Via Chris Gilmour via TwistedSiftler 

Chris Gilmour was born in Stockport, UK (1973), but now calls Udine, Italy home. Using only cardboard and glue, Chris creates incredible sculptures that do not use any supporting structures or wooden/metal frames. Everything you see is 100% cardbaord. His medium of choice is plentiful, cheap and lightweight.

Guido Bartorelli summarizes Gilmour’s work as follows:

Gilmour’s work includes stunning virtuoso life-size objects, as well as cruder and more essential reproductions, sometimes left at a stage that calls to mind drafts or models. These are however all based on objects we have all experienced first hand- a typewriter, a car, a bicycle, a wheelchair.

These objects are always carefully chosen for their evocative and conceptual power, for the potential for mnemonic narration that they contain. They offer a blank canvas upon which the viewer can project their own memories or experiences, recalling collective perceptions or the gestures and the rituals of daily life. All the objects have an uncanny power to provoke a sensation of attraction and a desire to interact in the viewer.

The ordinariness of the actions associated with these objects causes the viewer to unthinkingly act out the gesture associated with it- to type, or to open the car door- and it is this contradiction between the seeming functionality of the objects and the fact that in reality they are “fake”, this peculiar conceptual short circuit, which increases the bewildering effect of the works and lets us into a poetry of pure plastic forms. [Source]

All photos: Artwork by CHRIS GILMOUR (photography by Marco De Palma)

Here is what he had to say: (Source)

Ephemicropolis 2010

100,000 Staples
Approx floor area 600x300cm

Stacks of staples were broken into varying sizes from full stacks about 12cm high down to single staples. These stacks were then stood up and arranged over a period of 40 hours.

Click here to see feature in March 2012 issue of National Geographic Magazine.

The Making of Ephemicropolis from Peter Root on Vimeo.

Administrative Professionals’ Day (also known as Secretaries Day or Admin Day) is a holiday in several countries. Recognize the work of secretaries, administrative assistants, receptionists, and other administrative support professionals. In North America, it is celebrated on the Wednesday of the last full week of April (Today)

The idea began with Mary Barrett, president of the National Secretaries Association, now called IAAP (International Association of Administrative Professionals), and C. King Woodbridge, president of Dictaphone Corporation. They served on a council addressing a national shortage of skilled office workers. Together with Harry Klemfuss, public relations account executive at Young & Rubicam, they originated the idea for a National Secretaries Week.

The official period of celebration was first proclaimed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer as “National Secretaries Week,” which was held June 1–7 in 1952, with Wednesday, June 4, 1952 designated National Secretaries Day. The first Secretaries Day was sponsored by the National Secretaries Association with the support of corporate groups.

In 1955, the observance date of National Secretaries Week was moved to the last full week of April. The name was changed to Professional Secretaries Week in 1981, and became Administrative Professionals Week in 2000 to encompass the expanding responsibilities and wide-ranging job titles of administrative support staff. IAAP created National Secretaries Week (now Administrative Professionals Week) with two objectives in mind: to recognize “the secretary, upon whose skills, loyalty, and efficiency the functions of business and government offices depend,” and to call attention “through favorable publicity, to the tremendous potential of the secretarial career.”

Admin Professionals Week is now one of the largest workplace observances. It is celebrated worldwide.  Administratice Professionals Day is a trademark belonging to IAAP.

Source: Wikipedia

Yeah, you can those blue Bic pens in bulk if you want—a boatload costs about as much as your morning coffee. And all pens are pretty much the same, right? Of course not. Cheapo pens are much more likely to leave ink smeared across your nose, bleeding through your pants pocket, or glopping up your page.

But even cheap pens were state-of-the-art at one time. Let’s take a look at how writing with ink has evolved over the centuries.

Paintbrushes were the earliest precursors to pens, appearing in China as writing instruments around the first millennium BC. By 300 BC, the Egyptians were using reeds for written communication, and by the 7th century, Europeans had adopted bird feathers to drag ink along a page.

