Maybe it’s the TV show Mad Men, which wrapped up season 6 this summer, or maybe it’s because it’s back-to-school time again, but it seems like we are seeing vintage office supplies everywhere. From typewriters to Moleskine notebooks, paper and office supply geeks know that vintage office supplies are in. That means whether you are looking to trick out your  home office with a little vintage panache or you just want to add a little bit of retro pizazz to your cubicle at work, we’ve got some ideas and inspiration for you.

Bring a little bit of retro into your everyday with vintage office supplies.

Vintage Office Supplies

Poking around Etsy revealed a smorgasbord of vintage-inspired and genuinely vintage office supplies. Stuff like real ink pens, rotating rubber stamp holders, crank pencil sharpeners and wire In and Out boxes. Here are just some of the fun highlights from out search.

Typewriter

Image: Thread and Brush Studio

Love this teal Olivetti Studio 44 Portable Manual Typewriter with its original case and in working condition. Whether for show or to channel your inner Hemingway, this is a stylish piece. Using one of these bad boys for a bit would really make one appreciate word processors and laptops as well.

Office Supplies and Stationery Tin Box

Image: Inklinks

What a clever find this kit is. It’s filled with vintage office supplies and stationery from 1950s-1980s ready for your next letter writing (gasp, snail mail?) session. It’s filled  with all kinds of usable ephemera like a marble-covered notebook, Staedtler erasers, floppy disk labels, old tags, and Owl paper clips, among other goodies.

Fountain Pen

Image: zandbroz

While you might think they are messy, fountain pens are actually a much more sustainable choice over disposable pens. And this restored 1946 Parker Vacumatic Jet Black Fountain Pen is more than better for the planet, it’s also super cool. Leave the iPad back in the office and show up with this for notetaking at your next meeting.

Rubber Stamp

Image: unqueDuJour

Hand stamp your own letters and memos or even create your own stationery using this vintage “Important Message” rubber stamp. Even though we live in the digital age, it’s possible to have some retro fun when sending your paper-based communications.

Rolodex

Image: collectiblesatoz

Even though some of us have phones that “bump” to exchange info and others have business card apps on our iPhones, we still always end up with business cards and addresses written on scraps of paper. That’s why the Rolodex will never go out of style. This one is from the 1980s.

Labels

Image: juliecollings

Instead of reaching for those generic Avery labels from the big box store for your next labeling project, consider using these vintage Dennison labels instead. Form and function together in one.

Carbon Paper

Image: TheInspiredTrader

And for a bit of nostalgic fun, how about some carbon paper? Carbon paper was the original copy and paste! This package of Solvent Carbon Paper by Burroughs Corporation dates from the 1960s.

Pencils

Image: pastoria

And for the back-to-school crowd, how about these vintage Cascade C120 Soft. No.2 pencils—they still use pencils in school, don’t they? These are from the 1980s.

Top Image: Matteo Paciotti | Photography

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The post Mad Men Your Workspace: Vintage Office Supplies appeared first on EcoSalon.

It’s back-to-school time again and that means millions of students are headed to college for the very first time. That also means many are faced with dorm room living—and decorating! Unfortunately, the move-every-year nature of college means that there is plenty of waste. But there are solutions (and they are all budget-friendly to boot!). 

I live in a college town (yes, I’m a townie). This time of year us townies know better than to even think about heading to any of the those large retailers like Kmart, Target, or Walmart. They are all madhouses right about now with all the college kids and their parents looking for extra long twin fitted sheets, bulletin boards and shower shoes. It’s actually quite scary to go into one of these stores just after move-in weekend, because it looks like a disaster hit–the shelves are bare and there’s the detritus no one wanted all over the floors!

It’s also kind of scary because of the sheer mass-consumerism of it all. The stress and worry of a new undertaking (for both parents and students) is enough to drive some to make poor consumer choices. Remember the mantra “reduce, reuse and recycle” applies to dorm room shopping as well.

One area that is particularly fraught is dorm room decor. In an effort to create a home away from home many are tempted into over purchasing by large retailers looking to cash in on the college crowd.  So, in the rush to personalize the dorm room, don’t throw your commitment to sustainable living out the window. Here are some low-impact ideas.

