THE typeface Avant Garde is an outgrowth of the masthead logo for Avant Garde magazine. In the late sixties, graphic designers Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase developed the masthead into a complete alphabet. In the beginning the typeface was only used in the magazine. In 1970 Avant Garde became commercially available. It is considered as one of the most successful new typefaces of the 20th century. Out of Avant Garde evolved the typeface Lubalin Graph. It is a serif version of Avant Garde. Tony DiSpigna designed Lubalin Graph. The two typefaces are famous for their many innovative ligatures. More Lubalin here and here.

AS I said earlier, the Olympic Games do not only bring out the best in athletes. The Olympics proof to be a good platform for architects, artists and graphic designers. In 1984 the tournament was held in Los Angeles. At that time the Olympic Games had a bad reputation because of terrorist attacks and earlier financial debacles. As a result LA was the only bidder to host it in that year. The Olympic committee asked Robert Miles Runyan to design the official symbol. After 3,500 sketches he came up with the 'Star in Motion'. The interlocking stars are crossed by horizontal stripes that seem to set the star in motion. The logo appeared on everything sold at the games. And to sell was important to make the tournament profitable. To produce black numbers Los Angeles made the Games commercial. Olympic merchandise filled the shopping shelves. In that spirit, fifteen artists, like Andy Warhol, David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein, were asked by the organizing committee to make a poster. They were singed and appeared in a limited edition of 750. Robert Rauschenberg did a composition of the star of Runyan. He filled the different elements of the star with parts of pictures. Check ...

TRADING company Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) is a company of many firsts. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock. But the VOC is probably also the first to design a logotype. It consists of a big V in combination with a little O and C. The logotype appeared on many objects like ships, books and coins. The VOC was established in 1602 in Holland and dominated the trade with Asia for many decades. In 1796 the company became bankrupt.

ON the battlefield it is nice to know who’s your friend and who’s the enemy. To prevent that allies would cut up each other lords in the twelfth century came up with a solution. A unique symbol was painted on shield to indentify the soldiers.  We now know this symbol as coat of arms. But also goes by the name of crest and weapon. Coat of arms is not only for kings and lords. Also families, persons and even corporations and universities use them. Normally a crest consists of a shield in the middle. The two figures on each side are called supporters. The motto is the banner under the shield and on top there is a helmet of a knight or a crown. ......................................................................................... ......................................................................................... ......................................................................................... ......................................................................................... .........................................................................................

EXHIBITION catalogues are a good platform for graphic designers. They are commissioned by people who have an eye for fresh and modern attitudes. The catalogues on this page are designed by some big names in graphic design. It shows the work of Herbert Spencer, David Pelham, Wim Crouwel and Benno Wissing. As you can see, the designers who made these exhibition catalogues had a fondness for sans serif typefaces.

I don’t think that nowadays the marketing boy’s et girls would go for this ad campaign. The company Rossana kitchens printed these posters for the 1974 Eurocucina, an international exhibition of kitchen furniture held in Milan. The idea was to portray the words see, hear, touch, think, smell and taste. I can relate that to cooking, I don’t understand what the skull and bones have to do with a kitchen. But the posters are nice and Italian advertisements for kitchens from that time are a bit unconventional. Giancarlo Iliprandi designed this set.

THE wrapper of bubble gum is the perfect platform for a good round letter. Graphic designer Herb Lubalin knew that when in 1976 he was commissioned to do a job for Bazooka Bubble Gum. The company had developed a new kind of  bubble gum that had a smoother taste. Lubalin came up with the name ‘Smooth ‘n Juicy’ and designed the packaging. He made the lettering soft and round and played with the O’s. I found the first image in the design book ‘A Smile in the Mind’ and the second one on Flickr.

HANDGUNS are made to shoot people. So why practice on couple of circles placed in each other. Shoot up a silhouette. Various bureaus within the government in the United States use their own designs on the pistol range. They are called ‘Law Enforcements Targets’. The US Treasury has its own, but also US Immigration & Customs, the FBI and various police departments practice their firing skills on specific shooting targets. Even the Department of Energy shoots up their own design. Some leave nothing for the imagination, others have a more stylized form. The Colorado P.O.S.T. Qualification Target (#5) even looks like it was designed by Saul Bass.

LOCAL news is not the coolest part of the bulletin. Car jackings, openings of new highways and regional politicians aren’t a very cosmopolitan mixture. That’s why I found it surprising that news mogul NBC picked this hip geometric font to use in the headers of their various local websites. Perhaps it is a way to boost up the sales of NBC merchandise, because if the company decides to makes T-shirts with the names of the cities, my guess is that they will do well.

IF one group of people is known for its collaborations it is jazz musicians. For this record Jimmy Witherspoon joined forces with Ben Webster. The album is a little bit too bluesy for me, but the cover makes up a lot. The type face used on the record is Avant Garde, designed by Herb Lubalin. The rest speaks for itself.