RSS Parrot

Spine-Tingling

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/spine-tingling

Published: July 11, 2026 12:13

I’ve always had a soft spot for design made by non-designers. When I tell people this, they usually think I’m talking about punk flyers, or the kind of sweetly naive drawings of fruit that one might find in a church cookbook. While I do love both of these…

Felt Fandom

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/felt-fandom

Published: June 30, 2026 18:11

As a French millennial kid obsessed with the NBA who grew into a vintage design nerd, you can bet my love for pennant flags is over the top. The mere sight of an arched college block font on a tee gives me butterflies, not to mention a whole felt artifact…

Old School New School

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/newschool

Published: June 5, 2026 15:05

I’m often asked how my work as a designer, writer, archivist, and educator fit together.

Going Postal

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/going-postal

Published: May 11, 2026 12:17

Despite enjoying the look of stamps, I’ve avoided becoming a philatelist for the same reason I’ve avoided getting too into record collecting: I really do not need a reason to be buying more stuff, especially old stuff. However, I will reluctantly admit…

Poetic Justice

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/poetic-justice

Published: February 27, 2026 13:16

The Justice Gazette was first published in 1909 in Istanbul to document various legal news and statistics (things like judicial inspector reports, scholarly articles, legal opinions, and translations of foreign laws). These particular graphs are from the…

One Small Step for Advertising

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/apollo-11

Published: January 20, 2026 15:38

About twice a year my local library has a book sale, which is put on by a group of chatty octogenarians (plus one sprightly fifty year old who accepts Venmo). While most inventory is exactly what you’d expect—outdated Rick Steves guides, miscellaneous…

All Aboard!

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/all-aboard

Published: November 12, 2025 16:48

I first learned about Tyco Toys from a YouTube video on the history of Lego. Tyco Super Blocks were one of their competitors in the ’80s and the ads featured in the video boasted about their superiority. The ads didn't necessarily catch my eye, but the…

Kindred Spirits

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/kindred-spirits

Published: September 10, 2025 12:14

The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift was a short-lived British youth movement founded in 1920 by John Hargrave, a Utopian polymath described as an “author, cartoonist, inventor, lexicographer, artist and psychic healer.” A former Boy Scout leader himself,…

Order Up

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/order-up

Published: August 11, 2025 18:23

Like so many past ephemera finds I’ve shared here, I bought these midcentury North American restaurant placemats at Brimfield Flea this July from a vendor who had around 500 in a big plastic tub. I bought 25 for $75 (a steal!) but I did have to talk myself…

Full Spectrum

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/full-spectrum

Published: July 25, 2025 14:29

Sinclair Programs was a short-lived magazine published between 1982 and 1985 for users of Sinclair Research’s line of home computers.

Understood the Assignat

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/assignats

Published: July 9, 2025 17:31

This fall, I spent several afternoons exploring the archives of the Museum of Living History in the suburbs of Paris, searching for typographic inspiration related to French political history.

And Also With You

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/and-also-with-you

Published: July 1, 2025 12:37

While missionaries had been traveling to China for over a century by the time Christian propaganda posters like these first appeared (the first Protestant missionary, Robert Morrison, arrived in 1807), during the Republican era from 1911–1949, the…

Tickets Please

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/ticketsplease

Published: February 4, 2025 15:26

As an avid music fan and devoted admirer of typography and graphic design, I began making Tickets Please in March 2023 after walking by a concert hall and noticing people simply displaying a QR code on their phones to enter the show. I was taken back to my…

Itadakimasu

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/issue-forty-itadakimasu

Published: January 22, 2025 17:36

I’m a big fan of Letterform Archive in San Francisco, so when I saw their announcement about a newly donated collection of chopstick sleeves, I knew I had to share it here, too!

A Stitch in Time

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/wpaposters

Published: December 31, 2024 18:25

There was a set of these Works Progress Administration (WPA) posters hanging in my childhood home, but they somehow never registered as “ephemera” to me until recently, when my sister bought a new one for my dad (Asiatic Plate No. 39: Chinese Nobility) as…

The Picture of Health

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/french-pharmaceuticals

Published: September 30, 2024 11:23

I found these Belgian pharmaceutical labels at Brimfield Flea Market in Massachusetts, where three times a year I buy a myriad of old things I almost definitely don’t need (this summer's haul included a tramp art letter holder, a dozen copies of 1970s

An LP a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/issue-thirty-seven-an-lp-a-day-keeps

Published: September 6, 2024 13:15

About a year and a half ago, I purchased my first instructional vinyl box set at Academy Records on 18th St in Manhattan. Titled Night Moves: The Professional Approach to Disco Dance Instruction, the box set came with a 95 page booklet on various dance…

Like and Subscribe

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/issue-thirty-six-like-and-subscribe

Published: August 13, 2024 13:08

Today’s collection is a series of magazine subscription cards from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Having a Ball

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/issue-thirty-five-having-a-ball

Published: July 16, 2024 13:12

Today we have a guest issue from Janet Delavan, a recent graduate of Parsons School of Design who specializes in book design and printed matter. Her recent senior thesis, The Feminine American Pastime, was inspired by her interest in the history of women…

To Whom It May Concern

https://casualarchivist.substack.com/p/issue-thirty-four-to-whom-it-may

Published: June 20, 2024 17:17

Before telephones were widespread, telegrams were the fastest form of communication—and therefore mostly used to share unfortunate news like deaths or illnesses. In the 1930s, telegram usage declined due to the rise of telephones and increased postal…