Even when I’m not working, no matter how hard I try, I don’t seem to be able to stop myself when it comes to commenting on, or acting on, something that I notice has been designed.
Or perhaps I’m just the perfect consumer. We had both Marmite and Vegemite at home in November, but I wanted to buy Momite – for Movember. I’m unashamedly influenced by labels, product packaging and advertising … and I get to work on images like these in Te Ara.
I guess the thing with ephemera is that the best of it is loved beyond the original intended audience and lifespan. Don’t you want to hang this poster up in your home?
Dry white wine please
And this awesome poster reminds me of the ones that you might find hanging in the office of Murray Hewitt – Deputy Cultural Attaché for the New Zealand Consulate in New York city. I think it would be equally at home in my living room.
Images like this Yates’ garden annual are similar to the pictures in my mum’s scrapbook, which she created when she was a girl in the early 50s, and that I continued when I was young. The scrapbook was full of the only colour pictures she could get then – often labels from canned food – cut out meticulously, and carefully arranged on the page. Perhaps she used the Yates’ garden annual for pictures too – because those flat-looking veges seem very familiar.
Radishing design
The annual is my favourite because it captures a sense of nostalgia for me – like my other favourites I’ve mentioned – but it also makes me think that I too could be a designer.
Around about New Year I decided that 2009 was going to be my year of travel. I figured that the more people I told this to, the more likely I was to actually travel. So I’ll write about it in our blog – that’s bound to be at least four more people who know.
I’m thinking travel of all kinds; last week a former travel companion sent me a copy of Alain de Botton’s The art of travel, and next week I’m sitting my restricted driver licence test – I am feeling motivated for all sorts of travel opportunities to open up.
So, in that spirit, here’s our first quiz for 2009.
To view the quiz you need to have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player
Posted 24 March 2009 // Julia Vodanovich // 1 comment » 
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