Latest Blogs

Scanning Around with Gene: The Art of Fire Prevention

Fire is a wonderful tool when used properly, but as we all know it can quickly get out of control. Here’s a look at fire-prevention pamphlets from 1959 and 1962, and we discover that even Hippies can start fires.

TypeTalk: Supersize My Font Families, Please!

Gone are the days when font choices were regular, italic, and bold. Today you can use super families of fonts that contain variations in width, weight, style, and more. Here are some tips for using super families.

Scanning Around with Gene: Let’s All Pile in the Station Wagon!

Before mini-vans and SUVs, the preferred method of family transportation was the station wagon, complete with folding way-back seats, domed roofs, and cool names.

Scanning Around With Gene: Teaching Kids About Industry

A garage-sale find of three small children’s books highlights some great 1937 illustrations from a little-known artist by the name a Th. D. Luykx.

Scanning Around With Gene: Being a Boy in 1939

In 1939 the world was in turmoil and the economic conditions in the United States were greatly challenged, but young boys were still trying to have fun and learn a few things along the way.

Scanning Around With Gene: The Amazing Story of Measurement

We take our inches and feet for granted these days, but of course it was a twisted route that brought us to a system of modern measurement. Here’s a brief comic-book history from 1949.

Scanning Around With Gene: The Era of "Mad" Women

The Sixties seem to be enjoying a comeback, thanks in part to the television show "Mad Men." Here’s a look at some images from women’s magazines from the era. Are we sure we want to glorify those times?

TypeTalk: Copy Editing and Proofreading

Copyediting and proofreading are important to the integrity of the production of any publishing project, yet the two are often confused. What's the difference between copy editing and proofreading? What does each task entail? And why do they matter?

Scanning Around With Gene: Things That Are Within Five Feet of My Desk

For Friday the 13th, here's a unique collection of images that I've kept nearby over the years. What thematic relationship do they have to each other? Nothing, except they all were found within a five-foot swath around my desk.

Scanning Around With Gene: The Sex Appeal — and Bad Reputation — of the Fiat

Fiats have always had a sexy image, much like the country that makes it. But this classic Italian car brand has a tarnished reputation in America, due to its unreliability. Now, thanks to the cute new Fiat 500, many Americans are seeing Fiats for the first time. Will it be amore?

Scanning Around With Gene: How Does Your Garden Grow?

At the turn of the 19th century, gardening was a very popular past time, as seen through these seed catalogs from the period. Plus, they were great examples of the type and lithography used at the time.

Scanning Around With Gene: Typographic Treasure from the Bottom of the Box

There they were, at the bottom of a poorly marked box: a series of American Printer magazines from 1946, complete with a five-part primer on how to set good type. In this typographic treasure trove, we learn that many lessons are timeless.

TypeTalk: Investigating Insouciant

On the surface, James Montalbano's Insouciant font is a charming, sprightly typeface that belies the technical rigor required to create it. Here Montalbano explains how this 10-weight family came to be and why upright script faces are challenging to design.

Scanning Around With Gene: The Old Way of Photo Retouching

Before there was Photoshop there were sable brushes, retouch grey paints, gelatin and wads of cotton. But despite a difference in tools, many of the basics of photo retouching remain the same.

Scanning Around With Gene: Great Pulp Magazine Covers

Many prolific artists did cover illustrations for pulp magazines and pulp paperbacks, often under pen names due to the sometimes lurid subject matters. One of the more prolific, and talented, is Mort Künstler. Welcome to a world of brave men and racy women.

Scanning Around With Gene: When Advertising was King-sized

Illustration was once a much bigger part of corporate advertising, especially in business magazines like Fortune, which featured over-sized pages and a fine art aesthetic. On the heels of his look at the covers of Fortune, Gene Gable takes a peek inside at ads that were as striking as the editorial art surrounding them.

Scanning Around With Gene: The Stylish Covers of Fortune

From its inception in 1930, Henry Luce wanted Fortune magazine to be "as beautiful a magazine as exists in the United States." From the covers alone, you can see that he achieved his goal.

Scanning Around With Gene: Best in the West Graphics, 1970

When advertising people judge their own, the results are always interesting. The 27th Annual Portfolio of the Art Directors Club of Los Angeles, published in 1970, revealed four trends of the time.

TypeTalk: The Anatomy of a Character

You've known the names of letters and numbers since you were a little kid. But did you realize that every part of those characters have names, too? Knowing this terminology will help you better understand typefaces and communicate about design. Now you can download a high-res PDF of the anatomy chart, too!

Scanning Around With Gene: Colorful Produce Crate Labels

For almost 70 years, fruit and vegetable growers used colorful labels to distinguish their brands and show off their point of origin.