Blog: Typography

The Art of Necessity


There's an interesting article on the CR Blog about 'The Art of Necessity' - the ingenuity of Spanish printers in the early 1930's when avant-garde had spread through Europe into Spain.

The small print shops had to find ways of creating this new look with no new resources, so they imitated the style using the bullets, dingbats, rules and ornaments from their existing type trays and transformed them into new typefaces and illustrations creating the modern look of the avant-garde.

Read the full article here.

Images copyright CR Blog.

Wed 08 Apr 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Illustration

2 Comments

Mystery parcel


It's always nice to get an unexpected parcel in the post, but even more exciting when it's full of vintage ephemera - especially matchbooks! So a very big thank you to Jack Hooker for sending us a great selection.

Here are a few of my favourites. I especially like the Air India one and it's actually made of wood, the P&O one has different destinations stamped into the bottom of each match (which can just be made out in the pic) and I love the VIA one with 'Bon Voyage!' printed on the inside.


They will all be added to my Flickr group asap.

Fri 03 Apr 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Ephemera , matchbooks

3 Comments

I want this book!


I was over at Sell! Sell! towers earlier today and saw them posting about this book, Corporate Diversity: Swiss Graphic Design and Advertising by Geigy, 1940 - 1970 published by Lars Müller and the Museum für Gestaltung Zuurich. I've posted about Geigy before here, but I've never seen this book and it's fantastic!

The work throughout is simple and striking - quite rightly the book relates Geigy's house style to other influential advertising and design of the era, for example Olivetti, and as you can see they were definitely along the same lines.

These ads were designed by Giovanna Pintori who worked at the Italian company Olivetti for 27 years!

See more images from Corporate Diversity at Sell! Sell!.

Mon 23 Mar 2009

Posted under: Advertising , Design , Typography

4 Comments

'Gentry' Mens Fashion Magazine


I love the colour and typography on these covers of Gentry - a men's fashion magazine from the 50's.

Published by Reporter Publications and founded by William C. Segal it covered fashion, style, sports and art, but for some reason it only ran for 22 issues.

There's currently a full set available on Ebay for $599!! and some individual issues available here.

Mon 23 Mar 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Things to buy , Magazine

5 Comments

Helvetica Logos


Most designers love a bit of Helvetica now and again even though we all know it's widely over used. It's a typeface chameleon and can work in any scenario - it's simple, elegant, strong, authoritive and still looks modern fifty years down the line!

Web Designer Depot have gathered together a collection of '40 excellent logos created with Helvetica'. It's interesting to see them all together. Here are my favourites - the rest can be seen here.


















All logos are the copyright of the individual companies.
Via Coudal.

Sun 22 Mar 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography

1 Comment

From the reference box #36


#36 - Carriageway markings: Do you know them?

This highway code supplement is a new addition to the reference box. I love how the lines of the road markings create really graphic illustrations and how they've used only the colours of the black tarmac and the road marking colours - bold yellow and white.

When I bought it I found this smaller leaflet, 'Stop Accidents' tucked away inside sporting a bit of great Saul Bass-esque type.

So there we have it, #36 - Highway Code supplement. Have a look through the other reference box items here.

Wed 18 Mar 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Ephemera , Reference box

1 Comment

Illustrator Paul Thurlby


Paul Thurlby is a Buckinghamshire based, freelance illustrator. He's got loads of great work in his portfolio all with a slightly vintage/retro feel.

This alphabet has to be my favourite set - I love the colour combos on the E and F, especially the bright red on the lion.


See the more of the alphabet and of Paul's work here.

Images copyright Paul Thurlby.

Mon 16 Mar 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Illustration

3 Comments

From the reference box #35


Disque de controle de stationnement - a French parking control probably from the early 50's for 'Zone Bleue', which according to the very detailed map included part of the Champs-Élysée.

It has 'Matin' (Morning) 'Heure d'arrivee' (arrival time) and 'stationnement autorisé' (parking authorised till) times on one side of the dial and 'Apres -Midi' (afternoon) times on the reverse.

All the 'Heure d'arrivee' are in blue type and some have either a blue or red dot screen behind them, I'm not sure what that is indicating, but it looks good. The 'stationnement autorisé' are all in bold, red type that's much bigger than the arrival times.

