Happy 80th Birthday Mickey Mouse!

By Andy Warhol

Life and Death Masks

I receive a daily email from design writer Steven Heller, as do many designers who subscribe to the Daily Heller from Print magazine. Yesterday Steven's email featured life and death masks in the collection of Laurence Hutton, the literary editor of Harper's magazine from 1886 to 1898. There are over 60 masks in the collection. Hutton traveled the world searching for these masks in obscure shops and getting permission from museums to make copies of their masks. The collection began while he was shopping in New York City. Hutton was approached by a street boy trying to sell a cast of a human face that happened to be that of Benjamin Franklin (above left). He purchased it and asked the boy to show him where he had found it. In some ash-barrels on Second Street were dozens of casts including George Washington which Hutton carted home. This collection is very macabre but it's fascinating to see what these notable people really looked like in life and in death. The collection, including a cast of Lincoln (above right) can be viewed here.

President Elect Launches New Website

In what may become the contemporary version of the Fireside Chats, the Obama administration launched its new website, change.gov.

The fireside chats were a series of thirty evening radio speeches given by President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944. Beginning his talks with "Good evening, friends", Roosevelt urged listeners to have faith in the banks and to support his New Deal measures. The "fireside chats" were considered enormously successful and attracted more listeners than the most popular radio shows during the "Golden Age of Radio."

As the Obama administration faces similar (but different) circumstances as in 1933, it will be interesting to see if the President Elect attempts to address and educate the nation through the new site during the "Golden Age of the Internet." This would be in step with how the Obama campaign seized opportunities in fundraising and voter mobilization through their campaign website.

It looks like the Obama brand team has replaced the Gotham typeface used for the campaign with something a little more traditional. However, it appears as though their designers have continued to use typefaces from Hoefler & Frere Jones. I think the sans serif typeface is Verlag and the serif face is Mercury.

A Successful Autumn Evening

The Tenfold Collective would like to thank everyone who attended the Autumn Evening at the Feed & Grain to help support the restoration of the building. Thank you to all the volunteers, sponsors, musicians, and artists who participated. With all of your help, we raised over $10,000 for the project. Beyond raising the additional funds, we wanted to show Loveland residents that the Feed & Grain has the potential to become a major downtown landmark. With over 375 people in attendance, I think we more than did that. People are already asking about next year's event and marking their calendars. We hope everyone had a great time!

Additional photos will be posted soon at the Tenfold Gallery website.