👁 This is a long issue, so you may need to hit "expand" or read it in your browser...
Hello lovelies!
This week's post has an "arranging-things-in-order" kind of vibe...not for any particular reason other than I started to sense a theme as I was doing that thing of following where the links lead…
NOAH KALINA | LUMBERLAND, NY
I had been distantly aware of the work of Noah Kalina...I remember seeing the first iteration of his mesmerizing everyday project in 2006 when he first put it out and it had gone viral...but when I found myself on his new Substack I didn't immediately recognize the name...(I eventually put two and two together). He has posted several updated videos of the project over the years on his YouTube channel, the most recent being on the 20th anniversary in 2020…watch now!
Then...I discovered this...what part of my brain it is that loves this I'm not sure, but I love this...he has put up every single one of the 8799 (and counting…he plans to continue this project for the rest of his life) images and they are sortable by all manner of details…where he was, what camera he was using, how grown-in his beard was, what clothing he was wearing or accessory he was using, whether there was a cat in the image, a band-aid on his nose (6)…crazy impressive! And…this little story made me laugh out loud…
MATTHEW CRAVEN | LOS ANGELES
Utilizing found images from vintage textbooks, catalogs, and history books, along with his own geometric patterns, all meticulously drawn and assembled on found paper, Matthew Craven's collages create hypnotic amalgamations of commonalities. Original drawings and his book, Primer, can be purchased here.
BIODIVERSITY HERITAGE LIBRARY…
Established in 2006, the Biodiversity Heritage Library is a digital library initiative dedicated to providing open access to biodiversity archives from natural history and botanical libraries around the world.
Unfortunately, the initiative seems to have been on hiatus since the pandemic and new uploads have stopped, but there are many thousands of pages of public domain images on their Flickr account which remain available for use. There is also an IG account which provides a good overview with very informative captions of what's available (also on hiatus) and a secondary account operated by BHL volunteer Michelle Marshall, who is still regularly sharing images from the collection.
Give yourself a little gift...if you have been enjoying A Treasury of Moods now would be a good time to click on the coupon below to receive 20% off a full year’s supply of newsletter goodness at only $3.33/month!
LETTERFORM ARCHIVE | SAN FRANCISCO
Founded by Rob Saunders, a collector of the letter arts for over 40 years, Letterform Archive offers both hands-on and, since 2020, digital access to a collection of over 100,000 items related to lettering, typography, calligraphy, and graphic design, spanning thousands of years of history.
The online collection can be searched by people, firms, disciplines, decades, countries, and format. They also have a very informative IG account, offer many publications, courses and workshops and host curated exhibitions and events.
THE V&A COLLECTIONS…
From its early beginnings in 1852 as a Museum of Manufactures, the V&A now houses collections spanning over 5000 years of human creativity in virtually every medium, from ancient Chinese ceramics to Alexander McQueen gowns. In their digital archive the many items can be searched by categories such as periods and styles, people, materials and techniques, places...but what I find most interesting about the curation is, rather than simply displaying myriad still images, they "create the opportunity for users to fall down the rabbit hole, allowing them to see the connections between objects and encourage a deeper, more nuanced way to explore our collections". These are just a few of the offerings…
BELLERBY & CO. GLOBE MAKERS | LONDON
Whew...that's enough with the data overload…time to bring it back to a more human and tactile scale!
Speaking of human creativity and the mastery of an art...I was recently reminded about Bellerby & Co. Globe Makers...it just makes me happy that this company (and their extremely photogenic employees and workshop!) exists, and by all appearances, seems to be thriving. This short video gives a little more detail on the backstory...
BINU BINU SOAP SOAP | VANCOUVER
It's 5:30 on Sunday afternoon and I am late late late with this post...but my magpie-eye keeps getting distracted by shiny objects that I just can't resist! One of them is this...
I used to carry Karen Kim's Binu Binu Soap Soap when the shop was still in Brooklyn and every time I see one of her designs out in the wild I stop to admire. Her products are lovely but what she really excels at is the overall branding of her collection...the concept, the packaging, the photography, the web design...all of it.
I grew up in Toronto, a daughter of Korean immigrants who arrived in Canada in the late 70’s. For someone growing up in North America, the idea of communal bathing spaces doesn’t really exist. I didn’t visit a public bathhouse until I was 26 years old on my first trip to Korea with my mom and aunts. What struck me was that there is a spa space that replaces self-focus with a sense of communal bonding. The glamorous outward luxury is replaced with a pragmatic, everyday simplicity. Bathhouse culture creates kindness and connection among people, something that is much needed in this world.
1 OF 1 STUDIO | AUKLAND
She credits Aukland-based 1 of 1 Studio for the recent re-design of the packaging, print assets, and e-commerce design and development...read the full case study here.
They have also worked on the branding and websites for companies such as F. Miller, Baina, and J. Hannah. I can definitely see that these sites, as well as their own, were all designed by the same “eye” but it’s a modern style that I particularly like with its attention to detail and grid-like organization mixed with a clean airy simplicity.
MOON LISTS…
I think my favorite one is the branding they did for Leigh Patterson of Moon Lists..."drawn from the rich history of record-keeping and archival imagery."
You can find Moon Lists on Substack here...
Self-reflection doesn’t need to be a study in navel gazing, not overly academic, saccharine, nor woo woo. It’s about finding absurdity and lightness amid the randomness of life; breaking through creative or emotional roadblocks; and/or curating a mix of references that are wholly your own. Moon Lists makes analog tools, prompts conversations, and shares resources to inspire new ideas, to help reshape the present, & to (re)define your own perspective…
Thank you all for reading...let me know if you have any thoughts!
xo,
Please smash that ♥ button if you liked this post…
Mood board credits: 1-3 Matthew Craven; Frank Walts; E. H. Shepard 4-6 Jeremy Yong; Elizabeth Twining; Jane Morris 7-9 Atlas der Alpenflora; Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Peter Charles Henderson
I'm going to spend way too many minutes/hours browsing through the Letterform Archive and the V&A online collection. Just a brief glance is already giving me so many ideas for the Eames archive that I'm building for work, and also giving me a welcomed explosion of color/font/texture/form.
Thank you!
Wow. To all of this. Thanks for letting us know about the biodiversity library and the V&A archive, this unlocks whole new avenues of creative inspiration and knowledge! This is such a brilliant post :)