Friday Finds 7.30.2010

Miyoko: Vernacular Typography Polaroids

Typography and Polaroids? Yes and yes. Flickr user onpaperwing has snapped pictures of "mostly hand-painted signs"--as he says on his Flickr page--as he's crisscrossed the United States over the course of the past decade and posted them online. From ampersands to arrows to uppercase As, the gallery is a beautiful collection of type across America.

Jaime: APAP Open School

Just received notice that the APAP Open School, LOT-EK's latest design adventure with shipping containers, opened last Saturday in Anyang, South Korea. Eight yellow-and-black containers jut together at various angles, creating space inside for classrooms, studios, and exhibition space, beneath for a public amphitheater, and above for a roof deck. I'd love to see what it looks like inside…

Amanda: Mid-century Czechoslovakian Matchbox Labels

Designer David Pearson has long assembled lovely Flickr sets dedicated to various graphic assemblages, but this one featuring Czechoslovakian matchbook covers has to be my current favorite. via A Journey Round My Skull

Jordan: Learn Something Everyday

When I was a youngun, we had a hardback at the house called Boyd's Book of Odd Facts 9 and it was the Best. Read. Ever. I got such a kick out of all the funny and strange bits of information that seemed impossible but were, somehow, all true. This week, our awesome intern Wilson sent me a link to Learn Something Everyday and it took me right back to being a kid, blown away by the darndest things. Did you know that the lion costume in the Wizard of Oz was made of real lions? Or that humans can blow up balloons with their ears? Click through to the site to impress your pals and clean up at pub quizzes.

Aaron: Gregor the Oligarch

We've been laughing all week at Gregor the Russian Oligarch, star of this DirecTV ad--easily the best of the year. Opulence, we has it.