Ultra Swank

1960s Inspired Mad Men Posters

Christopher — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:55:49 +0000

The TV show Mad Men om AMC sets a high standard for designer aficionados and gives endless opportunities to pick up inspiration for designers, illustrators and animators. For the season six premiere, Cape Town-based agency Radio came up with a series of three vintage inspired Mad Men posters that feature Don, Roger and Joan in [...]

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Look at Life – City of the Air

Christopher — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:29:23 +0000

For those of you who are waiting to get away over the summer, here’s some inspiration. This “Look at life” video clip from The Rank Organisation dated May 1964, tells us about air travel in England from Heathrow Airport featuring classic BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) and BEA airplanes. Look at Life was a regular [...]

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Farrah Fawcett – An Uncommon Angel

Patricia Greenwood — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:45:45 +0000

I’ll never forget that summer day in 1976 when I walked into my boyfriend’s pad and saw the poster of a blond in a red bathing suit pinned up on the wood paneling. “Really?” I asked. “Are you kidding me?” He grinned at me rather sheepishly and replied, “She’s really hot.” “Oh brother.” Rolling my [...]

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A Tribute to Men and Women who Design

Christopher — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:50:56 +0000

The definitive Populuxe film on 1950s automotive, industrial, interior and architectural design. A tribute to the American designer presented by Chevrolet. The fist half of this film is a collage of 1950′s American design from appliances to architecture, the second half follows the design process of a new Chevrolet automobile from the early sketches to [...]

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Visions of a ’57 Chevy Bel Air

Patricia Greenwood — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:00:49 +0000

I love cars. Let me rephrase that. I love vintage cars manufactured in America from 1955 to 1975. I love the streamlined, the finned, the hard tops, the convertibles, the muscle types, the bold colored, but mostly, I love that fabulous automobile icon, the ’57 Chevy Bel Air. My admiration for this vehicle began many [...]

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Ride The Last Red Car – Los Angeles 1961

Christopher — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:19:32 +0000

A 14-minute documentary about the last “red car” train from downtown Los Angles to Long Beach in 1961. The red cars, along with buses and streetcars were famous sights in California and operated by the Pacific Electric company. The Los Angeles to Long Beach passenger rail line served from July 4, 1903 until April 9, [...]

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Marilyn Monroe – Beautiful Misfit

Patricia Greenwood — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 13:00:09 +0000

My first encounter with Marilyn Monroe was when I was eight or nine years old and the babysitter had allowed my brothers and I to stay up late to watch The Misfits (1961) on our little Black and White TV. I remember clearly a scene of Marilyn sitting in between two men, an ethereal foil [...]

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The Most Popular Feature Films Released in 1950

Guest — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:00:14 +0000

Films from the 1950 made a big impact on pop culture as Disney’s Classic Cinderella and the first Father of the Bride starring Elizabeth Taylor were released. These timeless classics make us believe that movies from that generation were indeed golden and had a magical quality to it. Here are the Most Popular Feature films [...]

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A Parisian 1940s Apartment Uncovered

Christopher — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:30:12 +0000

In late 2010 this beautiful Parisian apartment saw the first rays on sunshine in over 70 years. Once its window shutters had been opened, a 70-year old, cog-webbed time capsule unveiled a magical place where time literally have stood still. Under a thick layer of dusk lay a treasure trove of turn-of-the-century objects. The owner of the [...]

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Scenes from a Vibrant 1960s London

Christopher — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:30:55 +0000

It’s Friday and the weekend is around the corner. So what could be better than taking a weekend trip to a vintage flavored past-time London with its vibrant and bustling city scenes? Join Ultra Swank as we take in the sights of 1960s London – grabbing coffee at one of the Moka Bars, checking in at a prestigious Hotel, [...]

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Final Call – All Passengers Should be On Board

James Vaughan — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:00:28 +0000

I remember as a child, the huge propeller driven airliners starting up at the Cleveland Airport. In the dark blue December twilight, clouds of fire and smoke bellowed from those huge radial engines as they cranked over. Machines as living creatures. Angry tethered dragons. With names like Douglas, Constellation, Viscount and Convair. These were the [...]

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Modernism Week – Coast to Coast Cool

Amy Thyr — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:00:01 +0000

A mecca for all things mid-century modern, Palm Springs once again showcases its world-famous modern design, architecture, and culture with the 11-day festival know as Modernism Week. Modernism was a popular design aesthetic originating in the 1950s and ’60s, which typified clean, simple lines with elegant informality. It came to define desert modernism as a [...]

