Love the logos, colors, and at the same time simplicity. These are so much more memorable than what you see today which I find to be bland or over the top “grafix”.
> The rolodexes came from the now dispersed collection of former lab employee Ed Grothus, who operated a salvage company of lab cast-offs known as The Black Hole.
Many of my childhood science fair projects started at the black hole. You could always find something weird or interesting, and occasionally hot, while browsing through the place
Seems some of them would get the key contact details "clipped" by the rolodex itself. Maybe a good design would put the phone number and address at the top.
If the "Zero Blast-N-Peen" company operating out of "Hooker Circle" with the robot logo showed up in a Fallout game, it would be criticized as too over the top - breaks the immersion too much since it's so absurd.
I wonder how many of these were essentially 1-person consulting LLC's - which meant a probably higher degree of "whimsy", "sarcasm", or "whit" when naming... (and/or a little counter-culture rebelliousness thrown in where possible)
Love the logos, colors, and at the same time simplicity. These are so much more memorable than what you see today which I find to be bland or over the top “grafix”.
"Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark."
> The rolodexes came from the now dispersed collection of former lab employee Ed Grothus, who operated a salvage company of lab cast-offs known as The Black Hole.
Too good.
Many of my childhood science fair projects started at the black hole. You could always find something weird or interesting, and occasionally hot, while browsing through the place
> occasionally hot
Am I understanding correctly?
It depends on the exact definition of the word "hot" you mean.
No, wait, it doesn't, you'll find any kind of hot you like.
Quite ... the place.-
PS. I would like the record to show, excuse me for stating the obvious, that this was an actual place (!):
https://losalamosreporter.com/2025/06/29/black-hole-museum-a...
Seems some of them would get the key contact details "clipped" by the rolodex itself. Maybe a good design would put the phone number and address at the top.
Indeed! Interesting that leaving a bottom margin for Rolodex didn't become a design standard.
A bunch of those names sound fake, like they should be from Fallout instead of Los Alamos.
But then I remember that I know someone who worked at one of those companies.
If the "Zero Blast-N-Peen" company operating out of "Hooker Circle" with the robot logo showed up in a Fallout game, it would be criticized as too over the top - breaks the immersion too much since it's so absurd.
I wonder how many of these were essentially 1-person consulting LLC's - which meant a probably higher degree of "whimsy", "sarcasm", or "whit" when naming... (and/or a little counter-culture rebelliousness thrown in where possible)
“Universal Voltronics” sounds the most made-up to me. But “Nuclear Defense Research Corporation of New Mexico, Inc.” takes the cake.
I always liked "General Atomics" (though it wasn't among the cards listed). Still opertating today under that name.
If there were a Harbor Freight of nuclear techonlogy, that sounds like a name I'd expect to see.