a counterfeit
“It is interesting to note that the third time a printer’s mark was used, in 1470, it was a counterfeit of [Peter] Schoffer’s mark.”
—Bernard Rudofsky, from Seven Designers Look at Trademark Design, edited by Egbert Jacobson, 1952.
monogrammed crosses
“The theory has been advanced that the modern signature is, pradoxically, a product of illiteracy. The signs and signatures that came into use during the thirteenth century are only letters and signs grafted onto crosses. Kings, as well as their lowest subjects labored on their monogrammed crosses, and few could probably read what they signed.”
—Bernard Rudofsky, from Seven Designers Look at Trademark Design, edited by Egbert Jacobson, 1952.
the ‘Orange Revolution’
“As far back as anyone can remember, orange was the ‘look at me’ color, found on road signs and heavy industrial equipment. Orange and plastic, it must be said, were made for each other. But the color embodied a Zen-like transcendence that also endeared it to the avant-garde. From A Clockwork Orange to Andy Warhol’s screen prints . . . using orange was a way of declaring, ‘We’re modern!’ Designers claimed it was the visual equivalent of an exclamation point.
And so it was until the 1990s, when corporations in search of a hipper image gave orange mainstream legitimacy. In 1994, Federal Express abbreviated its name to FedEx and combined orange with offbeat purple for its new look. . . . Orange popped up on Apple computers and redesigned Volkswagen Beetles, then spread like a virus to sneakers, toothbrushes, baby strollers, golf balls, and innumerable Web sites. . . .
Home Depot’s orange logo had a utilitarian tint, but . . . it beckoned the tool-belt-toting individualist in every suburban home. Bit by bit, the color of safety morphed into an emblem of ballsy Bobo capitalism. . . .
This triumphant narrative swelled to a crescendo during 17 days in November 2004, when the ‘Orange Revolution’ erupted on the streets of Kiev, spawning a vast tent city and an orgasm of orange hats, T-shirts, bandannas, scarves, and neckties. Ukrainians wore the color to protest the government’s effort to falsify election results and steal the presidential election from opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko.”
—Andras Szanto, The Color of Revolution, from Print magazine, May/June 2006.
Oranje
“Orange is the national symbol of the Netherlands, whose royal family hails from the House of Orange-Nassau. The country’s industrious spirit and equitable democracy are widely admired. And as every Ukranian sports fan knows, the excellent Dutch national soccer team is called Oranje.”
—Andras Szanto, The Color of Revolution, from Print magazine, May/June 2006.
Red Flowers for You
“They could be poison ivy,
They might be poison oak,
But anyway, here’s your bouquet!
Hey—can’t you take a joke?”
—Shel Silverstein, Red Flowers for You, from Falling Up, 1996.
MAGNIFICENT FIRE WORKS
“A SPLENDID ORCHESTRA
Is in town, but has not been engaged.
Also, . . .
MAGNIFICENT FIRE WORKS
were in contemplation for this occasion, but the
idea has been abandoned.
A GRAND TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION
May be expected; in fact, the public are privileged
to expect whatever they please.”
—Mark Twain, from an advertisement for a postwar San Francisco performance; quoted in Printer’s Devil: Mark Twain and the American Publishing Revolution by Bruce Michelson, 2006.
the color of the air
“The medical faculty at the University of Paris in 1348 listed change of season, “flying” stars, change in the color of the air, lightning and other aerial lights, winds and thunder, dead animals, and an increase in frogs and reptiles as signs of the plague. In 1350 the physician and poet Simon de Covino listed heavy mists, clouds, lightning, and falling stars.”
—Joseph P. Byrne, Daily Life During the Black Death, 2006.
philosophical gold
“[Get] a piece of . . . gold, if you can of Elizabeth’s coin (it is the best), which is philosophical gold and keep it always in your mouth when you walk out or any sick persons come to you.”
—John Allin, advice in a letter written during London’s Great Plague of 1665; quoted in Daily Life During the Black Death by Joseph P. Byrne, 2006.
mourners in black
“Across the era of the Second Pandemic . . . [a]uthorities stepped in to limit the depressing effects of mourners in black and tolling bells, and prevented gatherings of people through which the disease might be spread. The times were extraordinary, and the death tolls often unbelievable. . . . Without controlling—or outright banning—the traditional ceremonies, cities would have become true necropolises, cities of the dead.”
—Joseph P. Byrne, Daily Life During the Black Death, 2006.
fixed for ever
“I can remember every second of that morning, if I shut my eyes I can see the deep blue colour of the sky and the mango leaves, the pink and red hibiscus, the yellow handkerchief she wore round her head, tied in the Martinique fashion with the sharp points in front, but now I see everything still, fixed for ever like the colours in a stained-glass window. Only the clouds move.”
—Jean Rhys, from Wide Sargasso Sea, 1966.