Brian Paul Nelson – Branding / Design / Illustration">Brian Paul Nelson

I really enjoy the aesthetic behind Anchor Division. The sites showcases many inspirations for me including men’s wear, vintage commodities, architecture, automobiles, motorcycles and of course art and design. Some definite manly inspiration going on in there…especially for fashion.

Vintage Bus is exclusively devoted to the vintage Volkswagen buses built from 1949 to 1967, otherwise known as split-window buses, splitties, splits, microbuses, micros, transporters, bullies, sambas and transporters. The shape of the buses really lend towards the branding of them with many different companies where they utilized the space with color and type in very intriguing ways. VW needs to start producing these again, at least for the sake of design like this.

Via Original Linkage.

You definitely don’t come across these gems on the road all to often, but when you do, you just can’t help but look and be taken in by their iconic status. What’s great about these vintage gas signs is how minimal in nature they are. The simplistic, yet paragon quality of their heyday still shines through amidst the decades of wear and tear. As you can see, Gulf has always been a favorite of mine.

The 76 Gasoline sign might be the one that is still around the most due in part to this “Save the 76 Ball” campaign.

I love when I come across design that utilizes photography, illustration and type so well. These awesome vintage Porsche posters still hold strong today, I just wish some of their cars still looked like the ones here — especially that top one, with the numbers and all. The warm color palette along with the diagonal layout of certain elements really evoke speed and energy, which says a lot about the type of cars Porsche produced during the time these were created. Would love to have one of these up on my wall.

Check out the larger versions and more at Pelican Parts.

Chromeography is an on-going site dedicated to chrome badges, emblems and logos on vintage cars, cameras and appliances. To me, this kind of stuff is what really adds soul to items like these and makes them feel as if they are one of a kind. Type just isn’t set like this on most of this sort of stuff these days and definitely not in chrome — well true chrome. I pulled some of my favorites from the large, continual list of the site that’s worth checking out.