Learn Something Everyday

Learn Something Everyday, the brainchild of UK-based Young design studio:

Submit your factoids HERE for possible inclusion! You could even win a free poster. EXCITEMENT. 🙂

French Friday: L’abécédaire! (ABCs!)

Adorable vintage French ABC Books, circa 1920s, from Cecilyadro’s Flickr set:

The “encrier” almost makes up for the questionable inclusion of the “fusil” and the “hache.” Almost.

I’m always on the “qui-vive” when the letter Q comes to mind.

And from yet another fabulously illustrated 1920’s abécédaire…

Throwback Thursday: Mad Libs!

Mad Libs have evolved into a whole other monster and are still kicking around today (Fashion Mad Libs? Simpsons Mad Libs? X-Rated Mad Libs??), but the current editions are a far cry from the fabulous cover designs of the originals…

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An original page, which would now be targeted by the ACLU and every feminist in the country (rightfully so):

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French Friday: la minuscul(e)xposition!

La minuscul(e)exposition® ou le grand Nimportekoik is a lovely little French site created by Françoize Boucher, author, illustrator, lover of words, and co-creator of the association “Collectif Nous Deux”. Her attractive, informative, and lighthearted blog presents a variety of images that make me smile… and begin a neverending spree of link-clicking awesomeness. 

Examples of smile-inducing images from la minuscul(e)xposition ou le grand Nimportekoik:

Wordshop Wednesday: Stephanie DeArmand!

Get ready to keel over from sheer ceramic awesomeness, courtesy of Ms. Stephanie DeArmand‘s very skilled hands:

(I was happily introduced to Stephanie DeArmand’s work via the Happy Cavalier blog, and I borrowed all images above from Stephanie DeArmand’s image gallery. I strongly encourage you to visit both sites, and frequently!)

Pillow talk

You know how, after an undisclosed amount of time, your pillows can kind of start NOT feeling comfortable anymore? Yeah. That’s what’s happening to the pillows gracing my couch, of which there are many. Somehow, NONE seem appropriately cozy. And I certainly can’t afford to buy any new ones (not now, anyway), so… I just thought I’d do a little painless, virtual “window” shopping… via Etsy, of course.

So, if you’d like to join me in my spree, here we go!

1. Vintage grain sack pillows from Leslie Jansen:

2. Monogrammed pillows from White Twig:

3. Because I have recently become a first-time aunt (to twins! a boy & a girl… I’m not at all proud… hee hee), I have become somewhat infatuated with really ridiculously adorable, handmade kiddie stuff. Like these pillows, by Li’l Dumplings:

4. OK… I can’t help it. I think it’s hilarious when bad words are displayed in pretty, elegant ways. Like when I calligraphy “B*te me” on cards. It makes me spectacularly happy. And so do these two-sided pillows by Sew Naughty:

5. OK, back to wholesome… courtesy of these lovely, primitively welcoming pillows by Peace By Piece Designs:

OK, I think that’s sufficient for now. 

🙂

Happy weekend!

Wordshop Wednesday!

You’ve all been to the Poppy Talk site, right? Please tell me you have. Because it’s an amazing foundry of design brilliance and constantly introduces new or newly-discovered artists. And well, I was recently foraging through the “Handmade” section of the PoppyTalk site, and I came across some brilliantly executed words thanks to:

which stopped me in my cyber tracks. Once I collected myself, I clicked over to Paloma’s Nest, yet another Etsy wonder, where I discovered even more brilliance. Here you go, blog reader people. You can thank me later. Or sooner. Whichever you prefer. In any case, enjoy…

Apollinaire’s Calligrammes

The following biographical and literary information on Guillaume Apollinaire is extracted from the following website: An Introduction to Guillaume Apollinaire.

Guillaume Apollinaire (France, 1880-1918) was the author of a variety of different texts: prose fiction, drama, librettos etc., yet it could be argued that he published only two significant works during his lifetime: Alcools: Poèmes 1898-1913 (1913) and Calligrammes: Poèmes de la paix et de la guerre 1913- 1916 (1918).

As well as having a keen eye for the visual arts, the visual dimension of writing was extremely important to Apollinaire. Apollinaire took great care over the typographical layout of his work. Technical developments such as the phonograph, the telephone, radio and cinema had provided new ways of storing and diffusing language without recourse to the written word. For Apollinaire, writing no longer had the same role, its status had changed and Apollinaire was one of the first to interrogate this. I say `one of the first’, since the Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé published his Un Coup de dès jamais n’abolira le hasard (1897) sixteen years before Alcools which included typography carefully orchestrated into a symbolic pattern with different sized words twisted into strange shapes performing a ballet-like movement within the monochrome limits of the printed page. For Apollinaire, as for Mallarmé before him, language was something to be experienced for its concrete and graphic shapes, for its potential to convey meanings in other ways. Apollinaire insists on the `materiality’ of language, that is to say, its existence as visual marks of white on black or as patterns of sound. Michel Butor claims that Apollinaire’s significance as a poet resides in:

“… la conscience aiguë qu’il a toujours gardée de la réalité physique du langage; on peut dire qu’il a fait retomber la poésie sur la terre dans son admirable incapacité d’oublier que les mots c’est d’abord quelque chose que l’on entend, et que l’on voit.”
M. Butor, Monument de rien pour Apollinaire

In his later collection of poems, Calligrammes, Apollinaire incorporated words, letters and phrases into complex visual collages. The black on white of the printed page became a new field of experimentation. He experimented with a poetry in which a simple reading along the familiar linear axes (left to right, top to bottom) was no longer possible. The page became a sort of canvas for experimentation with different spatial relationships and with the possibility of multiple readings along different axes.

Examples of some of Apollinaire’s most celebrated Calligrammes: