Philately Fridays: Netherlands, 1967

5 cool stamps from The Netherlands. Loving the minimal illustration style, warm color scheme, and animal-themed imagery reminiscent of children's books.

Philately Fridays: Great Britain, 1968

Halloween, Christmas, a nightmare before Christmas I guess? Anyways, enjoy this great Christmas gift-themed postage stamp before the holiday shopping season goes full tilt.

BRIO catalog, 1985

In December 2009, I posted a BRIO catalog from 1980. I just found another gorgeous catalog of the Swedish wooden toy trains and thought I'd post some of the highlights. Enjoy!

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Philately Fridays: New Zealand, 1977

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Five connected stamps all about teachin' the youngsters, all done up in a perfect late 1970's illustration style.

Philately Fridays: Germany, 1979

Two stamps from the German Democratic Republic, celebrating the International Year of the Child.

Philately Fridays: East Germany, 1979

Another great stamp for kids. Stamp designers are just like Wu-Tang.

Hlava Rezatá, Noha Strakatá

Super shoutout to my designer / drummer / film enthusiast friend Sam Smith (Sam's Myth) for putting me up on this incredible children's book from the Czech Republic. He came across a copy in Japan and showed it to me when we were nerding out over design books during Thanksgiving break. This book, written by Vera Provazníková and illustrated by Jan Kubícek, was released in 1983 but has a distinct early '70s feel to it. Maybe it's because they weren't able to easily keep up with new design trends in the rest of the world or maybe it's because they loved these styles, but alot of Eastern European designers held onto the popular design and illustration styles from the early 1970s all throughout the '80s and I don't have a problem with that at all.

OK, now sit back and enjoy just a few samples from this great book:

Philately Fridays: Belgium, 1982

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Children's Hospital icons

Very cool and effective set of icons for the Children's Hospital of Buenos Aires, designed by Guillermo Gonzales Ruiz and Gabriel Ezcurra.


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A Boy's Life

I found this gorgeously illustrated ad in a 1974 issue of Boy's Life Magazine. Can anybody identify the illustrator?


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I also love this style of magazine ad found in the back of the same issue. Life was so much simpler back then.


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Lubalin for Young Audiences

Herb Lubalin & crew get it in for young music and theater lovers in N.Y.

Christmas Bonus

If you're spending Christmas day on the internet, you may as well have some new stuff to look at! Enjoy!

Infancia '76

Here's a poster from Spain, 1976. Designed by Francisco Bas for the 14th Children and Youth Festival held from late 1976 - early '77. I can't resist letters made up of shapes and vice versa, so this one is a no-brainer for me. If anyone has more information on the designer, please share!

Making Music Your Own

Found this heatrock in a San Francisco thrift store a couple of years ago. The illustrations sprinkled throughout the book are OK - not nearly as robust and well-executed as the cover image. The artwork is by Ati Forberg, who illustrated a few other children's books throughout the 1960s.




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Fans of Diplo might recognize this cover as being from the same series as the volume ganked for the cover artwork for he and Tripledouble's incredible psych / funk mix CD "AEIOU 2."