#puzzlesforposterity

[vignellicenter]

Found in the Archives! 

Vintage slides for a proposed Booklein identity circa 1970s. 

Booklein (pronounced book-line), named after the Klein News Co. president George Klein (an Ohio wholesale distributor of magazines, newspapers, and paperback books). 

In the 1970s, Klein opened Booklein, a retail newsstand, which specialized in selling, you guessed it, magazines, newspapers and paperback books. They also sold tobacco, candy, maps, calendars and lottery tickets. On mallwalkers.net, the Internet Museum of Shopping and Retail History, PS Gitano wrote about Booklein and shared this slogan: “For all the magazines you’ve ever wanted to read…and then some.” https://mallwalkers.net/booklein

Fantastic line drawings with “Vignelli red” accents illustrate a proposed store made of grids on the ceiling, walls, and floor layout. The signage in Vignelli red with white Helvetica lettering. A band of red wraps around the walls labeling each subject section such as “Science,” “Psychology,” “Dance,” “Art,” and “Music.” Suspended light cubes on the celling light up counter top cubes below with signs which say “stationery,” “accessories,” “lamps,” and “wrapping.” 

As with any graphic identity system, the proposal also included company van graphics, shopping bags, and stationery. Shopping bags featured the logotype enlarged to wrap around each side of the bag cropping it into fragments of text. One image shows a store front with the logotype stretching across the entire front of the building.   

Do you know anything about this project or remember Booklein? We would love to hear from you! For now, we can enjoy these images and ponder many puzzles: who designed their logotype? Was this Vignelli proposal implemented? Where are the originals that appear in these slides? Who is the artist for these illustrations?