Feb 29 2012: Seven Book Cover Designs from Psychology and Education Reports (Pelican, 1961 – 1969)
I suppose, this being a leap year, that this small gallery of book cover designs from the 1960s Pelican non-fiction stable, amounts to a sort of ‘bonus post’ for the 365 days originally planned for this project: its presence means there’ll actually be 366 days of posts covered here instead. The images themselves cover a range … Read more
Feb 28 2012: Fifty-Nine Advertising Pages from The Vauxhall Motorist Magazine (1956)
![Advertising Page from the Vauxhall Motorist Magazine (1956) [Vauxhall Value for 1956]](http://serendipityproject.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/advertising-page-from-the-vauxhall-motorist-magazine-1956-vauxhall-value-for-1956.jpg?w=440&h=240&crop=1 "Advertising Page from the Vauxhall Motorist Magazine (1956) [Vauxhall Value for 1956]")
Following yesterday’s post in which three cover designs from later 1950s issues of The Vauxhall Motorist were featured, today presents a gallery of 59 advertisements from those publications. As with the material drawn from The Festival of Britain programme of 1951, which included several of the same companies seen here, and the galleries of images … Read more
Feb 27 2012: Cover Designs From Three Issues Of The Vauxhall Motorist Magazine (1956 – 1957)
The integration of product branding and lifestyle is sometimes thought of a fairly recent phenomenon, but it goes much further back than we tend to think: this example – a magazine produced for Vauxhall owners, crammed with advertising and features on the many and varied things that might catch the fancy of an implicitly discerning motorist … Read more
Feb 26 2012: Monochrome Photograph of Six Businessmen With Flowers (October 31st 1957)
Much of the dissatisfaction with the world of business in 2012 comes less from a critique of the capitalist system itself as a sense that the motives of those running it have changed: there’s a real case to answer, since following the deregulation of the City in 1986 financial engineering of various kinds tended to … Read more
Feb 25 2012: Tinted Portrait of an Eccentric Family with a Small Dog (Date and location unknown, c.1960s)
I’m not sure what the context for this strange photograph actually is, except that it appears to show two or possibly three generations of a family and their dog at some point during the 1960s or 1970s. The appearance of the group seems modelled on a publicity shot for a sitcom, emphasising their quirks and eccentricities, … Read more
Feb 24 2012: Twenty Five Views of a Largely Deserted Fairground (Newark, Nottinghamshire, 2008)
When I was growing up, first in South East Derbyshire, then later in mid-Wales, the annual coming of the fairground was an event of huge significance. From the first sight of the lorries and trailers moving through the small towns, to the night you finally went to experience the rides, blink dizzily at the spectacle, … Read more
Feb 23 2012: Thirteen Abstract and Illustrated Dustjackets from Scientific Book Club Editions (1958 – 1962)
A large collection of these Scientific Book Club editions, dating from the later 1950s and early 1960s, appeared one Sunday morning at the Colwick car boot sale in Nottingham, and covered many more subjects than are represented here. The truth is, while the books were plentiful, some selection was necessary in order to carry those chosen … Read more
Feb 22 2012: Thirty-Eight Plates from How Things Work Magazine (Marshall Cavendish, 1982)
![Plate from How Things Work (Marshall Cavendish, 1982) [Neuroscience Researcher]](http://serendipityproject.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/plate-from-how-things-work-marshall-cavendish-1982-neuroscience-researcher.jpg?w=440&h=240&crop=1 "Plate from How Things Work (Marshall Cavendish, 1982) [Neuroscience Researcher]")
These are mainly library and archive photographs, all featured in How Things Work, an early 1980s part-work published by Marshall Cavendish in the UK to create a week by week encyclopaedia of (then) current and recent technological developments. In some respects it’s a publication that sits somewhere between the same company’s seventies home-making and DIY … Read more
Feb 21 2012: The Cimex Invasion: Top Secret (Cimex Industrial Marketing 45, 1960s)
![The Cimex Invasion (1960s) [A-Side]](http://serendipityproject.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/the-cimex-invasion-1960s-a-side.jpg?w=440&h=240&crop=1 "The Cimex Invasion (1960s) [A-Side]")
I don’t know if the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (or, at least, one of its associates) was involved in the making of the various electronic sounds that feature on this undated (probably mid to late 1960s) promotional 45 for an industrial cleaning company, but the sounds it uses certainly fit the template established by the likes … Read more
Feb 20 2012: Sixteen Circuit Wiring Diagrams From Science Fun Experiments in Electronics by Hanna Hock (Logix-Kosmos, 1973)
![Science Fun Experiments in Electronics by Hanna Hock (Logix-Kosmos, 1973) [Front Cover]](http://serendipityproject.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/science-fun-experiments-in-electronics-by-hanna-hock-logix-kosmos-1973-front-cover.jpg?w=440&h=240&crop=1 "Science Fun Experiments in Electronics by Hanna Hock (Logix-Kosmos, 1973) [Front Cover]")
The cover and sixteen circuit diagrams here are all taken from Science Fun Experiments in Electronics, a sort of manual written by Hanna Hock for a Logix-Kosmos publication of 1973 in which the workings of a variety of electronic devices are explained alongside instructions in how to create your own versions at home: from police … Read more