1. Thrift Shop and Yard Sales

Image: VintageSmiths

In my town, there are several thrift shops and many folks plan yard sales during move-in weekend, so there are lots of opportunities to find secondhand dorm room needs. Check Craigslist, college message boards, and bulletin boards around campus for flyers.

2. Leave Them Bare

Image: POTAPOTA

While there’s a need to hit the ground running when it comes to things like bedding, there’s no need to feel obligated to cover the walls by the end of orientation. Consider that whatever tastes students may have a brand new freshman might change by the end of the semester. It’s actually pretty common! Leave the walls bare and leave room for those inspirational sayings and bands students are going to discover.

3. Scale it Back

Truly think about what’s a necessity and what’s not. Every year at the end of the semester the university in my town places dumpsters around the area for all the waste that will be thrown out when the students vacate their dorm rooms. Think about that when deciding what you cannot live without.  Not every room needs a microwave–especially if the community room has one!

4. Make Sustainable Choices

Image: Hand Made Organic

When you have to purchase new goods, choose eco-conscious products where possible. By planning ahead and purchasing online, it is possible to purchase  organic cotton bedding, curtains and more. Plus, more retailers are including sustainable products in retail locations as well. Do a little research.

5. DIY

Image: OSD

Allow for a little creativity to shine through and consider adding some diy touches to the dorm room like an old wooden frame remade into a jewelry organizer (like the one pictured above). There are literally millions of DIY instructions online for almost any project, so try Googling “DIY” and whatever you need (garbage can, towel rack, etc.).

Top Image:  Michigan State University Archives

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The post Sustainable Back-to-School Dorm Room Style: 5 Ways to Save Money and Waste Less appeared first on EcoSalon.

If it’s back to school, or simply to ease your back, backpacks never go out of style (though right now, they’re more popular than ever—and our backs are thanking us!). Here are 10 grown up backpacks made from sustainable, responsible materials. Take care of your backpack, and it will take care of you for years to come. 

Garfield by State Bags 

This isn’t just a backpack, but a GiveBackPack.  For every bag purchased STATE hand-delivers bags to American students in need all around the country.  Their styles range from simple to fun and we love the vibrant, playful colors on their Garfield bag!

$55, STATE

Rucksac Chataigne Barbade by Veja

Our favorite sustainable shoe company, Veja, is branching out to backpacks and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome! Colorblocking perfection, grown up backpacks style exemplified.

$239, Veja

Tropic Dream Globby Backpack by Modernaked

Handmade in Spain with organic cotton handles, this bookbag is a modern take on the old-school trend.  Don’t like this dreamy underwater design? Modernaked (what a cool name!) offers a range of tons of different designs and colors.

$130, Modernaked

Signature Urban Ruck by Sword & Plough

Made from recycled and repurposed military gear and employing veterans, Sword & Plough is on a mission for good.  “We wanted to create something that would emotionally and physically touch civilians in their everyday lives and remind them, in a beautiful way, of the challenges our country and servicemen face,” says Emily and Betsy Nunez, founders of Sword & Plough.

$298, Sword & Plough

Dublin Backpack by Ecoalf

It might look like the average backpack, but look again.  Ecoalf has created a bag using waste products like fishing nets, tires, post-industrial cotton,and coffee.  Javier, founder of Ecoalf and his team, traveled to factories around the world searching for opportunities to invest in research and development on how to turn one persons garbage into an upcycled product, et voila!

$75, Ecoalf

Black Waxed Rucksack by Archival

Want to support American manufacturing? Then, this is your bag. Proudly made in the USA, this Archival rucksack is extremely well-made and will last through all your adventures. From the custom woven cotton to the dye and finishing and even the zippers are excusively made in the USA!

$260, Archival

The Lucas by Stone + Cloth

Made in Los Angeles, this bag is a simple classic with a big back story.  After returning home to the US from an epic climb up Mt Kilimanjaro, Matthew Clough, founder of Stone + Cloth, realized his overwhelming access to resources as compared to those he met in Tanzania, and decided to create a company to help.  Each Stone + Cloth purchase helps to provide scholarships for students in Tanzania, Africa.

