Sparkle and Spin: A 1957 Children’s Book About Words by Iconic Designer Paul Rand

A mid-century lens on the relationship between language and image, shape and sound, thought and expression.

As a lover of children’s books and mid-century design, I have a particular soft spot for vintage children’s books by iconic mid-century designers. After last week’s look at Saul Bass’s only children’s book, here comes Sparkle and Spin: A Book About Words — an utterly, perhaps paradoxically, delightful 1957 children’s book illustrated by legendary designer and notorious curmudgeon Paul Rand, and written by his then-wife Ann.

(I came across the book in the excellent Children’s Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling, a treasure trove of seminal vintage children’s books.)

With its bold, playful interplay of words and pictures, the book encourages an understanding of the relationship between language and image, shape and sound, thought and expression, a lens we’ve also seen when Italian novelist and philosopher Umberto Eco introduced young readers to semiotics in the same period.

Though the cover of the 2006 reprint, with its all too literal glitter gimmick, would have likely sent Rand into a vapid fury, the book is an absolute treasure, one I’m happy to see survive the out-of-print fate of all too many mid-century gems.

Sparkle and Spin is part of a Rand trilogy, including Little 1 (1962) and the out-of-print, incredibly hard to find Listen! Listen! (1970).

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Vintage Posters from the Golden Age of Travel, 1910-1959

Motoring in Germany, hunting in the USSR, beaching in Portugal, and other adventures.

Mid-century graphic design gave us such treasures as Saul Bass, the WPA, and science ads like we haven’t seen since. From the Boston Public Library’s Print Collection comes this stunning collection of vintage travel posters from the Golden Age of Travel, when railways stretched across America and Europe, swanky ocean liners brought elegance to international waters, and the roads swelled with automobiles. Armed with these vibrant visual ephemera, travel agents and ticket salesmen reined in a new era of excitement about the adventures of travel, channeled through the language of design.

'Australia. Great Barrier Reef, Queensland,' Gert Sellheim, 1930-1939

'Orient Calls,' Mune Satomi, 1936

'Palestine Line,' T. Trepkowski, 1935

'Hunting in the USSR,' 1910-1959 (approximate)

'Italy,' Michahelles, 1910-1959 (approximate)

'La Syrie et le Liban,' Dabo, 1910-1959 (approximate)

'Visit Palestine,' Franz Krausz, 1930-1939 (approximate)

'Tasmania. The anglers' paradise,' 1910-1959 (approximate)

'Come and see Netherland India,' 1910-1959 (approximate)

'No rain in Portugal but tourists pour in,' Nuno Costa, 1954)

'Cote d'Azur,' Pierre Fix-Masseau, 1988)

'Klosters. Graubnden, Schweiz,' J. C. Müller, 1910-1959 (approximate)

'Japan,' Mune Satomi, 1937

'Varmland, Sweden. An unspoiled mecca for tourists,' Beckman, 1936

'Alaska via Canadian Pacific, Taku Glacier,' Greenwood, 1910-1959 (approximate)

'By train for seaside holidays! Take a Kodak,' Gert Sellheim, 1910-1959 (approximate)

'Motoring in Germany,' Ludwig Hohlwein, 1910-1959 (approximate)

'Where the deer and the antelope play. National Parks,' Dorothy Waugh, 1930-1939 (approximate)

'The adventures of today are the memories of tomorrow National Parks,' Dorothy Waugh, 1930-1939 (approximate)

'Eat more fruit. Put pep in your step' (Victorian Railways) by Dibdin and Brown, 1910-1959 (approximate)

For more delicious vintage design from the Golden Age of Travel, dig into 20th Century Travel: 100 Years Of Globe-Trotting Ads.

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The Disappearing Bicyclist: A Vintage Puzzle to Tickle Your Brain

“Which boy has vanished? Where did he go?”

Chess player Sam Loyd (1841-1911) had a knack for mind-bending puzzles, which his New York Times obituary described as “a real gift… for the fantastic in mathematical science.” Among his most famous feats was a vanishment puzzle titled Get Off the Earth. It depicted a rectangular background, topped with a circular card — the “world” — which could be rotated. Along the rim of the circle sit 13 Chinese men. When the world is oriented with the large arrow pointing to the North East, you could count 13 men. But when you turned the Earth slightly so that the arrow pointed to the North West, there were suddenly only 12 men.

This decidedly less racist version of the puzzle, known as The Disappearing Bicyclist, offers the same intentional discombobulation:

Turn the disc so the arrow points to A — and count 13 boys. Then move the arrow to B — and there are only 12 boys in view.

Which boy has vanished? Where did he go?

The genius of Loyd’s puzzle? Each of the many bodyparts — arms, legs, heads, flags — has tiny slivers missing. When the disc rotates, these slices get ever so slightly rearranged, so that each boy gains a part from his neighbor — a clever puzzle, certainly, but also a playfully poetic reminder that our perception of reality is but a function of our angle, and that everything is connected to everything else.

Find more such delightful discombobulators in The Universal Book of Mathematics: From Abracadabra to Zeno’s Paradoxes and the 1959 Loyd original Mathematical Puzzles of Sam Loyd.

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