Saturday, 15 June 2013

Delving into Australian typographical history...

While some of the flywheel team are enjoying themselves in Europe on our buying trip, those still at home in charge of the store, have perhaps more simple pleasures to keep busy with!  One of those was the printing of our business cards, as they seem to disappear very quickly and the other, was finally solving a mystery surrounding our typeface for flywheel. 

our new business cards, simple yet effective we think:
buffalo board, black ink & letterpress printed
 our lead type

As you can see we had our signage made to match our typeface as well:



We loved the idea of using our lead type for our signage typeface when we opened the store, as this particular type was in our first type cabinet that was part of the inspiration for flywheel.  We knew that our cabinet and type was Australian by the label F.T Wimble & Co. Ltd.  So it was with much excitement recently, that we found an original 1924 F.T. Wimble catalogue in a Hobart second hand bookstore and could finally solve the mystery of our typeface, in particular our very unusual "f". 

 
So here we go, mystery solved: our typeface is a mix of Canberra Bold Italic with our "f" being Myola Italic: 
 
 

Our only conclusion is that our "f" must have been mixed in with the wrong Canberra Bold Italic type in our cabinet at some stage, but it has made for our unique signage and business cards! 

On looking through the remainder of  the catalogue, all the typefaces are named after New Zealand and Australian cities and towns, perhaps to give a more local flavour to the typefaces as they all seem to be based on other typefaces from overseas. 


It was nice to see there was a typeface named after Hobart, quite a modern sans serif style, not really what one would think of for Hobart at the time perhaps?

 
So it would appear not a lot of typographical designing was going on in Australia, rather the re-naming of typefaces and we are still not sure what typeface Myola Italic was named after, so it would be great if anyone could fill us in!
 
Until next time,
 the flywheel team

Friday, 31 May 2013

The first buying trip for Flywheel!

Flywheel has certainly been lavished with our love and devotion for the last few months, but it is going to be getting even more love coming up.  We are off on our first buying trip for both stores since opening Flywheel! Vintage treasures to suit Flywheel will be keenly sought after, such as this gorgeous little book press found at a famous flea market in Europe:



Be sure to check out The Drill Hall Emporium blog to keep up with all our latest buying trip news and great finds for the stores. 

Until next time,
the flywheel team    

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Antique & vintage globe love at Flywheel!

We love globes here at Flywheel as you may be able to tell from walking past as one of our shop windows at the moment...




We have always thought that having one on a desk in a study is a great look, but some fabulous images we have seen lately has made us think that as a collection they look even better!  Less is more, but more is better definitely...


Image from here 

Image from here

Image from here

Image from here

Hmm, beginning to think space needs to be made to fit a collection in at home.  This gorgeous English globe would have to be a favourite to start with... just love the ebonised base...


although this retro globe has a great style as well.. 


We may as well face it, we have a globe addiction at the moment!  

Until next time, 
the flywheel team

Thursday, 2 May 2013

Mother's Day not far away...

We have again been having a great time decorating our front window, this time for Mother's Day.


As you may be able to glimpse Rachel has been busy printing away some letterpress loveliness ready for our customers to give to their lovely mums on this special day.  We are loving the beautiful font of these cards with swashes going on a plenty...




Also our little gift cards using vintage type and borders are very cute and also proving very popular..


and last of all is a simple message for those wonderful mums out there...



We also have lots of pressie ideas for mums too... 

candles available in a range of scents, all in vintage jars

beautiful leather journals, photo albums, pencil cases....

beautiful leather clutches for iPads etc..

a very cute range of goodies to get mum organised...

Cook's Journals..
We wish all the mother's out there a wonderful Mother's Day!

Until next time, 
the flywheel team

Saturday, 13 April 2013

Stylish industrial French Jieldé lamp in the store

This most amazing industrial lamp came into Flywheel this last week and it has been total love for us. It is a French Jieldé lamp, an icon in French industrial art and no wonder with the fabulous design...



Jieldé lamps were designed in the late 1940's by the French mechanic Jean-Louis Domecq, who was unable to find a satisfactory light for use whilst working, so he began designing the perfect solution to his required specification; simple, robust and flexible in movement to adapt to all working stations and production commenced in the early 1950's.  So we are very lucky to have a vintage one of these in store! 




But our favourite part of all is the base, made of vintage car disc brakes, adding weight and balance to the lamps in a perfect design solution that a mechanic would think of...


The Jieldé lamps are definitely no longer designated to the industrial settings, we are totally loving them in these extremely stylish interiors...




Hmm, we are all starting to think we want a Jieldé lamp at home too! 

Until next time, 
the flywheel team 

Thursday, 4 April 2013

New business cards for very special clients...


Well for ourselves really! We have been working on new business cards for The Drill Hall Emporium and we are so thrilled with them and just had to share the result.  We are so loving the beautiful deep impression of our logo into thick, soft textured card.  


lovely impression only achieved through letterpress printing 

We of course couldn't use lead type to print our hand drawn logo, so this is where more modern technology really comes into play with letterpress printing, with a photopolymer plate being made from our computer design.  So it is exciting to be able to letterpress print without being limited to what we have on hand....

photopolymer locked up in our Arab press ready to print


Here is our Arab press all inked up with our ink colour, such a play on the eyes with the colour almost looking a soft beige, purple...


We think our business cards perfectly sums up The Drill Hall Emporium: simple, natural, textural, yet a little bit luxurious. 


Until next time,
the flywheel team