in book news... George just let me know about this, 50 Years of the Corvette Grand Sport. He's mentioned in it! As soon as he sends me a scan of that page I'll post it!

wow, what a cool project this must have been back in the day when crew members were alive to meet and collect signatures from

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1370977924491987&set=gm.10163884908912728&idorvanity=9261317727

cool book on B 17s!

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=4051963615115489&set=pcb.10163581313687728

Sign painting, Chicago Style, brief history (I love the signpainters, pinstripers, race car letterers)

These are just notebook covers from a notebook company that makes a variety of covers to appeal to a wider variety of customers

https://fieldnotesbrand.com/products/the-chicago-look

https://www.facebook.com/fieldnotes

The Beverly Sign Co. put Chicago at the center of the mid-century sign-painting map with its “panelized” compositions, novel typographic treatments, and bold colors. This style came to be known as “The Chicago Look.”

Briggs Outdoor Adv. Co. was the company that Jack Briggs began, as a painter in the 1930s and he became the owner of Beverly Sign Co. in 1938 ( see some of their real signs at https://ghostsigns.co.uk/2022/08/chicago-ghost-signs-and-the-beverly-sign-co/ )

Beverly’s artistic significance was underscored by Chicago sign painter Pat Finley: “Beverly garnered national attention for their development of the avant-garde ‘Chicago Look,’ a combination of pastel colors and panelization,” as Finley explains. 

‘You take a color-filled geometric shape and insert type into it, and then that breaks down the design into a few different signs, depending on size. That was unheard of before Beverly — those people were pioneers, and with everything they did, the world followed.’ It attracted flocks of aspiring sign artists.”

https://www.beverlyreview.net/news/community_news/article_bdc0b8ea-17ff-11ed-aa68-1784f9d297f5.html

https://sca-roadside.org/lumbering-into-the-past-fantastic-chicago-ghost-signs-uncovered/

https://www.instagram.com/beverlysignsco to see some more of the strike throughs that were in the drawer in the video

Getting to car lettering and cool stuff... check this out, from Kelsey and Andrew McClellan,  (Heart & Bone Signs, and Heavy Pages Press) 

 https://www.facebook.com/heartandbonesigns 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DOCBE13AdXo/

this book collects around 140 sketches, design drawings, complete with notes, color specs, and other instructions, from Chicago’s prolific Beverly Sign Co.

Bob Behounek, a sign painter, owns the vast collection of the original design drawings, instructions, and strike throughs

The pictures themselves, dating from 1957 into the 1980s, were preserved by just the kind of fluke that is often required to save things treated in their own time as debris rather than art.

Behounek had received the drawings from a one-time journeyman artist at Beverly, Dan Colyer “When I was working at Beverly, the foreman asked me to clean out the sketches and told me to throw them out. I asked if I could keep them and he said he didn’t care what happened to them as long as I got them out of the shop. So, I kept them.”

https://sca-roadside.org/the-golden-era-of-sign-design-the-rediscovered-sketches-of-beverly-sign-co/

Oh hell, out of my price range, and there are none on Ebay or Amazon so click through to 

https://heavypagespress.com/store-2 to order yours 

They even do tours of Chicago signs! 

for some great sign painting images, see 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DOCBE13AdXo/

https://www.instagram.com/heavypagespress/

Thanks to M Currie for recommending I look at the illustrations of Ray Kuns! His book covers and illustrations have style!

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/385574-ross-steering-box-222994-where-was-it-used-p-a-acd/

Kuns authored the books Automotive Essentials, Automotive Service, Automobile Racing, Automobile Engineering, Auto Mechanics, 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=122116662932912410&set=pcb.3658436471116920

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1245547849305112&set=pcb.1245549732638257

https://johnnypersson.blogspot.com/2015/07/aventyret-fortsatter.html

And guys built to those plans...  this 1933 Ray Kuns designed race car was built to the 1933 American Automobile Association rules for Big Car Sprinters

 

This racer has a 92″ wheel base, Franklin steering box, ’34 Ford rear, 9/11 gears with safety hubs, Eskimo radiator, ’59AB Ford Flathead, 12v starter, ’49-’53 rods, adjustable lifters, ’59A oil pump, and a Edmonds intake

https://barnfinds.com/1933-ray-kuns-east-coast-8/

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=9348290125224405&set=pcb.3542199126073989

a beautiful book on early airplanes, on Ebay for 100 bucks

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255877704829

this is cool news, Larry Chen's last 20 years of photography are now available in his book, Life at Shutter Speed, a 400+ page artistic compilation with 20 chapters, one for each year of his career.

 

He was selling two editions, the regular, for 125, and the special, and it doesn't matter what that cost, as they are all sold... and this is months before the books even ship out. 

https://www.carrarabooks.com/store/p/shutterspeed-limited

https://www.instagram.com/larry_chen_foto/?hl=en

https://www.thedrive.com/news/larry-chen-has-seen-it-all-and-done-it-all-with-cars-now-hes-put-20-years-of-photos-into-this-book

Upworthy.com made a list of books that it's readers found "the most intriguing books, ones that changed the way you live" and among them? Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

one of the other books was Flowers For Algernon. Damn, that's for sure. Kleenex alert for that one. 

https://www.upworthy.com/life-changing-books-recommendations

they are pre-selling Lions Dragstrip year-by-year illustrated history book

https://lionsautomobilia.org/product/lions-drag-strip-1955-1972

cool book cover!

https://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com/2024/10/trimotor-book-of-instruction.html

I bet this book, by MoToR magazine is probably all model T owner needs to keep it running

The inspiration for a new children's book that hit number one on the New York Times Best Seller's list came from a rusty bus in a goat pen along a bike trail

When he was 12 years old, he learned that he was colorblind. In his work, he relies on strong lighting sources, color theory, and support from his family to overcome this obstacle. 

Loren Long grew up in Lexington, Kentucky. He pursued graduate-level studies at the American Academy of Art in Chicago after graduating with a BA in Graphic Design/Art Studio from the University of Kentucky.

After graduation, Long worked as an illustrator for Gibson Greeting Cards in Cincinnati eventually moving on to freelance illustration which gave him national exposure for children's books illustrations. 

Since then, Long has received numerous accolades for his fluid WPA painting style. He has been awarded two gold medals from the Society of Illustrators in New York, and has been frequently selected for their annual exhibition and book. 

His work has also appeared in many other major annual exhibitions held by such prestigious journals and magazines as American Illustration, Communication Arts, Step-By-Step Graphics and Print. Long’s clients include Time, Reader’s Digest, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Boy’s Life, Land’s End, Sports Illustrated, and HBO. He has also illustrated book covers for numerous publishers and has recently concentrated on illustrating books for young readers, where his work has garnered much recognition and praise.

https://www.local12.com/news/local/author-releases-nyt-best-seller-childrens-book-inspired-by-greater-cincinnati-community-the-yellow-bus-loren-long-loveland-bike-trail-school-bus-schoolhouse-restaurant-writing-kids-books-reading-award-winning-illustrator

https://x.com/lorenlong

https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/culture/loren-long-closes-in-on-g-o-a-t-status/

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/67953/loren-long/