Found Map Monday

Recently I was admiring John Furnival's favourite map on Acejet: A modern admiralty map and I was reminded of my favourite map, which was given to me when I was 12 by my Grandad. I was given three Admiralty Survey maps engraved by Davies and Company, from the 1920 edition. All black and white bar the markings my grandad made on them during his Navy days. I have always thought the numbers radiating from the large circles were very graphic and have been meaning to frame one for years. Maybe John and Richard have inspired me.

The Dorfsman 'a'

Following on from our Lou Dorfsman post, someone asked what font the 'ha ha ha' was in. See the lower case 'a' above. Well this is a mystery to us here at 'Things to Look at'. Did he redraw it specially to work at that size? It seems likely that the extreme contrast between thick and thin lines would disintegrate at smaller sizes making specific size versions a must. We know that he created CBS Didot and CBS Sans and we are aware he was a fastidious man making it seem highly likely that this is a one off hand drawn letter.

Could it be an existing font? A lost font perhaps? Or is there some other explanation? If anyone knows the answer then it would be very interesting to know. All we can work out is that is none of the usual 'modern' suspects shown below, especially as many of them post date the poster which was created in 1961.

Irving Penn

Last week I went into a bookshop minding my own business when this book hit me for six. I had forgotten how incredible Penn’s still lives are. They are as contemporary and fresh now as they have ever been; its easy to see where some of the best practitioners of the genre get part of their inspiration from. The book has many of the images he shot for Vogue as well as some of his other experimental ideas.

Lou Dorfsman

Lou Dorfsman's is a prime example of how working 'in house' can be a rewarding experience. From 40 years of the entertainment industry at CBS, we picked out our favourite five things to look at. Big type, powerful imagery, you can't go wrong.

See the classic Walton's advert here