Why Man Creates: A Saul Bass Gem from 1968

I love iconic graphic designer Saul Bass and have a soft spot for luminaries’ musings on the nature of creativity.

Naturally, I’m head over heels with Why Man Creates — a remarkable short documentary from 1968, animated by Bass and alluringly subtitled “a series of explorations, episodes & comments on creativity.”

Playful yet profound, the film is a series of sequences that at first appear unconnected but eventually converge into a compelling exploration of (wo)man’s most fundamental impetus to create, featuring such delightful tongue-in-cheek vehicles as this exchange between Michelangelo and da Vinci:

Whaddaya doin?” ‘I’m painting the ceiling! Whadda you doin?” “I’m painting the floor!”

For more on Bass’s design legacy, and its place in the context of other seminal design work, see Six Chapters in Design: Saul Bass, Ivan Chermayeff, Milton Glaser, Paul Rand, Ikko Tanaka, Henryk Tomaszewski which, nearly 15 years later, is still an absolute pillar of understanding and contextualizing modern graphic design.

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They Were There: Errol Morris Spotlights Computer Pioneers

We tend to think of the evolution of technology as this disembodied force that changes, for better or for worse, the way we live. But, in fact, it’s the product of individual innovators and the companies who unite them. Among the most monumental tech innovators of our time is International Business Machines, known today simply as IBM. Founded in 1911, IBM is responsible for inventions such as the first school time control system, the first electronic keypunch and the first large-scale electro-mechanical calculator. For its centennial this year, the company has released a duo of documentaries exploring its legacy and the history of seminal technologies that shaped the course of contemporary computing.

They Were There by legendary documentary director Errol Morris spotlights the pioneers who “changed the way the world works,” quite literally, with music by none other than Philip Glass.

100 X 100 chronicles a century of technological achievements, presented by 100 people, each recounting the IBM achievement recorded in the year he or she was born, moving from the oldest to the youngest — a refreshingly innovative storytelling device, layered on top of some fascinating historical trivia.

For more on the history of IBM, one of the most wide-reaching innovators of our time, we highly recommend The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM — the remarkable story of America’s first celebrity CEO told through rare, never-before-explored documents and riveting tales of optimism amidst chaos.

HT Coudal

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Lost States: The Stories of Lands that Never Were

Two of our obsessions — quirky history trivia and map books — converge in Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It — a fascinating and beautifully illustrated chronicle of states that almost were, based on the excellent blog of the same name.

From Mormon migrations to a 19th-century plan for relocating Germany to Texas, author Michael Trinklein tells the bizarre, outlandish, alternate-reality stories of epic geopolitical fails, augmented with stunning full-color original maps of the visions for these imaginary states, alongside images of real-life artifacts and ephemera from the time of their conception.

Though not all the states described were seriously considered for statehood, it’s still an engrossing and priceless peek at the strange, though not entirely nonsensical, ideas history’s horsemen entertained.

Lost States is equal parts fascinating and funny, a curiosity-tickler for the history geek and an absolute treat for the design aficionado.

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