake some cakes this weekend!

If you like these, I’m sure you’ll like the other items in our reference box – have a root here.

Great Valentine's Day Cards


There's still time to buy those Valentine's cards! To help you along, here are some of our favourites...

For our US friends, Hero Design Studio have some great hand-printed cards (above) in their Etsy store including a pack of 12 (4 designs, below) for those with more than one love in their life!

And for those in the UK, Soma Gallery have a large selection of fabulous Lisa Jones cards (below).

Crayon Rings by Timothy Liles


How great are these Crayon Rings by Timothy Liles?

I love the idea of being able to draw with big bold, bright rings. They're aesthetically pleasing and functional - the perfect combination!


Get yours here .

Images copyright Designboom.
Via Designboom News.

Vintage Castrol Tins


Remember this post about a vintage oil can Flickr group? Well since then I've been on a look out for some of my own - so far I've found these little beauties. I love the old scripted Castrol logo on the middle and right tins.

According to Castrol this logo was introduced in 1946 and used until 1958 when the one on the left tin replaced it. Here's the Castrol logo evolution, I think it's a shame they didn't stick with the 50's/60's branding as it has much more impact than the ultra-modern (yet already dated looking) ones in use since 2001.


1917 and 1929


1946 and 1958


1968 and the 100 year celebration logo in 1999


2001 and 2006


Check out more vintage oil loveliness here, here and here.

All logo images copyright Castrol.

Helvetica Cookie Cutters!



Loving these Helvetica cookie cutters designed and created by Beverly Hsu last year. Rumour has it that she's trying to put them into production so we can all have lovely Helvetica cookies to munch on!

Images copyright Beverly Hsu.
Via NotCot.

Tue 26 Jan 2010

Posted under: Design , Typography , Delicious things

3 Comments

Welcome

Welcome to the Delicious Industries blog. We're an independent design studio based in Brighton, UK and this is our scrapbook packed full of design, illustration, photography & typography inspiration. Check out our work here.

Blog archive