Scanning Around With Gene: Best in the West Graphics, 1970
In 1970 I was a freshman in high school. Although I wasn’t aware of graphic design as an art form, I was beginning to…
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: Colorful Produce Crate Labels
When railroads became a dominant form of transportation, and especially after the completion of the trans-continental railway in 1869, it was possible for farmers…
Scanning Around With Gene: More on Children’s Safety
Last week, I looked at illustrations from a booklet on bicycle safety published in the early 1940s by the Police Safety Council. Because the…
Scanning Around With Gene: A Visit to the Sunshine State
I’ve been to Florida a number of times, but always for business and only to the Miami and Orlando areas, which are small representations…
Scanning Around With Gene: Winter Wonderland
Winter is the one season I don’t know very well — at least not in the ways we traditionally think of winter. I’ve lived…
Scanning Around With Gene: Faded Holiday Memories
Even though I’m feeling a little Bah Humbug this year, I’m still a sucker for holiday schmaltz. Most of my holiday memories are good…
Scanning Around With Gene: Clever Things to Make at Home
I used to make a lot of gifts for Christmas, but I now suffer from a shortage of talent, time, and temperament. Plus, I…
Scanning Around With Gene: Would You Like Collector Cards With Your Tea?
In the United States, collector cards are included with bubble gum and often deal with sports figures. But in the United Kingdom and elsewhere,…
Scanning Around With Gene: Viva la Révolution!
It seems as though every generation or so, there’s some sort of widespread civil uprising, the most recent being the Occupy Wall Street movement…
Scanning Around With Gene: How Dated is Your Kitchen?
I can be rightfully accused of having a particular fondness for vintage illustrations and photographs of kitchens, which are not only the heart of…
Scanning Around With Gene: Animals in Advertising
Animals have long been a regular theme in advertising, especially when anthropomorphized. Except for obvious ties to products like dog food and pet products,…
Scanning Around With Gene: When Halftones Were an Art Form
These days, most graphic designers don’t even know what a screen angle is, let alone how dot shapes can affect the reproduction of halftone…