I’ve started work on a new book cover design for author Stephen Blandino. While I don’t have anything to show at the moment, I’d like to know: What are your favorite book covers? They could be anything, but I’d love to see your own work here. Show me stuff!
As a rule, I hate IPA’s. I could get more descriptive of what I think they taste like, but never you mind. This label is gorgeous, no? The Uinta Brewing Co. keeps churning out these lovely things. I could look at them all day.
Have I drawn and posted a J before? Yes. It was my first post ever. Am I supposed to be working my way through the alphabet before repeating? Yes. However, all of that went out the window in the face of a persistent campaign by my good friend, Johanna, who insisted upon a Saxophone-J. Here you are Johanna, I hope you enjoy it, as I fretted over it many a night 
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So I like red wine. This absolutely beautiful monogram gracing a bottle of Behringer Caubernet Sauvningon is more than enough reason to get one. The label and the Monogram were re-designed by YARD of New York City. You can read an article about the packaging re-design here.
I have spent the last eight months exploring my neighborhood, enjoying the architecture in and around Kenwood and the UChicago campus, and studying/obsessing about the 1893 World’s Fair. One thing that has nagged at me was how little I knew about the abandoned restaurant two doors down from my condo. The lettering always intrigued me, but beyond that I knew nothing.
Now I have learned that this restaurant is about to be torn down and rebuilt in the same spot, and I decided it was time to explore it. Then I found this:
WHEREAS, Gladys’ Luncheonette became one of the most popular “soul food” restaurants in the Midwest, known for its delicious fried chicken, smothered chicken, smothered pork chops, peach cobbler, “melt-in-your-mouth” biscuits, and other down home, southern delicacies; many famous people were known to dine at the Luncheonette including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lou Rawls, Redd Foxx, Governor Jim Thompson, Della Reese, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Gladys Knight, and a host of others…
That right there is the beginning of a resolution drafted by the Illinois State Assembly recognizing the cultural importance of this little restaurant. It turns out that this restaurant is one of great importance to Chicago’s African-American community and to Bronzeville history specifically.
So, I began what will be a sort of chronicling of the restaurant’s visual aesthetic before the bulldozer’s come and remove it. If you are a history-lover like myself, and find yourself wondering “Why tear it down??”, it is a heavily decayed and damaged building, half-burned.
Still, you can still see the life of the old place in the lettering, which though faded, still retains its charm. These last two photos are of lettering painted onto the side of the building. Here’s to hoping that the new restaurant will live up to its name.
