Clear heavens over the Woodstock dealership at the weekend. Though there was snow piled in the edges of the parking lot the temperatures rose to the mid fifties; very unseasonably mild.
February 6, 2020
Made in England
Paper Dart Avian | the Thunderbird name logo used by Triumph since the fifties was devised by Edward Turner whilst traveling between the UK and the Marques operations in the States.
January 28, 2020
Heavy Fuel
Monster Truck | A couple of years ago Triumph USA toured their adventure bike Tiger models across the country using this heavy brute of a vehicle. Called the Atlak it drove from Atlanta to Alaska and parts between.
January 27, 2020
Contrast
Wall Art | this would make a nice graphic for a cool warehouse apartment wall. High ceilings and brickwork with concrete floors. Indeed you could probably roll the Bonnie into the flat up on the freight elevator..
January 24, 2020
Chaises
Blowing Bubbles | awesome sketch by Elsa Chang of some lass laying back sending soap bubbles into the sky. The grey wash with brushed ink work is fluid and inspired.
January 19, 2020
You’re under arrest creep!
Joe | Needin’ a bit of lawman Judge Dredd and his Lawmaster bike ready to dole out justice in Mega City One; Twenty Second Century style.
December 31, 2019
Racing Bike
The Future Was Here | The imaginative illustrations of Syd Mead spoke of a streamlined and slick world of cool architecture and knife-sharp cars. This Honda 3000 has hints of Kaneda’s bike from ’89 Manga animation Akira. Mead developed the feel of dystopian Blade Runner and the computer integration of Tron. Syd passed away yesterday at the age of 86.
October 9, 2019
Rotring
Technical Tracker by Triumph | accurate linework in this engineering illustration of a fast looking oval dirt machine.
September 9, 2019
Design
Book Week | one of the publications I managed to acquire from our vacation as proprietors of The Open Book was this glossy tome by legendary Moto-writer Mick Walker. Now added to my small library of all things two wheeled.
May 25, 2019
Read all about it!
‘Zines | Whatever your interest there is a magazine for it. And, in the specialist topic of motorcycling, there are sub genres covering everything from custom, classic/vintage, off road, on road, Day-to-day riding, travel & adventure. We have a great magazine store in Evanston with a great selection.
May 18, 2019
Architecture & Embroidery
Chi-Town Gangs | we had a day in west suburban Oak Park enjoying open house tours of Prairie Style homes from the early 20th Century. Here are some gang patches from this locality-such as the Road Runner MC. It’s a varied bunch much like the buildings we enjoyed today.
April 20, 2019
Gesamtkunstwerk
bauhaus 100 | 2019 is the centenary of the formation of the influential German design school based in Weimar and later Dessau. As well as founder Walter Gropius and later directors Hannes Meyer and Mies Van der Rohe there were numerous staff and students who were allowed to develop creative talent in the manufacturing arts – .Gesamtkunstwerk (Total work of Art ). Here’s one such alumni Heinrich Brocksieper, who worked on photography, painting and animation, enjoying great German motorrad engineering of the day in front of the workshop block at the Dessau building.
“Heinrich Brocksieper auf seinem Motorrad vor dem Bauhaus Dessau, 1930, Originalfoto 64 x 41 cm © Nachlass Brocksieper, Hagen.”
April 12, 2019
You too can be a Rembrandt
Paint by Numbers | all of those tank badges were painted by hand. Each one painstakingly given a pearly white background and black enamel lettering infill.
Factoid: Dan Robbins who invented Paint-by-Numbers in the fifties died last week aged 93.
March 25, 2019
For want of a spade
Kustom Kat |For over five decades the custom motorcycle scene has been dominated by one name Arlen Ness. He passed away over the weekend leaving a void in the genre. Taking the laid-back Californian attitude and rebuilding bikes into crazy vestiges of their former self he would use mostly Harley Davidson’s to create multitudes of choppers, bobbers, and, like this Triumph, diggers. This latter style was a needle thin profile with stretched out forks – highly impractical but look beautiful. Arlen Ness 1938-20019 RIP
March 14, 2019
21
Lightning | an unusual marketing move using the image of Mach 2 capable RAF jets to promote the futuristic appeal of the 350cc ‘Twenty One”. The streamlined semi-enclosing bodywork may create a sense of tomorrow especially that rear ‘bathtub’. Nevertheless I like the page layout and mid century graphic form.
