The Footnotes of Mad Men explores and discusses the historic events, themes, and cultural mores of the show.
posted by mattdidthat on Sep 15, 2009 - 33 comments

Awards can't feed the hungry. (via, with supporting links)
posted by divabat on Jun 21, 2009 - 17 comments

Beautifully designed, quirky, colorful late 19th-century "artistic" and "gaslight" printing at Dick Sheaff's ephemera pages. [via, via] [more inside]
posted by mediareport on Jun 8, 2009 - 11 comments

If you love 1970s food-related advertising mascots as much as I do, you'll probably love Waffle Whiffer's blog. Loads of old posts on fast food characters, sugar cereal boxes, and even pogs! The Waffle Whiffer's flickr stream is a similar treasure trove of goodies with too many worth mentioning. Ok, just one: who knew the Thompson Twins had such great iconography (and why did they do a deal with Cap'n Crunch?)?
posted by mathowie on Jun 8, 2009 - 14 comments

A complete archive of French magazine L'Officiel de la Mode, from 1921 to 2008. It's a treasure trove for fans of fashion, photography, advertising and design. [more inside]
posted by jack_mo on Nov 14, 2008 - 16 comments

Lovely Package: The leading source for the very best that package design has to offer.
posted by chunking express on Oct 30, 2008 - 28 comments

From The Atlantic, a fun bunch of montages of interesting people answering questions like "What is the cost of being a nerd?", "When is evil cool?" and "Are good books bad for you?" (Accompanies a redesign of magazine as well as of the web site. In seeking readers and advertisers, publications like The Atlantic and The Economist, known as thought-leader magazines, have long tried to make up in cleverness what they lack in wallet power.)
posted by Non Prosequitur on Oct 25, 2008 - 27 comments

Antrepo Design have created an alternate set of film posters regarding the 'brand integration' ie product placement in a number of movies. Lynch on the matter (NSFW).
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Oct 14, 2008 - 28 comments

The Branding of Polaroid 1957-1977: How we beat Eastman Kodak and its little yellow boxes at point of purchase despite a clunky product and an irrelevant corporate name. Graphic designer Paul Giambarba blogs about his experience creating Polaroid's iconic corporate identity, product packaging and print advertising while freelancing for Polaroid through the company's rise and fall.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on May 22, 2008 - 7 comments

Gun for the whole family. A Scanning Around With Gene article about historic gun ads. More fun with Gene Gable: Cigarettes, diving, winter fonts, red white and blue, and so much more.
posted by klangklangston on Jan 10, 2008 - 12 comments

The British Olympic Committee unveiled the logo and branding for London 2012 today, at a cost of £400,000 (USD796,000). Reaction has been swift - a petition to change the logo or go back to the old one has already reached 10,000 signatures.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 on Jun 4, 2007 - 149 comments

Japanese packaging design: snack characters. From the awesome Pingmag (previously 1, 2, 3). Via AT Chicago. Also recently in Pingmag: First Generation Graffiti in Iran.
posted by jokeefe on Feb 12, 2007 - 9 comments

Top 10 ad-tricks in Tokyo’s train stations
posted by Tlogmer on Oct 20, 2006 - 32 comments

Human Beans Fictional Products. The Karmaphone, the Live Cigarettes and more
posted by ronsens on Aug 12, 2004 - 0 comments

Retrolounge is a compendium of the next new thing in design, art, architecture and fashion. I kid! Truly, go-go boots make me swoon.
posted by pedantic on Aug 12, 2003 - 7 comments

Flash Animation A response to an article about Advertising.
posted by Niahmas on May 25, 2003 - 19 comments

Graphic Design from the 1920s and 1930s in Travel Ephemera . Amazing collection of posters, road maps, steamship and airline timetables, (more timetables here), post cards, luggage labels (more labels here and here), brochures and more. Seeing this stuff makes me wish I had been born seventy-five years earlier (and with an obscene amount of money.) (Warning: the site is seriously painful to look at, but the content's good. Link via Coudal.)
posted by Vidiot on Mar 19, 2003 - 10 comments

More design through the ages....
posted by Spoon on Mar 4, 2002 - 5 comments