An alternative Chevy Cruze

General Motors realised details and three pictures today of the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze (I know, I don’t understand why model years are being announced so far in advance, since it only serves to undermine sales of the crap they’re replacing). In the same way that Ford in America recently launched itself into applying a three bar chrome grille to the front of every new model, Chevrolet is attempting to re-design the face of their passenger cars with a frankly tenuous horizontal body colour bar across the grill. You can see it already on the 2008 Malibu.

A somewhat inconsistent proportion has been applied to these two cars, and in the case of the Cruze it just suggests that a bite has been taking out of the (otherwise rather attractively) sculpted bonnet.

Since it seems to me a rather mis-proportioned gesture, I couldn’t resist the urge to photochop an alternative.

In my humble opinion, it may make the car less striking, but it’s certainly cleaner. The bonnet reclaims a three dimensional sense of shape as well. Just a thought. Since we’re two and a half years away from 2011, maybe someone in Chevy could consider it?

Snapshot: the signwriter’s delight

Seen on the platform of the newly refurbished Queen’s Park station in Glasgow. Perhaps any signwriters reading this could let me know roughly how much it costs to fabricate a metal sign approximately 500mm square with laminate lettering that advises you to find another sign that might be able to tell you something.

Introducing the absence of Garfield

Some examples of a recent discovery, the surreal online cartoon / blog Garfield Minus Garfield.

Irishman Dan Walsh conceived Garfield Minus Garfield earlier this year, and the cartoon has proved to be a phenomenal hit.

Walsh explains:

Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.

A new strip is uploaded most days, and with the blessing of Jim Davies (the creator of the original Garfield strips) a book is on the way.

Snapshot: under a parasol

After two days at the Oxford Conference last week I had a chance to enjoy a leisurely punt through Oxford. I stand by my decision not to take the helm of the punt, and as a result thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing afternoon slipping beneath the tranquil overhanging branches of the River Cherwell. That sort of physical activity is best left, after all, to the experts.

Castle Acre bookshop discoveries #2

It’s been a bit of a dairy-centric day at the bookshop. After my earlier discovery of literature promoting southern Scandinavian cheese products, these three beautiful pamphlets emerged from another box of donations. I must have had milk on the brain. But then again, I was friesian in there, and unpacking books meant I was moo-ving about a bit. I only semi-skimmed these ones, but I made sure to cream them off from the rest of the stock. Surely someone must want to pur-cheese this little set? I think that the illustrations are udder-ly beautiful.

Each one carries the following on the back cover:

Published by the National Dairy Council.
Melbourne House, Aldwych, London WC2.
llustrated by W. G. Morden
© Copyright 1960 the National Dairy Council.

I’m going to separate these three and wrap them together. They’re in near mint condition. Drop me a line via the comments box if you’d be interested in them. We’ve talked about uploading the shop’s small but growing inventory of first editions to Abe Books or similar, but at the moment I suspect the subscription costs would be too high.

I leave you with my favourite cover design of the day, and a scan of a loose inside sheet. If the inside sheet was originally published with the book (and I suspect it was) we have an extremely rare complete document here.

Regardless of historical or monetary value, that’s one cool cover design, and one surreal title for an educational booklet.