ahem. nuff said. this is some research I’m doing for a current project.
Design suggestions/pr0n: vintage stocks & bonds certificates.
- borders, type, insignias, mythology, watermarks, company brands, names, historical significance.
I told Val about the vintage paper fair @GGP i went to yesterday.. I am not joking there were seriously gorgeous goods there.
I’m talking old stock bonds and certificates. The actual printed paper forms were beautiful and the details were insane.
You can tell that MOST bonds were issued by companies that controlled capital assets of major infrastructural importance – railways, water, lumber, oil, mining, airways, land, financing/banks, electrical/utilities, telephony/telegraph, with the occasional candy factory and sheep company… haha. what I am geeking out on? SF anything, and Bank of China specimen notes.
these images from OldStocks
CANDY/AMUSEMENT PARK
MINING
Gold rush imagery might be a thing to explore.
SAN FRANCISCO
"ORIGINAL HIDDEN" : http://www.oldwesthistorystore.com/california_page.htm
fucking KIDDDDING me. FML. CALIFORNIA KING GOLD MINES. ugggghghh
…
and get this, this hobby is called SCRIPOPHILY.
SCRIPOPHILY. hah!! like rippin scrips? haha.. let’s roll a scrippophilly blunt. THAT would be a dope concept pic, someone burning a blunt made from an old stock certificate of a dead company (or dying, current company…)…
you could have gotten into the crispness of the visuals in these documents. I found the one guy claiming to have the deepest collection of old San Francisco ephemera at the Fair. Not only was his collection deep, he had a lot of MARKET STREET RAILWAY, and PG&E certificates, Playland SF memorabilia, pre-earthquake photos, all San Francisco shit. His Bay collection of ephemera is solid.
I’m reading that the collecting nature of Scripophily is only about 30 years old, which makes sense because this is probably when the early stock certificates of the 1900s first expired. and what it means is that since collecting the physical goods is new, collecting/providing/archiving the DIGITAL resources is also new, and we all know the Graphic Design community’s trends regarding antiquarian/nostalgic aesthetic. Classic never goes out of style, nor does Victorian. I’m about to be on some shit now – I want to provide these resources in a book or something, maybe a collabo with that collector. No graphic designer in his right mind will turn these images down. I haven’t seen many modern graphic designers other than Shepard Fairey to have successfully incorporated this design history/language. Correct me please.
do image search for "Old stocks and bonds" or "scripophily" and that would start you off.
also:
http://labarregalleries.blogspot.com/
http://www.hrharmer.com/ – like the Sotheby’s of Stamps and printed
http://www.hugovandermolen.nl/scripophily/scripophily.php
https://archivesinternational.com/Home_Page.html
- the leading galleries/auction houses/collectors that i’m finding image links to
http://www.oldwesthistorystore.com/california_page.htm
http://www.oldwesthistorystore.com/railroadbonds_page.htm
http://www.dvminerals.com/stocks.html
http://oldstocks.stores.yahoo.net/
http://scripophilyantiquestockcertificates.com/
…
Anyway, this is just for Design suggestion, mainly for the borders. but for graphic heads, these documents represent complete works of Design Art.
Waylan
