There are only 26 letters in the English language, and yet so much that can be done with them.

There’s just something unique about vintage and retro typography. I could spend hours looking at all the different styles.

1908 Sears, Roebuck Catalogue

I was clearing out a garage a couple weeks ago for an older lady and found an old 1908 Sears, Roebuck catalog catalogue in among some junk.

I immediately brought it home and started thumbing through the pages.

Did you know you could buy tombstones from Sears? Blacksmith tools? Home dental equipment? A swastika hat pin? Lithium tablets?

Amazing Retro and Vintage Type

Anyhow, among the velocipedes and stereoscopes was some amazing vintage type.

The headings are very bold. There’s even a touch of art deco thrown in (see the armchair page below).

I wanted to share a few of the pages (out of over 1100 pages!) I pulled from the catalog, so I scanned a few of the highlights.

The images and fonts below were created pre-1923, so they are public domain.

PS: My favorite is the “automatic liquid pistol”. Read the suggested uses.

On to the images…

If they keep making music long enough, every music icon will eventually release a “Greatest Hits” or “Best of” album. These albums cover some of their best songs.

In a similar vein, this week’s post is a bite-sized recap of some of the best icon-related posts (get it?) that may have slipped by you since they were 1st released.

Let’s rock!

12+ Mega Icon Sets

This is actually one of the very 1st posts published on the site. It showcases over 12 huge (in number) icon sets.

Free Icon Search Tools

Need to find a few icons for your project? Take a look at my review of some of the best icon search engine sites.

More Greatest Hits…

Fugue is a free icon set created by Yusuke Kamiyamane–free for personal and commercial projects.

Let’s look at Fugue and how you can quickly add icons from the set to your site via the Fugue CSS Sprite Framework.

Fugue – A Huge Icon Set

This icon set currently has over 2000 16×16 pixel icons (in PNG format and PSD) and more are constantly being added. With this many icons, there’s usually at least 1 or 2 suitable icons for whatever you’re wanting to represent. Each icon is available with or without a shadow.

This set would be great for any web app–it contains many interface and UI icons among others. For example, I used Fugue for my OpenX Admin Icon Set v2.0.

Customize Fugue Icons With the Devkit

Yusuke has also graciously included Photoshop files (PSD’s) for every icon in the set; letting you tweak and combine icons if what’s there is not exactly what you want.

License

Fugue is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

If you prefer not to provide attribution (or can’t), you can also buy a royalty-free license for $49.

Learn how to use add Fugue icons to your site quickly via a CSS sprite framework…

Creative packaging can make the difference between whether a product gets noticed or is just passed by.

Just think of the variety of product materials used in the designs at TheDieLine.com.

If you’re looking for something really unique to print your designs on, consider natural wood veneer.

Real Green Packaging

Northern Sheer Veneer (based in Spooner, Wisconsin) manufactures natural wood veneer. Their wood veneers can be used to create unique, beautiful and green product packaging.

Everybody these days seems to be on a “green” kick, but these guys take it seriously.

You really can’t get much more green than wood–unless someone figures out a way to print on soil.

Natural wood veneer—made from actual wood (cherry, maple and white birch)—can be used in just about any type of packaging where you’d normally use paper, cardboard or plastic:

• CD/DVD packaging
• Boxes and product packaging
• Labels
• Business cards and branding materials
• Gift cards, brochures, mailers, and promotional materials

This wood veneer can be stained, printed on, etched, laser-cut, embossed, and combined with other materials for endless looks.

Wood veneer can be placed on a variety of backing materials and scored; allowing it to be rolled, wrapped, or folded and creased for use in boxes for product packaging.

This is really amazing stuff.

› Continue reading…

Whether you’re looking to learn PrestaShop, or you’re already working with it, this is for you. We’re sharing over 50 PrestaShop tutorials, modules, themes, and resources for learning and using this shopping cart system.

For those who are unfamiliar with PrestaShop, it’s an up-and-coming open source e-commerce system.

PrestaShop is still relatively new, but it’s a nice alternative to Magento or Zen Cart for small to medium sized online shops.

What Sets PrestaShop Apart?

One of the notable features of PrestaShop is that its code is much less bloated than Magento–meaning shops run much faster. Your server’s also less likely to melt down.

PrestaShop also seems to be getting updated a lot more often than Zen Cart. The latest update was just a few days before writing this.

Another thing that sets PrestaShop apart from other e-commerce systems is that the backend is pretty simple. It provides lots of control, but doesn’t seem as overwhelming the 1st time you login (view PrestaShop backend demo)

You can also disable certain sections and menus for other users who don’t need access to some of the more advanced features.

When trying out a new system, finding information and gathering resources seems to take the longest. We’ll look at PrestaShop tutorials, guides, modules and themes to help get your shop up and running as fast as possible.

Contents of Our Toolkit

• Getting Started With PrestaShop
  • Downloading
  • Installing
  • Setting up your online shop with PrestaShop
• Tutorials, guides and where to go to find answers to your PrestaShop-related questions
• PrestaShop Modules (shipping, payments, best practices, creating your own modules)
• Themes for PrestaShop (download themes or learn how to make your own)
• Hosted Option

Let’s dig in!

› Continue reading…