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A collection of cream-coloured cards featuring detailed ink illustrations of animals. The drawings include a chameleon, a monkey, a butterfly and a leopard. One card contains the text “Charles Darwin {Homo sapien} Downe {by the greenhouse} BR6 7JT”.

Graphic Design: Moo create stationery for host of history's most famous figures

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Date
17 April 2014

As publicity stunts go, here’s one that totally floats our boat. Stationery company Moo.com have launched a new range, and to promote it they have created business cards and letterheads for a host of famous names; from Charles Darwin and William Shakespeare to James Bond creator Ian Fleming and US founding father Benjamin Franklin.

Of course most of these figures would have had real-life letterheads, but the Moo team have done a grand job reimagining them for a contemporary design climate. So Charles Darwin’s business cards connect together in a way that reflects his evolutionary theories, Einstein has a sleek modernist look and feel that riffs off his most famous discovery and Fleming boasts a brash, Bond-saturated set.

Good work all round.

An open book features a detailed ink drawing of a chameleon walking across the bottom of two pages. On the right page, a smaller cropped image of the same chameleon is placed above a text block.
Above

Moo.com: Famous Stationery – Charles Darwin

A collage of scientific illustrations on a pale background. Text at the top reads “Charles Darwin [Homo sapien] Downe [by the greenhouse] Kent, BR6 7JT”. Below the text are drawings of a leopard and a chameleon.
Above

Moo.com: Famous Stationery – Charles Darwin

Six white cards are laid out on a grey surface, each featuring a detailed black ink illustration of an animal. The drawings include a chameleon, a monkey, a butterfly, a fish and a leopard. One card contains the text “Charles Darwin [Homo sapiens] Down House [by the greenhouse] Kent, BR6 7PT”.
Above

Moo.com: Famous Stationery – Charles Darwin

A white card features the name “Albert Einstein” in bold black capitals. Above the name, a line of smaller text reads “Princeton = Mercer County, New Jersey, 20210”.
Above

Moo.com: Famous Stationery – Albert Einstein

Stationery with yellow and white stripes, including a menu and business cards. The text reads “Café Gare” and “Vincent Van Gogh”, with a reference to a painting in Arles, France.
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Moo.com: Famous Stationery – Vincent van Gogh

A collection of white cards and a matching envelope featuring minimalist line drawings of inventions. The cards include sketches of a glass harmonica and bifocal lenses, each paired with a date and a descriptive label.
Above

Moo.com: Famous Stationery – Benjamin Franklin

Three white cards are arranged diagonally against a light blue background. Each card features a fine-line illustration of an invention with a label below: “lightning rod”, “bi-focal lenses” and “odometer”.
Above

Moo.com: Famous Stationery – Benjamin Franklin

Two white business cards for “Fleming, Ian Fleming” are laid out on a grey surface. One card features a gold fingerprint detail on the left.
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Moo.com: Famous Stationery – Ina Fleming

A set of pale pink and mint green stationery laid out on a grey surface. The paper features a black silhouette of a person’s profile and the name “Miss Jane Austen”.
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Moo.com: Famous Stationery – Jane Austen

Two pale blue cards and a pink envelope are laid out on a grey surface. One card features a black silhouette of Jane Austen and the text “Miss Jane Austen”.
Above

Moo.com: Famous Stationery – Jane Austen

Two white business cards and a brown folder feature a red and gold ribbon design. The cards and folder are printed with the name “Winston Churchill” and the title “Prime Minister”.
Above

Moo.com: Famous Stationery – Winston Churchill

Three colourful cards in purple, green and blue are scattered across a white sheet of paper. Each card and the paper feature the name “Roald Dahl” in a serif typeface, accompanied by matching splatters of ink.
Above

Moo.com: Famous Stationery – Roald Dahl

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

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Rob Alderson is a freelance writer, editor and strategist. He was previously editor-in-chief of It’s Nice That and WePresent, and editor of Design Week. He publishes the newsletter Undo, which tries to make sense of how AI is changing design work, the design process and the design industry.

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