The top prize was given to a combination hair salon and laundry service that let patrons start their washing while having their hair cut, and this clever time-saver reminded me of la laverie automatique we spied in the parking lot of a supermarché in France not too long ago. For both schemes, I think it might take some test-runs to synchronise the chores.
Celebrated in Sweden and Finland on this day since first organised in 1999, Kanelbullens dag (Cinnamon Roll Day) is a way to increase awareness on traditional Scandinavian baking traditions (see also) and has proved to be a popular holiday domestically and for Swedish and Finnish communities abroad. Though we might be comfortably familiar with the above term for “coffee break,” the Kanelbullen that could go with it might also be infiltrating the language.
Via Nag on the Lake, we are directed towards an installation, Kirkby Design’s submission for the recently concluded London Design Festival, that rehabilitates and revamps the interior décor of a vintage subway carriage. The new palette is informed by the dreadful-excellence of traditional moquette (previously) that was meant to durable, aesthetic and invisible all at the same time. I think it would be fun to transform our foyer (or at least the entryway of my little apartment) into something like this and pass through each morning.
On this day in 1969 in East Berlin’s Marienviertel, just adjacent to Alexanderplatz, the Television Tower was declared complete, the occasion marked with an inaugural elevator ride by a delegation of high ranking government officials and the launch, the start signal of two stations to broadcast in colour. Opening to the public on Tag der Republik four days later, the tower was at the time, at over three hundred and sixty metres, the tallest freestanding structure in Europe and with its viewing platform and rotating restaurant remains one of the most frequented tourist attractions of the capital.
We appreciated this in depth re-acquaintance with the still in circulation trade magazine The Inland Printer (previously) from Public Domain Review and its dazzling, showcase advertising, meant to underscore the illustrators’ typographic skills and the colour range and technical abilities of the publisher, typified by the marketing campaign of Augustus Jansson (*1866 - †1931) for Queen City Printing Ink Company. Based originally in Cincinnati, the Queen of the West, the company’s reputation, in part bolstered by the popular Art Deco figures of Jansson, allowed it to expand to major cities across America. Peruse a whole gallery of images, a complete colourful menagerie, and Inland Printer’s back catalogue at the links above.
