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Draplin Design Co., North America
July 28, 2008
How & Why
Posted at 08:26 AM

072808_childcraft_factory.jpg

We’re back at it, and the days are dropping like flies. Leigh always says, “The time just clips on by.” Indeed. Scary, really. The thing is, you just gotta dig each and every one you got, right?

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WE’VE GOT SOMETHING WE’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH YOU: A couple years back, Matt Kass and I were at The Bins here in Portland, digging through waves of Goodwill donations, searching for treasures. I came across this one old Childcraft encyclopedia book with the most amazing gold foil illustration of a factory on the cover. I knew right then and there that one was coming home with me. A couple minutes later, I find another book from the series, and another, and another, until I’ve got a stack of 14 of the things. I had 14 of the 15 in the set. So good.

I’ve had them on the shelves since the transaction and always swore I’d get these amazing icons out into the world. So here you go. Enjoy: The Vintage Childcraft “How and Why Library” Icon Gallery.

If anyone has “Vol. 05” they’d want to part with, well, get in touch. We’d make an offer on it.

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AND ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL CHILDCRAFT SET: Here you go.

AND ONE MORE: God, so good. A beautiful old set I scrounged up on Flickr.

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I LOVE WHEN THE MAILMAN COMES THROUGH THE DOOR: Two records showed up just before the bell went off last Friday. From those wild mid-90s. Of the Chicago variety. A band called, “Seam.” These showed up, in just about mint condition, and man, they are home for good: “Are I Driving You Crazy” and “The Problem With Me.” This is the kind of stuff I was listening to in 1995. There you go.

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DECISIONS, INFORMATION: Geoff Wagner down in Frisco sent us a link that really got us thinking about the “old ways” and “how great it was” and man, enjoy it. Here goes: “It’s 1975 And This Man Is About To Show You The Future.”

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SWEAT IT OUT IN THE SUN FOR A BIT: Kelly Blumberg has one hell of a “Southern Californian Signs Gallery” going on her site, and man, you need to go there.

And hey: Wine is fine, but liquor is quicker! Bravo, all around.


There Are 5 Comments

I just saw the rant, and had to keep it real. I love your enthusiastic sensibility when it comes to the fucking P.O.S. work that comes to a lot of lame-ass “design” shops.

I gotta meet you in person next time I’m home in Portland and pick your brain.

Posted by: Joe Putnam on 07/28/08 at 10:05 PM

I just saw the rant, and had to keep it real. I love your enthusiastic sensibility when it comes to the fucking P.O.S. work that comes to a lot of lame-ass “design” shops.

I gotta meet you in person next time I’m home in Portland and pick your brain.

Posted by: Joe Putnam on 07/28/08 at 10:09 PM

Draplin… I’m pretty sure I’ve got Vol. 5 at my parents home in California. (Can’t say that I’d be able to part with it… then my set would be incomplete.) And it was handed down from some older cousins. Gotta keep it in the family. On the real… that set just rocks. Makes me nostalgic just thinking about it. I should rescue those books just sitting there on the shelf from the recent quakes.

Posted by: Mark Oanes on 07/30/08 at 12:01 AM

Check out my orange Childcraft books that survived my childhood. http://designnomad.blogspot.com/2008/07/remembrance-of-things-past.html

Posted by: Design Nomad on 07/30/08 at 9:06 AM

Funny… I was just thinking about the childcraft encyclopedia set I grew up with. There was one particular magenta volume that I loved - volume 12: look and learn. It focused on visual cues, symbolism, and, predictably enough, design.

Posted by: robby on 07/31/08 at 10:01 PM
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