I'm not sure if it's sponsored by Citroën, whether they produced them or whether they are just advertising on it, but I really like the old logo and graphic on there.

I love this little piece of ephemera, it's a great addition to the reference box and to my moving dial/wheel collection - #35 - Disque de controle de stationnement

Checkout the rest of the reference box items here.

Thu 12 Mar 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Ephemera , Reference box

1 Comment

A year of Delicious posts…


Here's a selection of our favourite posts from the last year, enjoy:

Which? Covers (can now also be seen on our Flickr)

Wilhelm Ostwald's Color Helm

Found Type at the De La Warr Pavilion

Wed 11 Mar 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Photography , Inspiration

0 Comments

Your vote counts!!



Our friends at Sell!Sell! are battling it out over the next 2 weeks in the CBS London Creative Challenge with great campaigns for Fentimans and the charity Crisis.

For 2 weeks, two agency's campaigns are pitched against each other on London Buses. The 'challenge' is to receive the most online votes in a 2 week period. Voting is limited to 1 per person per day, but everyone is eligible.

I really want the Fentimans ad to win, it's a great product and I love how the product has been tied in with the media in a fun way!

Vote here - thanks smile

Mon 09 Mar 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography

1 Comment

Vintage Polish Jam Labels


I love this collection of vintage Polish jam labels I found over on Pan Tu Nie Stał.

These are my favourites, it's the simple illustrations, big bold type and bright colours - a winning combo that does it everytime!



Images copyright Pan Tu Nie Stał.

Fri 06 Mar 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Inspiration , Illustration

4 Comments

Luca 'Bean One' Barcellona



Gorgeous calligraphy from Luca Barcellona. Check out his Flickr groups to see more of his calligraphy, typography and graffiti skills.

Images copyright Luca Barcellona.

Wed 04 Mar 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Inspiration

0 Comments

Jauna Gaita Covers


I love it when you turn on your computer in the morning and are immediately confronted by great design that you haven’t seen before and that is exactly what happened the when I read Sell!Sell!’s post about Jauna Gaita and it’s fantastic cover designs.

Jauna Gaita (The New Course) is a quarterly, Latvian journal for culture and free thought, first published in 1955 and still going strong today.

It’s covers, many designed by Ilmars Rumpeters, are perfect examples of my favourite kind of vintage design - fresh and bright with a definite modernist influence.


The ones I’ve shown above are only the tip of the iceberg – the full back catalogue can be seen here.

Images copyright Jauna Gaita.

Mon 02 Mar 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Illustration , Magazine

0 Comments

Remember these?


They're Letraset drawers, for keeping all your Letraset sheets clean and tidy. No design studio was complete without a set in the 70's and 80's!

I found this set at Present & Correct. They're so retro looking, surely there must be a modern day use for them - stationary storage, as an in & out tray perhaps or even a cool place to actually keep all the scraps of Letraset you just can't part with despite having not used it for a decade??

By the way, if you are one of the designers with stacks of half used sheets it's about time you put them to use - remember our post about Marcus Fischer's Alphabirds?

Images copyright Present & Correct.

Fri 27 Feb 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Things to buy

1 Comment

Keep Calm and Carry On


I've had a Keep Calm and Carry On reproduction wartime poster for a good few years now and although every person I know now has one too, I still love it - the graphics, the colours, the big type and the straight talking, nonsense message - what's not to like, but it was only recently I found out the story behind the original poster from an article on the BBC News:

"In 1939, with war against Germany looming, the Government designed three posters to steady the public's resolve and maintain morale. These featured the crown of King George VI set against a bold red background, and three distinctive slogans - 'Freedom is in Peril', 'Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory', and 'Keep Calm and Carry On'.

Two-and-a-half million copies of 'Keep Calm' were printed, to be distributed in the event of a national catastrophe, but remained in storage throughout the war".

It's thought that the unused poster were pulped and only an odd few are known to still exist. One of those being the poster Stuart Manley, an antique book dealer found in a box of books bought at auction, and the one that started this worldwide obsession with the message.

Stuart Manley's bookshop, Barter Books now sell reproductions of all 3 posters (seen above) on their Ebay store.

You can read the full BBC article here.

Images copyright Barter Books.

Thu 26 Feb 2009

Posted under: Design , Typography , Prints , Things to buy

0 Comments

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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.

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