01. In California, Pot Is Now an Art Patron (above)
Nonprofit arts groups tend to spend much of their time scrounging for grants and praying for corporate largesse. But one art foundation taking shape on 120 acres in the high oak chaparral of Sonoma County has different kinds of worries these days: spider mites, bud rot and the occasional low-flying surveillance visit from the local Sheriff’s Office. (NYT).
02. An Introduction to Graphic Design
“Graphic design is an international language composed of signs and symbols, marks and logos, banners and billboards, pictures and words. As visual communicators, graphic designers maintain a delicate balance between clarity and innovation: if too much of the former is a snooze, too much of the latter yields chaos. In between lies a complex series of negotiations which lead, in turn, to a host of applications — the same logo engraved on an envelope one day, emblazoned on a truck the next — and therein lies the designer’s peculiar, if paradoxical challenge. Succeed, and the world works a little better as a result. Fail, and — well, you’ve got the butterfly ballot.” (DO).
03. Past & Present: Windsor Chair History + Resources
“If you look at the chair above and think “Thanksgiving” or “apple picking in New England,” there’s a good reason for that! While the Windsor chair may evoke a New England country B&B, as the name suggests, the form is actually English. In 18th-century England, the chairs were used in the Windsor castle garden. They soon became popular garden seats throughout the country and were often painted green or simply left to weather. By the late 1750s, the English Windsor chair was ubiquitous indoors as well as outdoors and would have been used everywhere from inns and taverns to libraries and meeting houses.” (Design*Sponge).
04. Tobacco Packaging Papers
“‘Tobacco was among the first commodities to be sold in printed paper wrappers,’ writes Michael Twyman, in his Enclyclopedia of Ephemera. (Graphic Arts).