$68, Stone + Cloth

The Pack by BLACKHOUSEPROJECT

Handmade in San Francisco, California in limited quanites, get this bookbag while you still can!  It’s designed is inspired by the U.S. M1928 Haversack, which was used by all U.S. Army and Marine Corps infantrymen throughout World War I and II.  Made of durable duck canvas and vegetable tanned leather straps.

$280, Etsy

Frosted Flower Rucksack by Front Row Society 

Get your design on a bag—that’s what Veljko Spasic from Serbia did after winning Front Row Society’s design contest. This print was based on a moodboard of Frosted floral prints.  Front Row Society puts out a design challenge and lets you get creative by designing within the theme.

$139, Front Row Society

Array Solar Laptop Charger by Voltaic

Carry your laptop AND charge it!

$389, Voltaic

Images from featured brands

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The post 10 Sustainable, Grown Up Backpacks: These Will Carry You From Work to Weekend appeared first on EcoSalon.

Futuristic, pretty, handmade, techie, and minimalist schools make high school look more fun than it really is.  

Not that anyone in his or her right mind would want to repeat high school. Pretending that you could, however, might the innovative architecture of these structures make it a more compelling proposition? Or is the glossy new coat of contemporary schoolhouse design simply that? A pretty, but impractical cape.

Ecco Eco founder and textile artist Abigail Doan veers towards the latter. She and her husband send their kids to a modest school in Sofia, Bulgaria. “There is no campus per se, but a lovely neighborhood building,” she explains. “What makes [a school] exceptional, frankly, is the spirit of family involvement…not necessarily a feeling of ‘elitism’ based on higher learning housed in state-of-the art buildings or sleek classrooms.”

Like a good book or beautiful person, it’s the inside that counts. In the case of school, the curriculum. Nevertheless, using pure aesthetics as a litmus, here are a dozen schoolhouses that rock.

Vittra School Telefonplan turned to Danish studio Rosan Bosch to create a school without classroom walls. As observed by PSFK, it looks like Google HQ – engaging, creative, ergonomically dashing and kind of enviable. Oh, to be a kid again (who happens to live in Stockholm). It must be noted, however: kids at the real Google school are not nearly as plugged in as the kids in these photos.

The two-story Sydney Centre for Innovation and Learning is full of nooks and crannies with clever names like the Brainforest, the Parklands, the Glasshouse and Greenhouse, the Sandpit (a place for concentration), the Bridge and Deck, and the Loft (for seniors only). There are no formal desks and chairs; the exterior, designed as series of sharp corners and sheltered spaces, give it a boat-like appearance.

The Penleigh and Essendon Junior Boys School in Melbourne is in a residential area dominated by Federation and Italianate mansions. A recent project by McBride Charles Ryan resulted in giving the school this striking façade. A true “building of imagination.”

Copenhagen. Of course. Ørestad College (which is the Danish version of high school) is airy and contemporary with dashes of colorful transparent glass that rotate automatically with the sun. It also features “swirling staircases” and “platforms upon which students lounge on big orange pillows.”

Local craftsmen, pupils and teachers built the Handmade School in the rural Bangladeshi village of Rudrapur, alongside other artisans and volunteers.

Located on the largest of the Canary Islands (Tenerife), Rafael Arozarena High School melds in well with its surroundings, meant to represent a mound of volcanic rock. Designed by AMP Arquitectos, it features a concrete exterior treated in a wash of “chameleon-like” tones.

This contemporary structure was designed by Austrian design firm Coop Himmelb(l)au and bears a likeness to Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. It houses High School #9 in Central Los Angeles and is a public high school for the visual and performing arts.

Canning Vale High School in Perth, Australia was designed to reflect its teaching philosophy: embracing a more “complex, open and adaptive society common to the 21st century.”

Originally a simple maintenance project, firm Lemieux and Smith Vigeant Architects Collective ended up completely renovating this secondary school in Quebec, Canada. Yes, that is a rock climbing wall at the far end of the basketball court.

