In the late 1950’s John and Marilyn Neuhart began working for the Eames Office and Alexander Girard.  Around ten years later, the Neuharts got the bright idea to do a gigantic holiday card for Christmas.  A few decades later, House Industries was entrusted by the Girard family with Alexander’s collection and in doing the research for said collection, interviewed the Neuharts.  In the course of that interview, Andy and the other Housers were smitten with the gigantic holiday card, and with the blessings of Marilyn, passed it along to the talented David Dodde for pulling one of his famous serigraphs.  I’m sure Dodde’s 26″x20″ print was a lot easier to pull than the original huge print, as told by Marilyn:

I had the bright idea to make a giant card for Christmas 1969. John was not noticeably enthusiastic but he went along with the idea, so I drew the Santa, cut some screens and John did the type. It took both of us to pull the squeegee because of the large amount of ink required for a poster of this size. That didn’t work very well, so I got behind John and held on to his belt while he gave a mighty pull. That made him even more unhappy. John rigged a clothesline to hang the wet sheets on. The fumes really built up after a bit so John opened the garage door, causing the sheets to blow into each other and get smudged. By this time he was openly hostile, and kept saying “Why didn’t you think of that?” We started with 150 sheets, a number that rapidly dwindled to our final edition of about 75. We were divorced at least six times during the process, which was normal for this type of project.

Pick up your own print from the House website, or if you prefer a more three-dimensional wall adornment, go for the print on a beautiful slab of maple.

Happy Holidays all.

And if Santa is reading.  I want.

There’s plenty of strong Swiss inspired print work to be found at League. What’s impressive is that this is a small group of recent design graduates from Geneva yet their portfolio is surprisingly deep. I also like the first sentence in their ‘About’ section on the site…. “First of all, we want to congratulate you on having a look at our extended website.” Awesome.

Popshot is an illustration + poetry magazine that literally pairs an illustration with a poem. The actual design + layout is great and the art is pretty spot on-I discovered a number of artists I’ll be following. The poetry is contemporary + pretty exciting. I’m a sour grape when it comes to poetry, specifically contemporary poetry, so Popshot was a pleasant surprise. Like it says in the the first few pages, “it’s not just for tweed jackets”.

Painter Mike Egan’s “funeral portraits” conjure up some obvious references: Dia de los muertes, German expressionism + religious iconography. All things that I’m fascinated by. When Mike isn’t painting, he’s working in a funeral home, exercising that art does in fact imitate life.

One thing I always ask for for Christmas is books. I love to read, and although I stick to a good novel for my daily dose, I also like having some beautiful design & DIY books around for when the feeling strikes. In researching this post, I found a million books I’d love to add to my collection, so this will be Part 1 of the You Can Afford It Friday book round-up, and Part 2 will be up on January 1. (I’ll be taking next Friday off cause that’s Christmas… can you believe it?).

[1] The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Typography, $45 [2] The Printmaking Bible: The Complete Guide to Printing Materials and Techniques, $50 [3] Sketchbooks: The Hidden Art of Designers, Illustrators, and Creatives, $30 [4] Stencil 101 Decor: Customize Walls, Floors, and Furniture with Oversized Stencil Art, $24.95 [5] The Pattern Sourcebook: A Century of Surface Design, $35 [6] Postcard, $29.95 [7] Reprodepot Pattern Book: Flora and Reprodepot Pattern Book: Folk (225 Vintage Inspired Textile Designs), $24.95 each [8] 1000 Fonts: An Illustrated Guide to Finding the Right Typeface, $29.95 [9] Appliqué Your Way, $19.95

See you on the 1st! As always with OK Great features, if you have a submission we’d love to hear about it. You Can Afford It Fridays submissions or round-up ideas can be sent to me (Ellie) at mintdesignblog [at] gmail [dot] com.