Benjamen Purvis

Flea Market Find #003: Art Deco Nude Woman Bottle Opener in Brass

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Benjamen

Found at the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market: This Art Deco beauty caught my eye as soon as I entered the vendor’s booth. It has a rich, warm patina, and it’s sturdy as hell.

It’s now a paperweight on my desk.

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Flea Market Find #002: 1911 Pittsfield, Mass YMCA Basketball Team Photo and Frame

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Benjamen

Found at the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market: Here’s a 100-year-old photo of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts YMCA basketball team from the 1910-1911 season. (Check out that handwriting on the ball. Coincidentally, 10-11 happens to be my birth date.)

The print is in fantastic shape, having been protected for the last century by a sturdy frame with some great patina to it. I love the look of the uniforms, and the solemn expression on each guy’s face. I tried talking the seller down on this one, but he knew how cool it is, and wouldn’t budge. (Although I heard he’d already dropped $50 from his asking price a day earlier by the time I came around.)

This is now hanging in the “corner office” area of my living room.

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Flea Market Find #001: 1904 Edison Gold Moulded Cylinder Record Cardboard Tube

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Benjamen

This is the first post in a series I’m putting together in an effort to become a more active blogger.

Also: I’ve been wanting to take a picture in front of this background on 9th Ave for a few weeks now. I think it’s an ad for True Religion …

Found at the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market: Here’s a 1904 cardboard tube that once held an Edison Gold Molded cylinder record. There’s cursive handwriting on the label that says “Goin’, Gone, Gone” — I’m guessing that’s the name of the record that was once inside.

This tube’s now sitting on my desk, holding my Wacom tablet’s pen.

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36th Annual CRMA Conference

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Benjamen

I’m really honored to be a featured speaker at this year’s annual CRMA conference. This won’t only be the first time I’ve spoken at a magazine convention, it’ll also be the first time I’ve attended a magazine convention.

This is especially exciting for me because it’s being held this year in Las Vegas, the city where I got my start in editorial design.

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SPD Looks at MJ’s New Logo

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Benjamen

I shared some behind-the-scenes info on the new Men’s Journal logo in this post on the SPD’s site. I included some of our recent work as well.

I’ve been really happy with a lot of the feedback I’ve read online. I especially like this review from UnderConsideration:

The new logo abandons the outlines, shadows, and dimensionality in favor of a bad-ass, bold, and condensed treatment. The combination of hard angles in the “S” and “R” coupled with the barely round corners gives the logo an extra masculine whiff that the previous logos lacked. The tracking and kerning is quite impeccable too and it looks great emblazoned across the width of the magazine’s cover.

Their poll results [as of 10 PM EST on Thursday, February 16, 2012] are really encouraging, too: