European kids' rooms, circa 1978

 

 (Of course they're European). From the pages of some old Abitare magazines. 

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Dear Zoom, How do you make a Dashiki?

... and a tree loom, cornrows, salt pendulum, marbelized paper, enchilada sauce... The answer to those and 130 more projects in 1975's Do a ZOOM do book,

in the shop!

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Poupette Print

Poupette print, 18"x24"
$45 in our shop

Big photo print of a the doll we found, made in France in the 1960's. After we started taking photos it was clear that we should offer the photo, enlarged to larger than life size in all her purple raffia hair splendor. Perfect for a little girl's room. It reminds of of the posters we used to have as kids- the actual photos of Sesame Street characters, or teddy bears, which you don't really see at all anymore. And of course it's not just for girls- this one is in our 3 year old son's room.

Measures 18" x 24", Printed with Epson archival inks on Epson heavyweight matte archival paper.

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Grey walls, silver walls, Renate Müller, and two lucky kids

How fantastic are these two kids' rooms? I love how the walls are neutral (relatively, and awesome neutrals) and everything else is so colorful. Nice backgrounds for objects, and these kids have some great objects.

 The top poster-filled, fabric-lined dojo is German, 1974, from a book called How to Decorate Without Going Broke. (ironically you'd go broke if you bought that Renate Müller rhino today.) The bottom soft sculpture fantasia is from the book Children's Rooms and Play Yards (1980). (available here) And yes, that's a plush ashtray with a smoldering cigarette. 

Related:Kids' Stuff and Children's Spaces 

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The High Line

Block construction by our two-year old, looking uncannily like the (Joel Sternfeld-era) High Line:

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Space Hopper

In our window and in our MoMA cart

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Anthology magazine

Our son Fletcher's room is on the cover! Thanks in large part to Keith Kustard and Tomi Ungerer, and of course photographer Seth Smoot and everyone at Anthology.
See a preview of the fantastic issue *here*

More about the stuff in Fletcher's room here and here.
Just out of camera range is the full disclosure of Thomas Trains, Caillou videos, and every plastic truck imaginable.

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Pattern Pending

Super cool razzle dazzle pattern block toy designed by Josef Albers' student and biographer Fred Horowitz for Parker Brothers, 1971.

These would be pretty wild in color, too.

(see also): Color Blocks, Valentine

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Creative Playthings Rocking Beauty Hobby Horse

Vintage Creative Playthings "Rocking Beauty" Hobby Horse amongst the goods at an old-timey auction house out in Maine the other night. Designed by Gloria Caranica in 1964, it's in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum. And now in the permanent collection of our son's room. ...And in the permanent collection of the auction house is this amazing Wacky Races-looking Edwardian gent.

related: http://vintageforkids.blogspot.com/2010/12/design-for-kids-bruxelles.html
http://daddytypes.com/2006/05/12/wild_creative_playthings_hobby_horses.php
http://warymeyers.blogspot.com/2011/01/fletchers-room.html

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Color blocks

From the flea market. They could be old, could be new. 

My guess is this was an old collaboration between Josef Albers and Donald Judd.
and Bill Ding.

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Sottseuss

Speaking of Ettore Sottsass, and kid's stuff, there's no kid thing more Memphissed-out than these wooden Zolo toys from 1985. We found them all ( there are about 50 pieces) in their original wooden case at a church sale. Chipped, splintered, and enticingly dangerous, they're probably not so safe to give to our son, so we'll happily use them as surreal Sottsossian objets until ...
actually these may be just a grown-up toy after all.

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Louis Vuitton Polar Bears

The large one was found in the dusty attic of the old Louis Vuitton house/atelier in Asnieres (above) after the last of the Vuittons moved out in 1984. Along with the giant Arcticscape painting, it was probably for an old Polar Travel diorama at a long-ago exposition. The big bear was subsequently made into a small pull-toy for another stylish-Arctic-expedition ad in 1985 (top, which looks like it could be the luggage of an actual polar bear).
 I don't know if they ever made more than these two, but they should. And if the big one didn't have a seat inside, it should.

Top: From the book Louis Vuitton: The Birth of Modern Luxury
Bottom: Jean Lariviere's photos of Asnieres from French Vogue (the Hockney Issue) Dec. 85/Jan. 86

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Birthday, 1975

September 4th, 1975. Green Arrow, Superfriends, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Snoopy. Breakfast was probably Quangaroos or Freakies and in all hopefulness dinner was a Libbyland and a Friendly Fribble.

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First I take some triangles....

Besides Richard Scarry and Al Jaffee, another artist-hero of my Marvy Marker-stained youth was Ed Emberley, whose how-to-draw books taught me and countless other kids how simply drawn lines and shapes can be put together to make fish, trains, dragons, spiders, barns, Indians, sauce pans, pigs, hot rods, weirdos, entire worlds, etc...

A rare opportunity to see some of his original drawings and book layouts is on now, so if you're in Los Angeles in the next week (hurry!) you should absolutely check out this show:

From the LA Times:

For generations of creative kids, some of whom are now fine artists, Ed Emberley's step-by-step cartooning manuals such as the 1970 classic "Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals" can be summed up in a few words: Best. Books. Ever. On Saturday, Emberley will make a rare Los Angeles appearance at an exhibition featuring original mock-ups from his beloved drawing books -- 13 of which are still in print -- along with new works.

The show, "Ed Emberley & Friends," will also feature murals by five contemporary artists including curator Caleb Neelon and Los Angeles-based painters Seonna Hong and Saelee Oh -- all of whom learned to draw the Emberley way.

Breaking a drawing down into simple shapes and squiggles, the award-winning children's book illustrator crafted easy-to-follow visual recipes for colorful characters that have an innocent charm and super-cute factor that have endured for 40 years after they were created. (I mean, just look at that little yellow mouse, below.)

For the show, Emberley has created a signed, limited edition of 18-by-24-inch prints of the animals, above, and one of his lessons, right.

Ideal for a nursery or kid's room, and mighty tempting for nostalgic adults who also admire midcentury design, the prints will sell for $30 each. Original Emberley drawings are priced at $300 and all proceeds will benefit children's hospitals and the Art for Kool Kidz program.

The artist reception, which is open to the public, is Saturday from 7-10 p.m. at the Scion Installation L.A., 3521 Helms Ave., Culver City. The show runs until Aug. 7.

-- David A. Keeps

related: Draw a Sasquatch the Ed Emberley Way (Boing Boing)

and

the rarity of The Wizard of Op, including endpapers, at Stopping Off Place, (and the missing couple of pages, but no endpapers, in 1997 gif-style at Maurice D. Wagschal's homepage)

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Kei Bohji-san

A monkey pile of Japanese teak chimpanzees, slightly altered from Kay Bojesen's Danish original. The little one in the middle was on a shelf in my dad's closet growing up and the rest are from yard sales over the years. In the last few months we've used them in our son's room as a mobile (with vine-green yarn)(too dangerous), coat hanger (upside-down off the back of the door-too fragile), and semaphore (Beatles "HELP"-style for "FAOM", which didn't look that good- actually neither did HELP, as they changed it to the more design-friendly NUJV.) The new project is to make a little Ofuro hot tub barrel to keep them in, Macaque-style. If that doesn't work they're going up on a shelf.

Related: the back cover of "This Week: Guide to Wonderful Copenhagen, May 5-May 11, 1973", brought back and stuck in a drawer by my grandparents.

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Fashions by Linda, age 11

What fun to discover my (now) kooky notebook and crazy paper dolls I made when I was 11. It was the early 80's and I was just discovering fashion. I had a love for all the era's usual suspects- Chic, Jordache, Calvin Klein, Sasson, Gloria Vanderbilt, Bonjour, and yes, Jones New York (?!?).

I was also totally into Punk and New Wave.

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Patrick Rylands fish

Yellow plastic fish bath toy designed by Patrick Rylands for Trendon Toys Ltd in 1970. Our son's favorite toy to stare at, auspiciously, ...or I suppose because it floats about an inch in front of his face while he's in his Tummy Tub, or maybe because it was his mom's when she was little. Winner of the Duke of Edinburgh's Prize for Elegant Design, 1970.

More on Patrick Rylands- including a little Spiel Naef and Creative Playthings connection-from the January 1970 Design Journal magazine (via the awesome VADS) (click to enlarge):

See more at the VADS Design Council Slide Collection

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Go West, Young People

Reference Library/Stork Bites Man & South Willard join together like a Lego to present Shrimp Shop, which will likely be the coolest shopping experience you'll ever have with your kid. Happening from this Saturday with an opening bash at 2-4pm.

South Willard

8038 W. Third St.

Los Angeles, CA

More info here.

Below, two of our contributions: an old Creative Playthings Magnaforms and little kid-size Birdwell Beach Britches from the Salvation Army in Key Largo. We would have sent more but our own shrimp is due in a month and he'll be bummed enough he missed the Shop without us sending all his neat toys.

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