Martinkallio School in Helsinki was designed as a compact rectangular structure to minimize its impact on the wooded terrain that surrounds it.

The Facilitair Centrum Niekée in the Netherlands is a colorful bubble-wrapped school replete with open decks for large group teaching and hanging skyboxes for smaller seminars.

The allure of going to school in Switzerland starts with the scenery. Peeking inside of the upper school in Thusis, located on a plateau between the town and a river, Swiss neutrality with a dash of Eastern minimalism makes the grade.

Images: Rosan Bosch; Web Urbanist; Imagine School Design

The post Reinventing the Schoolhouse appeared first on EcoSalon.

We’ve got  your eco-alternatives covered so you can go out and get the look -sourcing from the best eco-fashion brands around.

1. LIV GRN T-Shirt by Signorelli. A cropped tee with a strong message! This tee is made of organic cotton and a celeb favorite.

2. John Patrick Organic Pea Coat. High fashion meets function in this fall jacket from JPO.

3. Libby Snap Ankle Bootie from Cri de Coeur. The perfect pair of vegan shoes to pair with a skirt, leggings or jeans.

4. Camilla Norrback Pin Tuck Short Skirt. Made from organic cotton by Swedish designer, Camilla Norrback.

Style Tip: Wearing a graphic tee with a more traditional jacket gives you an instant style update for a casual cool look, and don’t forget to layer a couple of long necklaces to dress it up. We give this look an A+!

The post Back to School Style: Collegiate Cool appeared first on EcoSalon.

According to Waste-Free Lunches, “a school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year. That equates to 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-size elementary school.” The good news is, parents can lessen their child’s daily impact on the earth by packing their lunch in a reusable lunch system comprised of non-toxic components containing no disposable materials. Here are three reusable, waste-free lunch kits that will make your kid’s meals away from home healthy – for their bodies and the planet.

1. Citizenpip

Seen at the top of this post, the “Soup to Nuts” reusable lunch kit from Citizenpip truly lives up to its name. Included in the kit are a reusable insulated lunch bag, available in a variety of kid-friendly designs, a stainless steel water bottle (which may double as an ice pack), a stainless steel insulated food jar, four BPA-free airtight food containers, a stainless steel fork and spoon set and five (one for each day of the school week) 100 percent cotton napkins. I really like this lunch kit for older children in elementary school, because it can hold a good amount of food, and it keeps food fresh, and saves it from getting squished! The insulated food jar also means you can pack healthy soups during the winter months.

Citizenpip also offers each piece in their collection a la carte. You can buy every component separately to create a personalized lunch system for your child.

Citizenpip Soup to Nuts Kit $69.00

2. Laptop Lunches

Laptop Lunches bento-box sets are my top pick for preschoolers and younger children. They are dainty in size and therefore easy for little hands to tote to and fro, but they pack quite a lot of perfectly sized portions when it comes to food organization. The system is free of phthalates, BPA and lead, and they are made in the USA.

Each lunch set has containers and two stainless steel utensils. The design of the lunch tray keeps foods separated, while delightfully presenting each course, making the meal appeal to the senses of small children who may be picky eaters. The Laptop Lunch site also features a photo gallery and menu library to offer suggestions of what to pack for lunches. Just looking at the meals makes me hungry!

Laptop Lunch Set $24.00

3. Kids Konserve

High schoolers may be more comfortable bringing a sack-style lunch to the cafeteria table, as opposed to a lunch box. Kids Konserve‘s signature waste-free lunch kit will have their peers green with envy. Also BPA-, lead-, and phthalate-free, this lunch kit includes a recycled cotton sack, a stainless steel beverage bottle, a cloth napkin, two stainless steel food containers and a food cozy.

Kids Konserve also offers a variety of food storage and packing options so kids can pick and choose the best components to meet their mealtime needs.

Kids Konserve Waste-free Lunch Kits are on sale for $30.00.

The post 3 Reusable, No-Waste Lunch Systems for Back-to-School appeared first on EcoSalon.