Gear Thursday: House Industries PLINC wooden blocks

've done a lot of stupid things in my life; pretty much all my hair cuts in high school, some things on bikes that left me scarred and broken, snorting citric acid on a dare in 8th grade (although I did make $10 for that) plus a bunch more but I don't know if the internet would be able to handle the memory it would take to write them down.

Spending $39 ($44 including shipping) on a set of 12 wooden blocks is the latest. I know these are going to get dinged, bitten, slobered on, drawn on and lost but until that happens they will look beautiful on the shelf.

Produced by House Industries, one of my fave type houses, this set of wooden blocks is (are? I mean set is singular but blocks are plural...hmm) really unique. The lettering comes from Photo-Lettering, Inc. (PLINC) which was a lettering giant from 1936 to 1997. You've probably seen there work all your life but not known...most font houses are usually unsung heroes. You can get a little bit of their history here and see some of their catalog here.

Any way here's the low down on the blocks:

You get 12 beautiful blocks in that sit in a frame
They are printed with non-toxic, child safe, lead-free inks
Made in the USA
Made from replenishable wood
And they are the standard 1.75" size
I also like that on 2 sides they have a type image so it's like a puzzle

Maybe they are a little pricey but they are beautiful and I like that they are made here and of truly safe materials. If my kid is going to be putting stuff in it's mouth I want to know that it's really lead free etc. The one bad thing about the is the corners aren't rounded and could be sharp.

One last thing...the drop cap 'I' in the beginning of this post was not made by PLINC, it was designed by Jessica Hische an illustrator who started a daily drop cap project. She's releasing a drop cap a day for folks to use on their blogs etc. You may also recognize her work from my alphabet poster post.

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