Foosball is No Laughing Matter, Fool!This year’s BIG 10TH Anniversary World Graphic Design Foosball Championships are on December 17th at the Cooper Union’s Herb Lubalin Center. Players out there have a week to go until registration closes. “It’s a no-frills, straight-forward event with lots of socializing, fun, beer, and competition,” says organizer Jan Wilker. “Basically a design conference without all the boring lectures.” There are on average around 60 teams and 300 people attend, including guests. Hip and nerd play together: What could be more democratic. Pictures and other info can be found here and now.
I Heart Tuscan TypeP22 announces its latest collaboration with the Hamilton Wood Type Museum. They write”“Tuscan wood types cover a fairly wide range of styles, and there is sometimes confusion over what is classified as a Gothic Tuscan and what is considered an Antique Tuscan. Hamilton Wood Type’s HWT American Chromatic and P22 Tuscan Expanded are more precisely faces of the Antique Tuscan variety. Gothic Tuscans are generally absent of the heavy serifs typically associated with their Antique Tuscan brethren (although decorative bifurcation of terminals can imply serifs). Additional internal decoration with spikes along the stems gives some Tuscans their distinctive look—these faces are often described as ‘Circus Types.'”
HWT Tuscan Extended digitized by Frank Grießhammer is based on the 1872 William Page & Co. version, while also bearing a very close resemblance to the Morgans & Wilcox Tuscan Extended and No. 2106 from Tubbs Manufacturing Co. It’s similar to—but not quite the same—as the Heber Wells Tuscan Extended. (All four manufacturers were eventually acquired by Hamilton.) The National Printers’ Material Co. of New York also offered a similar Tuscan Extended.
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Returned From Nazi SpoilsOn December 18, Swann Galleries will offer works from the restituted Julius Paul Collection of Posters, an outstanding collection of scarce images in remarkable condition—the likes of which are rarely seen at auction.
Original hand-stenciled poster by Josef Hoffmann, announcing the opening of the first Weiner Werkstätte showroom in Vienna, 1905. Estimate: $250,000 to $350,000.
The Swann notes “The collection was formed between 1900 and 1935 by Julius Paul, a Hungarian-born Viennese distributor of cigarette papers, who died two months before the takeover of Austria by the Nazis in March of 1938. Paul was a meticulous man and a passionate collector who amassed more than 6300 posters. He kept careful track of each piece in his collection and stored them in a custom-built, oak storage cabinet.
His was not a “working” collection, meaning that the contents were not loaned out to institutions or used by students or scholars for research. Rather, Paul’s intention from the outset was for the collection to be appreciated but not used commercially: a collector’s collection.
Upon Paul’s death, the collection was left to his nephew who was forced to flee the country in 1939. In that same year, the posters appeared for sale in a catalog for a Viennese bookseller. It’s unknown whether Paul’s nephew consigned the posters in order to fund the escape and atonement taxes levied on Jews, whether he was forced into a sale or if he abandoned the collection.”
Competition for DesignersEnter your work in the new competition, Print Celebrates Design, which recognizes outstanding design work created for specific events and holidays.
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About Steven Heller
Steven Heller is the co-chair of the SVA MFA Designer /Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program, writes frequently for Wired and Design Observer. He is also the author of over 170 books on design and visual culture. He received the 1999 AIGA Medal and is the 2011 recipient of the Smithsonian National Design Award.View all posts by Steven Heller →