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Last week I checked out the Avalon hotel in Beverly Hills. At first it seemed unlikely that the interior was nice because of the size and location, but the hotel had an amazing cool, mid-century vibe. The original architecture consisted of three buildings. Koning Eizenberg rennovated the building in 1990 to maintain historical style, but also make it a stylishly retro hotel. My favorite part about this hotel is the courtyard and amoeba shaped pool in the center.
Photos via inhabitat
These are cutaway sketches of a 1950s design proposal for the USAF’s Project 1794. The purpose of this project was to build a supersonic flying saucer. According to documents alongside the project, the saucer was supposed to reach a top speed of “between Mach 3 and Mach 4, a ceiling of over 100,000 ft. and a maximum range with allowances of about 1,000 nautical miles”.
The cost of building the prototype was estimated at $3,168,000, but the military pulled the plug in 1960 after the saucer was unable to meet desired expectations.
Via Wired
Jean Philippe Lenclos was a young French man born in 1938. During his travels he became very interested in symbolism and color theory which led to him writing a theory based on the Geography of Color. In an interview in the book Supergraphics, which I suggest buying from Unit Editions, he talks about the differences in the appreciation of color and the use in changing consumers’ behavior.
The work of Lenclos is very intriguing to me. Something amidst the lines and geometric shapes lies the honesty in his design.
Each one of these mid-century modern graphic illustrations incorporates a combination of pure geometric patterns. These once meaningful shapes and concepts sold products. It is my hope that by continuously revisiting these minimalistic visuals, we’ll begin to adopt the ideals of not overcomplicating our design.
Found on Sandiv’s photostream
Designed by De La Riva Architects and photographed by Marc Cramer, this Quebec hilltop house shows a unique balance of an engagement to the environment. Although separated by a wall and glass, the interior to exterior feels connected.
The house is positioned to allow light to stream in during the summer. An overhang also provides welcoming shade while relaxing on the cobblestone and looking over the valley below.
Via The Contemporist
For the next week (January 3rd through the 7th) I will be posting collections of mid-century design on the blog. Each of the posts will be archived here and added to each new post. Hope you enjoy the posts and can’t wait to share some of these images.
View each of the mid-century modern collections:
See Day 1: The Chairs
See Day 2: The Interiors
See Day 3: The Architecture
See Day 4: The Illustration
See Day 5: The Graphic Design
SR692 has by far the biggest collection of SwissAir related greatness. Most of these posters were designed around the 50s to the 70s. A lot if not all of them were extremely straight forward as you can see. Simply utilizing the airplane icon, a headline and the SwissAir logo—part of what makes these posters so unique.
If you haven’t seen the previous post Behind the SwissAir Logo, check it out.
Images via SR692 Archive
Swiss Airlines has a rich history that has been hidden in the archives for quite some time. On March 26th, 1931 when Swissair formed, I doubt anyone at the time really considered the history that they were going to be making with the company’s design. Balair and Ad Astra were the two companies that merged to form Swissair. Throughout the years they’ve changed logos many times but there was one that was most memorable (above). Quite possibly it was the best logo that the company has ever used.
Thanks to SR692 we’re able to chronologically walk through past logos used by Swissair. Some great, some not so great and a few that were very, very experimental. I’d love to hear what you think about some of these logos so hit the jump to continue reading and see more images.
Check out Part Two of this post » Swiss Airlines Posters.
The Flashback group on Flickr has one of the best collections of vintage goodies from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Some of the interiors that I found are really outstanding. Particularly the ones that look really modern—modern to today. It’s amazing how organic the design was as well.
Images via Flashback Group
These album covers are from a collection scanned and archived by Jive Time Records, a Seattle based store specializing in used vinyl. The fact that designers could get away with such simple designs just blows me away. It seems to me that it’s getting harder and harder to get away with designing so simply.
Some great images of 1950’s and 1960’s interior design. I think its safe to say that the light and color of these images are probably making it look much better than it may look in person. Regardless, I love the wood tables and walls. Can’t forget the illustration of the Eames chair–the best seat in the house.
Images via Mid Century Home Style and FFFFound.
