
Sign on an architect’s office in Silverlake, Los Angeles. I believe these are the Neutraface letters sold by House Industries.
Ragtag grab-bag

Sign on an architect’s office in Silverlake, Los Angeles. I believe these are the Neutraface letters sold by House Industries.

A series of original portraits made shortly after the 1977 release of Star Wars. My knowledge of anatomy was still crude, but I captured the essential visual characteristics of each character, don’t you think?

Artifacts of the early theological indoctrination of a young Catholic school student. Note that complex, nuanced issues of dogma are avoided at this stage. (From my own personal archives.)

Any old eccentric can send a typewritten letter but we all know that the world-class crazy prefer hand-written rants and pleas.

These are from an thrill-a-minute packet of photocopied letters sent to the producers of Unsolved Mysteries by some very…earnest viewers. Priceless.

Words can barely express the wonders to be found in old romance comics. They’re a terrifying, hilarious snapshot of damaging influences on a generation of young women. (Bear in mind that these were almost always written and drawn by men.) And the ads! Astounding, but perhaps I’ll save those for another day…

I couldn’t resist showing pages from the second volume of this magical, outdated series. Have you noticed yet how all the pages are hand-lettered and illustrated?

This little paperback is an invaluable source of information about the handicraft of design and illustration. It’s also a time capsule about how things were done in the era before computers half the tips in the book are curious artifacts of obsolete skills.

They are festive, aren’t they? My sister nabbed them from her neighbor’s garage sale. I adore the typography.

It goes without saying that I think New York is the center of the world.