AIGA New Orleans has posted a really cool video on Vimeo: A slide show from 1962 created by the Art Directors and Designers Association of New Orleans (now an AIGA New Orleans). The pace is almost painfully slow by today’s standards, but patience yields a fascinating glimpse into the design world of the early 1960s.

Several things caught my eye as I watched it, including two Filmotype typefaces I recently revived: Ginger (at 4:43) and Glenlake (at 14:16). But I did a double take, and then a triple take when I saw this slide (at 30:52):

First of all, it looks like a White Stripes CD cover.

Second, the gizmo in the guy’s hand is a Scaleograph, an aid for sizing photos and art that was commonplace before computers made their way into design studios.

Third, according to the narrator, the guy in the photo, New Orleans designer Bob Brandt, invented it.

I still have one of these once handy gizmos hanging in my office for sentimental reasons. Sure enough, in small print it says: MFD. BY THE BRANDT CORP., NEW ORLEANS, LA.

Cool.