Who knew that you could find some progressive motorcycle overhauling in a 100 year old dairy barn in Idaho? As a small five man team, one of which is the owner of Glass From The Past which manufacture vintage replacement components, Union Motorcycle Classics strip bikes down to the frame and rebuilds with a focus on minimalism. They have some nice bikes on their gallery but my faves are the 50cc Yamaha (orange/red powder coated frame) and the stripped down Ducati (one subtle touch of shop-signature color). Via Pipeburn, which was once again spot-on in their review.
is proving that he can reach into the vault of Converse and keep coming up with looks that keep Converse fresh. Case in point is the mash-up of the classic leather basketball high top and what his collaboration is best known for: a pared down Chuck Taylor. I heart how he maintains the sole while altering the rest, sticking to very simple colorways, shape/format of detailing, and sparing use of leather. Get them here for $125.
In 1936, BMW defined high performance sports cars with the forefather of the BMW 3-series, the BWM 328. In a sign that a bad economy effects everyone this hit some high end auction house last week commanding a high seven figure price tag. The 1937 BMW 328 Mille Miglia is an unique representation of the 328 series, as it was built to compete on the 1940 Mille Miglia race track. Nothing quite like seeing a byproduct of the days when aircrafts and cars shared the same factors–and precision in manufacturing.
More to sit in a showroom than to be actually driven, even the control array has been carefully preserved in all of it’s analog beauty. This particular model is powered by a 2.0-liter inline-6 pushing 80 horsepower, capable of carrying this 1830-pound sports car to over 100 mph, so in theory it could hold it’s own on the Autobahn. Sure, this much power isn’t much a big deal today but think of how it set the standard for all of it’s competition to be measured by back in 1940. Via Coolist.
This was just too damn good not to share, an entire IBM sales presentation from 1975 in all of it’s scanned slide goodness. Best part is they defined all of today’s buzzwords about three decades in advance, made a killing in hardware and then cashed out ( a little late) when that aspect of their business became a commodity. It will be interesting to see how they fare as being Service/IT consultants. Check out the full hawtness here.
With the pervasiveness of the internet and the rampant global unemployment these days I figured that there must be someone out there just sitting around and scanning some vintage images to make sure they weren’t lost forever to the masses since we are all too lazy to take the trip to the library. It just seemed like something a bored creative would do to kill time I guess.
Smallest elephant ever? No idea what these 'old-timey' metaphors mean.....
Low and behold I recently stumbled upon Golden Age Imagery, a blogspot repository of images ranging from pulp book covers to art deco illustrations. The bonus is how everything is fastidiously organized by artist name and time span accurately called out. In theory this prevents people from putting up the same recycled prints and images in their dorm rooms and in frames purchased from Target. In theory at least…..
Most people have seen his work without knowing it by driving through St. Louis, flying into JFK, or using a knock-off of his sculptural Knoll table design (above). It’s hard to estimate the degree of his influence on modern architecture and product design his work is so prolific, although he is far from having either industry being staunch cheerleaders of his work. It’s almost post-modern in terms of how he approached his clients with designs that were too progressive, resulting in often diluted versions of the intended designs. Shows like this are intended to reveal just how different his vision was.
In his day Eero Saarinen took shit for being a commercially viable modern architect and effectively finding a way for the US to express its newfound economic prosperity. This exhibition is an effort to show how he pushed for similar technical innovation and visual freedom he found in American industrial design (particularly automotive, as Ford was a client) reflecting a break in the doctrine that form should follow function. Read a the NYT article here or see the show in person if you happen to be in NYC through the end of the year. Via io9.
Need a killer throwback vinyl cover for your macbook? Snatch one up for less than $20 from my vote for ‘Best of Etsy ‘09′ (even though he watermarks his images which I h8) right here.
Genius stuff right here for $18. Threadless does it again, but personally I think this is better suited for a screenprint than anything else. Not sure I want to be wearing this on my chest is all…..I swear I peeped this before Gizmodo (I’m on the Thredless newsletter) uploaded this about 30 minutes ago–damit!
70s Soundtrack–Check. Weightlifters, representation from lower to upper class, sassy service, and of course, burglary by use of lasers… Checks all around, which equals ‘All Systems Go’ for the worst greenlit series of the late 70s, a mash-up of The Love Boat and Buck Rogers–Supertrain! Apparently this had the highest TV show budget of all time. Who thought a nuclear powered mega train taking passengers from NYC to LA would have made for such uninspired television?
On thing that makes this photo great is the fact that it’s a family pose which subtly implies: Get one for every member of your nerd-ass family! In typical Apple fashion these are both design-centric and a bit overpriced (for the time). Consistent with this I completely love them and want one like now. Trouble is some uber-geek would totally outbid me on eBay in a heartbeat….I will now sigh while I wait for the reissue, hoping that they won’t end up at Hot Topic. Via Gizmodo.
This was just too damn good not to share, an entire IBM sales presentation from 1975 in all of it’s scanned slide goodness. Best part is they defined all of today’s buzzwords about three decades in advance, made a killing in hardware and then cashed out ( a little late) when that aspect of their business became a commodity. It will be interesting to see how they fare as being Service/IT consultants. Check out the full hawtness
