I have a rotating group of interests that ebbs and flows from one random thing to another. Occasionally I will become enveloped with a certain obsession and stick to it for an extended period of time. Such would be the case lately for classic cars. I have spent countless hours perusing Oldride.com looking for American beauties like this ‘64 Impala SS (note the presence of the 409) and this super strong 1969 Oldsmobile 442. A guy can dream right?

Another big car related time suck has been The Jalopy Journal. The site is one part online magazine, one part fora for car enthusiasts. I like that JJ pulls a lot of inspiration from the old photos, publications and other sorts of design focused stuff, much I like do with ACL. The Jalopy Journal did a post recently with a collection of old auto related logos (partially pictured below) that is worth a close look — see it here.

If you haven’t heard, the beloved boutique chain is opening a NYC outpost in a month or so. Last night I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of the space and eat some good bites from the Spotted Pig folks. Color me obsessed. The detailing in the rooms (powder coated heater covers, wool blankets, High Life in the fridges) is off the charts. I can’t wait to stay there — or maybe I will move in full time. Some detail shots below to give you a little taste of what to expect.

Ace Hotel opening mid-March.

California footwear brand SeaVees recently collaborated with Pantone on a collection of colorful canvas sneakers. The people from Pantone were gracious enough to let SeaVees founders Steven Tiller and Derek Galkin into the company archives to curate a group of colors that “epitomizes the cool, casual style of California in 1963.” This collection is especially interesting because, Pantone has never granted anyone outside of the company keys to the vault. The full collection can be seen here.

This also got me thinking about Panton’s branding initiatives as of late. From the GAP pop up shop, to their adventures in Japan. It seems the company is on a 3M style mission of “we don’t make things, we make things better.”

Honestly, I’m not really a fan of “Street Wear” or “Skate Wear” or whatever you want to call it. I do however shop at Supreme pretty much every season. I’m not going for the five-panel hats or the tee shirts. I go there for khakis, shorts and outerwear. It seems a big Supreme design influence is classic American goods and workwear. So to me, Supreme is a classic American brand, I just have to filter out the music, the sales people and 95% of the collection.

This morning I came across a blog post about the many languages of the Supreme logo, which I thought was pretty cool and worth a re-post.

From Ariel Stark-Benz:

“The identity of New York Skate brand Supreme was adapted from Barbara Kruger, a conceptual artist known for messages white Futura type on red blocks over black and white photos.

Today, equally recognizable amongst a niche group comprised of skateboarders, musicians, and stylists, Supreme fills those shoes (no pun intended). Though already an international symbol- here is Supreme in every language from arabic (note the play of traditional script compared to a gestural Arabic using Futura) to Yiddish.”

A few days ago I was making a joke about having to forge ford a river — referring the old-school video game Oregon Trail — and no one knew what I was talking about. How could you not know and love Oregon Trail? I have an emulator on my Mac for the sole purpose of playing the game once a year.

Everyone that grew up in the 80s loves the simplicity and nostalgia of the classic video games, but It wasn’t the game play alone that made these titles great, it was the all around visual simplicity. That simple design even extended to the packaging and cover designs. The website The Minus World had a cool take on classic Atari 2600 art direction and decided to redo some recent titles in that style and the results are fantastic. Press SPACE BAR to continue. (Found via Signal Noise)