Quill pens were a huge innovation—they weren’t bulky or rigid like the writing tools that came before them. Their natural bend eased the friction between pen and page, and their slender profile made them easier to wield.

For hundreds and hundreds of years, dipping feathers in ink was the best way to put words on a page. But in the 19th century, people traded quills for metal writing instruments. The first machine-made steel pen point came out of England in 1828. It was great for manufacturers, but the dip, write, dip, write process was still just as tedious for wordsmiths.

Finally, in 1884, the American inventor L.E. Waterman created the first practical fountain pen. It wasn’t the first pen to hold ink inside, but Waterman’s was the first that regulated ink output. According to his patent, this is how he did it:

The tendency to a heavy and excessive flow of ink… will be compensated by an increased influx of air…to fill the vacuum tending to be produced within the reservoir, thus retarding the flow and automatically regulating the same.

While ballpoint pens also date back to the late 19th century, they didn’t take off until the 1940s. The “biro” pen made by Lázló Bíró, a Hungarian journalist living in Argentina, really kicked off the craze. Bíró′s was the first to use quick-drying ink and a ball to regulate flow. The combo reduced friction on the page and mitigated smudges.

Our ballpoint pens today use basically the same set up with upgraded components, better materials and more current engineering.

Ink has also improved over time. We want an even line with consistent thickness. No clumping, No clogging. Pen designers have put a lot of thought into the best way to achieve this. I called up Uni-Ball, the maker of the only pen I use, to learn more about ink magic.

“The traditional ballpoint pen [ink] is oil-based and very thick,” says Samantha Brown, Uni-Ball’s brand manager. “The Jetstream uses a hybrid ink, which is between a gel roller and a ballpoint.” That means it’s thinner and brighter than in a standard issue pen, so it’s easier to roll out. The formulation also allows the ink to retain its quick-drying properties, something you would lose in a straight-up gel pen.

There are many things about ink that normal people never think about: friction between the pen and the page, for instance. Test a bargain 12-pack pen and then test one that you threw down a few bones for. Chances are the one that cost more will generally feel better. It won’t stick on the page and the ink won’t stutter. The key to a better-feeling ballpoint is low-viscosity. The Jetstream achieves it by baking a lubricating solvent into its ink. The result is 40-percent less friction than what you get from a pack-o-pens.

The ink magic does not stop there. “It’s water resistant, bleaching resistant, ammonium hydroxide resistant, hydrochloric acid resistant, water resistant and bleaching resistant, too,” Brown explains. That’s all to protect bad guys from tampering with your checks and other important documents with a bottle of nail polish remover. Uni-ball uses Super Ink, a tamper-resistant formula they came out with in 1986—back then, check doctoring was rampant. The stuff embeds itself into the fibers of the paper along with the pigment and dye-based ink to hold strong when chemically challenged.

We’ve come a long way! Along with ink delivery, mechanics have made pens smoother to retract, a better understanding of ergonomics has made them easier to hold, and they even work well these days at high altitudes. You just have to buy a model with a full century’s worth of ball-point innovation built in. We write so infrequently these days, it’s worth a few extra bucks to make sure it’s a glob-free experience.

history of the pen

To see the full press release CLICK HERE.

Samsill is offering the first printed custom Raw Ring Binder on the market

O, three ring binder, we’re not unalike;

Our cover’s deceptively plain.

Pockets swell with lingering thoughts,

Which most are remitted in vain.

Three rings lie within this chaos,

Where true permanence is obtained.

.

Everlasting paper fills our rings,

Longing to be immersed in wit.

You keep instructions organized,

In vast sections they do fit.

Responsibility is required to preserve,

The learning to which we commit.

.

O, three ring binder, we’re not unalike;

By knowledge we are bound.

Your three rings always cherish,

The facts that you have found.

And let’s share our information,

So education can abound.