“Long before modern icon libraries like Helveticons, designers and sign-makers were forced to use a mishmash of symbols. Until the Helvetica man came along… — By 1974, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) realized the problem of using inconsistent symbols and commissioned the AIGA to produce a standard set for the Interstate Highway System, resulting in Symbol Signs. Sometimes referred to as the ‘Helvetica’ of pictograms (or specifically the Helvetica Man as coined by Ellen Lupton, and interviewed by Designer Observer), the project gave us the most common pictograms we see today. […] The AIGA team (which consisted of Thomas Geismar, Seymour Chwast, Rudolph de Harak, John Lees, and Massimo Vignelli) worked with designers Roger Cook and Don Shanosky to study the various pictogram systems in use around the world at the time, drawing inspiration from airports, train stations, and the Olympic Games.

A set of 34 symbols was published in 1974, receiving one of the first Presidential Design Awards. In 1979, 16 more symbols were added, creating a total of 50. Over the years, the symbols have become a standard in wayfinding, resulting in a set of icons we see and recognize on a daily basis (like the popular restroom and no smoking signs).

The copyright-free symbols, available for download from AIGA’s website, were released in the public domain and can be used by anyone without license.” (read more).

Conan the Nietzschean… Way to go, Conan.

The quote is taken from Twilight of the Idols (Die Götzen-Dämmerung, 1895). It’s the 8th maxim from the section “Maxims and arrows” (the very first section of the book, after the preface). Here is a slightly different translation : “Out of life’s school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.” (tr. by Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale here).

“Examine Netflix rental patterns, neighborhood by neighborhood, in a dozen cities. Some titles with distinct patterns are Mad Men, Obsessed and Last Chance Harvey.”

In New York City, people who watch Mad Men mainly live in the Financial District and in Downtown Brooklyn. Those are two of the most important central business district of NYC.

“Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was a 20th century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades. (Wikipedia)

Read “The History Behind Norman Rockwell and the Saturday Evening Post Covers” over at the Norman Rockwell Museum of Vermont website.

“With pricing starting at $6.99 per linear foot, we provide you with attractive “like new” hardback books. These books will display attractively and offer your clients great value. We can also quote you unit pricing should your specs require.”

If you have more money, try Strand Books : apparently, they “put together” library for client such as Steven Spielberg and Polo Ralph Lauren… For 400$/foot you can have “Beautiful antique leather books with gold tooling, mostly 19th Century books in good condition.” That’s not all: “Your library of fine antique leather books can be customized by language or color for a higher price.”

No need to read them.

Artist’s statement: “This work is about simulation. Creating a clone or a copy of the “real” on paper. It is not a fake, it takes the place of the “real” for a moment, whilst looking at the image. The aim is to create likenesses of icons, where in the image, the simulations of icons, threatens the difference between “true” and “false,” between “real” and “imaginary”. The “real” subject becomes not necessary. The photographic image or the icon is more important and more seductive. It doesn’t matter to the viewer if the portrayal is not the “real”—as long as it looks like him or her—it creates a temporary confusion. This is the confusion the work searches to create. We think we are looking at something real, but we’re not. They are false images of look-alikes of the real thing.” (Read more)