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Vintage Swedish Postcards – Scenes from the Good Old Days

Christopher — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:00:07 +0000

Do you ever think that things were better decades ago? Do you feel nostalgic looking at vintage postcards depicting city life with happy-go-lucky people, a shopping mall with a orange and brown color scheme or the latest and greatest town monument? Here are eight Swedish postcards from the golden era of urban-living that does just [...]

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Mars Attacks

Baron von Swankenstein — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:00:31 +0000

In the middle of the twentieth century, fear and paranoia were ingrained into the subconscious of every American. The 1957 launch of the Sputnik satellite had Americans wary of Soviet attack from the skies. And the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 assured the world that Soviet Premier Khrushchev was serious in his threat when he [...]

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Cruising Sunset Strip in 1964

Christopher — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 13:10:19 +0000

Here’s a interesting video capturing the midst of a sunny 1960s Los Angeles. Let’s take a cruise down famous, Sunset Strip with a up-beat rock & roll surf tune blasting out from the radio. Look at the beautiful and colorful signage advertising everything from restaurants, liquor and mortgages and not forgetting the parade of Chryslers, Oldsmobiles, Chevrolets that look [...]

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Mad Men Season 6 – Celebrating the April 7 Premiere

Christopher — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:37:38 +0000

The newest season of AMC’s period drama Mad Men is back and what better way to celebrate its return than to throw a swank party with all your favorite Mad Men characters. The promotional black and white photo set is right out of a 1960s photo book and everyone looks to be in good spirits, [...]

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1950s Vintage Accessories for your Home

Featured Post — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:20:15 +0000

In the 1950s many countries were recovering from WWII. Across Britain, towns and cities were being rebuilt and redeveloped, more women were working in office and industries than ever before, and a sense of post-war optimism was beginning to flourish. What did this mean for interior décor? Homes had to be practical, with kitchen and [...]

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Television Ads of the 1970s – Cheesiness Guaranteed

Christopher — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:48:15 +0000

From YouTube user ModCinema comes a selection of cheesy American television ads from the 1970s. The selection contains ads for among others Mister Tony’s Submarines, Space Mountain at Disneyland and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I do not know if I should be nostalgic or laugh. Do anyone of you remember these ads? The Shoe [...]

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The Chef Does Everything – Except Cook. That’s What Wives Are For!

Koop Kooper — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 07:00:34 +0000

Spend anytime on the internet and you will find lots of vintage advertising with ironic witticism tagged on the picture as the blogger marvels at the sexism of vintage advertising. Perhaps it’s Mad Men that has led us to devour anything that seems vaguely retro but for some reason ads from the midcentury continue to [...]

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Never Built Los Angeles – What It Could Have Looked Like

Christopher — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:15:54 +0000

Never Built: Los Angeles is an exhibition opening spring 2013 at Los Angeles’s A+D Architecture and Design Museum. It features a collection of spectacular projects that only saw the drawing board. In words, drawings, models, videos and other media the show looks at visionary works that had the greatest potential to reshape the city. The [...]

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year – From All of Us to All of You

Christopher — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 08:00:19 +0000

Christmas is around the corner and to celebrate this magical Holiday we are featuring a few samples of Christmas related advertisements and images from between 1946 and 1964, courtesy of the collection of Roger Wilkerson. To me, the hand drawn illustrations and images in mid-century advertisements are the epitomy of style. It shows how talented advertising America were [...]

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Vintage Images of California in Living Color – A must for any Bachelor or Bachelorette pad

Christopher — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:00:33 +0000

Melvin Hale is a award-winning digital artist from Los Angeles, California that specializes in bringing back old photographs to life. He also offers a collection called California Chromes, which are composed from remastered and re-imagined vintage color images of a colorful California. They are primarily street scenes of cities, beaches and other destinations. California Chromes [...]

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Elektro the Smoking Robot – At the 1939 World’s Fair

Christopher — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 16:00:44 +0000

Elektro, the “Westinghouse Motor Man” filmed inside the Westinghouse Pavillion at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Elektro can not only smoke, he also has a giant ego. User commands are given through a telephone with some kind of a voice recognition system. The whole presentation might look like a kitschy hoax from our [...]

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Get the Diner Look with Bar Stools

Featured Post — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:00:48 +0000

Decorate your dwellings this year by kitting your kitchen out diner-style. With a few wise purchases and a couple of classic bar stools, you can turn your home into a retro heaven. Junk stores and sites like eBay are veritable treasure troves when it comes to sourcing retro treats. From vintage neon letters to authentic [...]

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Computer Aided Animation – How did it all start?

Christopher — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 21:45:33 +0000

Ever wonder how early computer animations was created? This video from 1971, complete with spacey synthetic music, demonstrates not only one of the first ineractve computer systems for animation, one used for production, it was also an outstanding example of early user-centred design, including one of the first computer mice. The system was developed by [...]

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