Ten Years

1.

There is a little bookshelf under the window in the dormer of my childhood bedroom at my parent’s house. On the bottom shelf, hidden behind some old issues of National Geographic and I large microscope, is a small photo album. My grandmother gave me that album close to fifteen years ago and it’s filled with images of trips we took together.

My grandparents took me on day trips every summer growing up. Sometimes it was to museums and another time it was a train ride. I remember a lot of these trips like they were yesterday.

I can’t remember exact year, but when I was in second or third grade, they took me to the Statue of Liberty. It would be hard for me to pick a favorite trip with my grandparents but if I had to pick one, that year’s trip would be close to the top. I remember brief moments from the day: riding the ferry to Ellis Island, walking up step after step inside the base of Lady Liberty, and my grandfather holding me up over the railing so I could look out over the entire island. I remember eating New York hot dogs on the bay, and I remember my grandmother taking this photo. It’s a photo of me, in a Don’t Mess With Texas shirt, standing in front of the New York skyline. Standing in front of the Twin Towers.

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“What else but baseball connects us to America of, say, 1891? What else has burned so long in our consciousness? The American population in 1891 was less than one quarter of what it is now. That was before movies, before television, before radio, before Hershey bars, before Wrigley gum, before even Brett Favre. America the Beautiful had not been written. Dracula did not exist, no Roosevelt had yet been president. Football, under different rules, was played only at a few colleges, there was no golf U.S. Open and until the end of that year basketball was a game bouncing around in the fertile mind of a YMCA instructor named James Naismith. The Olympics, more than 1,500 years since their last staging, would not resume for another five years.”
What Keeps the Grand Game Great?
I woke up this morning, took a shower, then had an idea and made this. I’m not sure what prompted it or where it came from, but I like it. I think I’m looking at too much Americana craft and design. Maybe I’ll print it out and hang it in the empty spot above my desk.

I woke up this morning, took a shower, then had an idea and made this. I’m not sure what prompted it or where it came from, but I like it. I think I’m looking at too much Americana craft and design.

Maybe I’ll print it out and hang it in the empty spot above my desk.

How To Be A Retronaut has some amazing photographs of the Statue of Liberty being built. The statue was designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and was constructed in France from 1877 to 1886 before being transported to New York where it was placed on a pedestal inside Fort Wood, a star-shaped fort used during the Civil War. These photos are so fascinating.

How To Be A Retronaut has some amazing photographs of the Statue of Liberty being built. The statue was designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and was constructed in France from 1877 to 1886 before being transported to New York where it was placed on a pedestal inside Fort Wood, a star-shaped fort used during the Civil War.

These photos are so fascinating.

Design firm Dowling | Duncan have submitted an interesting design to Richard Smith’s Dollar Rede$gn Project: We wanted a concept behind the imagery so that the image directly relates to the value of each note. We also wanted the notes to be educational, not only for those living in America but visitors as well. Each note uses a black and white image depicting a particular aspect of American history and culture. They are then overprinted with informational graphics or a pattern relating to that particular image. I really like the overall design and concept behind their proposal. I like the idea of each bill being educational and I like how each denomination is a different height making it easy to see what you have in a wallet. I’m especially attracted to the large monotone photography with subtle pattern overlays. Nothing against President Obama, but I think George Washington would be a better choice for the one dollar bill as the first president and I find the use of Helvetica slightly ironic on an American dollar. You know I love Helvetica, but I wonder if something like Gotham would be a better fit? Either way, I love the design and it’s worth reading the concepts behind their proposal.

Design firm Dowling | Duncan have submitted an interesting design to Richard Smith’s Dollar Rede$gn Project:

We wanted a concept behind the imagery so that the image directly relates to the value of each note. We also wanted the notes to be educational, not only for those living in America but visitors as well. Each note uses a black and white image depicting a particular aspect of American history and culture. They are then overprinted with informational graphics or a pattern relating to that particular image.

I really like the overall design and concept behind their proposal. I like the idea of each bill being educational and I like how each denomination is a different height making it easy to see what you have in a wallet. I’m especially attracted to the large monotone photography with subtle pattern overlays.

Nothing against President Obama, but I think George Washington would be a better choice for the one dollar bill as the first president and I find the use of Helvetica slightly ironic on an American dollar. You know I love Helvetica, but I wonder if something like Gotham would be a better fit? Either way, I love the design and it’s worth reading the concepts behind their proposal.

Bobulate: A photograph from Fordlandia, Henry Ford’s 1927 failed attempt to recreate the American small town deep in the jungle of Brazil. But ultimately, [An] “undertaking that had cost Ford upwards of $200 million dollars was abandoned. … Ford had tried not simply control rubber production, but to export the American way life, to force his will on the natural world, and both respects he failed colossally.” Then and now.

Bobulate:

A photograph from Fordlandia, Henry Ford’s 1927 failed attempt to recreate the American small town deep in the jungle of Brazil. But ultimately, [An] “undertaking that had cost Ford upwards of $200 million dollars was abandoned. … Ford had tried not simply control rubber production, but to export the American way life, to force his will on the natural world, and both respects he failed colossally.” Then and now.

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