Scanning Around With Gene: Twin-Bed Relationships
Thanks in part to the Motion Picture Production Code, which guided Hollywood morals from 1930 to 1968, most married couples back then were portrayed…
Scanning Around with Gene
Gene Gable combs through his extensive personal collection of vintage magazines, trade catalogs, old instruction manuals, product brochures, promotional pamphlets, and advertisements to bring this collection of ephemera and design...
Scanning Around With Gene was a long-running, popular weekly column on CreativePro.com written by designer and collector Gene Gable.
We have also collected a number of these great articles in the book Scanning Around with Gene, Volume 1: The Graphic Arts — a free downloadable for CreativePro members.
Scanning Around With Gene: Made-Up Names for Made-Up Products
Today’s pharmaceutical companies seem to come up with a lot of good product names. It’s not easy to create a name that is unique…
Scanning Around With Gene: Give Me Back My Book!
While I’ve always had a pretty big library of books, I’ve never taken the time to design or buy a bookplate — that small…
Scanning Around With Gene: Thirteen Decades of Fine Printing
If you’ve ever received a printed award certificate, bought an actual stock certificate, or been given a gift certificate from a local store, you’ve…
Scanning Around with Gene: Memories in the Daily Missal
When I was 14, my 18-year-old sister Marguerite died from leukemia. My mother grieved by deleting all traces of Marguerite’s existence, including photos of…
Scanning Around with Gene: You Too Can Be a Famous Artist
A recent thrift store stop netted the source for today’s column, a look back to 1956 and an important slice of American art history,…
Scanning Around With Gene: Boxes of Boxes of Boxes
I’m infamous for collecting junk, even when space at home is at an all-time premium. So you can imagine my sheepish expression when I…
Scanning Around With Gene: Put That in Your Pipe and Smoke It
My dad smoked a pipe. I think everyone’s dad smoked a pipe. But none of my contemporaries smoke a pipe — at least not…
Scanning Around with Gene: It's Whiskey Time!
I’ve needed a stiff drink a couple of times lately — not for the alcoholic properties, but for the symbolism. A glass of even…
Scanning Around With Gene: Mexican Flea Market Art
[Editor’s note: Just hours after this blog post was published, several sharp-eyed CreativePro.com readers informed me that the images in these posters were created…
Scanning Around With Gene: Ye Olde Country Corn
The term “country” has a lot of meanings and can be applied to music, art, lifestyle, animals… But there’s one form of country I…
Scanning Around With Gene: Adequate Males Watching Blue Movies Together
I’ve never been to a stag party, as bachelor parties were once called, and I’ve never seen a stag film. Nonetheless, I’m fond of…