• Matchbox label artwork

A matchbox label collector is called a phillumenist. But you don’t have to be one to love these tiny works of art. This charming collection of eye-catching European matchbox label artwork can be seen on one of Maraid’s photosets . Consisting of more than 300 matchbox labels that were collected worldwide, primarily Eastern European from the 1950s and 60s. The labels range from minute works of socialist realism from countries including Poland, Russia and Lithuania to marvelous naive animal and bird pictures from Czechoslovakia.

Maraid’s interest in matchbox labels lies primarily “in the design but also the concept that these small images can communicate to a large number of people”. Subject wise, Mariad points out, “advertisers, governments were quick to realize the potential of these far reaching messages. The combination of accessibility of design and subject, makes this collection an invaluable resource, a ‘must see’ reference for art lovers, designers, or collectors of ephemera.

Colors found in nature are often less saturated and more pleasing to the eye than their artificial counterparts. As a result, they allow users to focus on interactions, and not be distracted by overly bright hues. One particular site to find amazing colors in nature, by using nature to build the perfect color palette is COLOURlovers - a community website based on the world of color. Recently they listed some gorgeous butterfly color palettes, featuring the color combinations of 18 different butterflies. Any of these color combinations could be used for interior decor or a website. Here’s 2 sample butterfly palettes, be sure to check out the rest.

• 18 Beautiful Butterflies & Their Color Palettes

NeuBau Welt, created by Stefan Gandl, represents a snapshot of over 1000 objects from everyday life in vector illustration. It’s a massive encyclopedia of illustrations ranging from plants to pants and are broken into three categories. ‘Neu’ features objects created by humans such as furniture, buildings and machinery. ‘Bau’ focuses on life and includes people from all walks of life. ‘Welt’ is made up from plants and animals, butterflies to berries. The book comes complete with a cd that has all the images from the book in EPS format along with three new typefaces. With Neubau Welt, you’ve got an instantly library of highly detailed solid graphics for everyone to use and takes the painstaking hours of accurate vector drawings away. If you are in the design industry and you work with vectors a lot, then this book is an excellent resource for you.

source: Neubau Welt

1956 DeSoto

• Plan59

Started in 1999, EphemeraNow became Plan59 in January 2006. Plan59 is a wonderful family-friendly web site dedicated to the commercial art of mid-century America. In their nostalgia factory in Fairfax, Virginia, the assembly lines clank nonstop and the smokestacks belch 24/7 to deliver a high-quality assortment of jpegs, gifs, tiffs and the occasional vector graphic. In addition to delicious eye candy they also provide illustrations to corporate as well as nonprofit clients for print, promotional, educational and Web use. Visit via the link above, it’s well worth checking out.