I promise I am not obsessed with Frank Chimero. He is just so talented. And funny. It is a good thing to have a sense of humor ...
Frank and Ben Barry have set up a website called Questionable Characters where people can ask them questions. A large majority of the questions are about graphic design, but there are also some random ones thrown in there. It feels like an entertaining conversation.
These slides are just gorgeous. I hope we look back at the digital age and find as much beauty in it as I see in this stuff.
via: PinkShirtsAndCarWrecks
... this poster. I might give it to someone in my family just so I can have it. Another great one by Aesthetic Apparatus.
I had to actually look up the word advent. We know this to be the Advent Season, but what exactly does that mean? The first definition is: a coming into place, view, or being; arrival. This year we are truly celebrating a new arrival of our baby girl. And my Dad's brain, making it's way back into place. And of course the advent of the holiday season and a new birth, giving us a clean slate for the coming year (no matter what your beliefs are!).
D is just now understanding Christmas. I created an Advent Calender out of gift bags from Target. He is loving it! And when you ask him who gave him the presents he'll answer "Christmas gave them to me".
I am NOT a trend finder, but it seems that my obsession with small people photography is all over the place. I know that this is how trends happen. It's why there are so many babies with the same names, why we all start liking the color yellow about the same time and why Birkenstocks came to be a "normal" looking shoe. You see or hear something once and your brain mulls over it until you become obsessed.
Oh Dee Doh recently featured Matthew Carden. You can buy his magical prints at Fawn and Forest. And I stumbled onto Vincent Bousserez's Flickr set via Happy Cavalier's blog.
Tasty Suite is a vinyl studio on Etsy. They create fabulous self-adhesive wall decals. Every order is custom. You choose your colors. And they are super affordable.
via: Oh Happy Day
I horded my Communication Arts for years. I even managed to score other people's old outdated books for my collection, only to see them sit in boxes in the basement. This past Saturday, T and I went through 25 boxes of books and filled ten boxes with "giveaways". Included in those were almost all of our CAs (I had to keep a few Design Annuals).
I have realized that the internet has filled the void that I used to fill with the eye candy from the glossy pages of those super heavy magazines. The AIGA website is one of the most comprehensive libraries of graphic design on the web. I forget about it from time to time and then waste hours sifting through all of the amazing design work.
I should also note that the CommArts website is great too. I won't forget my first love.
Binth has been everywhere. From Design*Sponge to Blueprint to Cookie to Domino. Their baby book is beautiful ... a rare find among the overly written and "cutesy" books of other publishers. Their posters are gorgeous.
Chronicle Books has mass produced a couple of Binth products that you can buy at a MUCH discounted rate. Consider it "Binth for ALL". Some cheap frames from Target and you've got yourself some designer wall art!
I remember going to birthday parties as a little girl. A gift was always in hand and attached to it was a little card with my full name. I never understood why it was there. But now, as a mom, I get the convenience and tradition of "calling cards". I used those same calling cards well into my teen years. Probably from the same box that my Mom had ordered when I was an infant.
My Fairy Godmother, Jackye Lanham, just commissioned us to do calling cards for her grand-niece. Jackye is amazingly creative and one of the top interior designers in the South (to see some of her work: article here and blog posting here). Being that her grand-niece lives in Hawaii she wanted the design to convey a "Hawaiian quilt feel". I love quilts and had no idea there were so many beautiful patterns out of the islands. It was such a fun research project.
Here were some of her choices. Typical baby pastels felt all wrong with these bold patterns. Jackye and her niece landed on the pink card at the top of this post. We also did folded note cards with the same pattern.
Photographer Callie Shell met Obama while covering presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004. She returned to her editor with more pictures of Obama than of Kerry. Upon being asked why, Callie replied, "I do not know. I just have a feeling about him. I think he will be important down the road.".
Check out her gallery of photos from over the past two and a half years. They are awesome. It was hard not to post them all here.
There are also some beautiful pics (by other photographers) here. Thanks, Sarah.
Alison Carmichael is a hand letterer out of London. She is mucho talented. Here are a few of my favorite pieces featured on her website.
I know he is not our savior. But he gives me hope for a better tomorrow.
And I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that Obama will be the first president that our son will remember. Talk about changing the way people think.
I am not sure what we do to deserve it, but we get the best clients. Almost all of our jobs so far have been through referrals. Crissy and Kevin sent over Poor Lucky Me this summer and it has been a blast exploring and branding this fabulous idea/company. Poor Lucky Me is a daily online advice column. Think "Ann Landers" with a whole lot more attitude and irony. The questions are priceless ... things I've always wanted to ask but was afraid of what people would think. And the answers always help me to realize that I am not the freak that I thought I was.
For their logo we started exploring all sorts of symbols that were smart, ironic and iconic: split milk, loosing your marbles, melting ice cream, bursting bubbles, etc. And then some more straightforward looks.
PLM loved the owl, but wasn't sure that it was the right owl. So we did an owl study. This was so much fun. Being the month of Halloween, never before had I noticed so many owls ... everywhere!
So what what you see at the top of this post is where we landed on a logo. Wisdom with a bit of wit.
We also did some web looks that should be up on the PLM site in the near future. Enjoy!
French photographer Frank Juery has some wonderful Polaroids. He plays with light, depth of field and (my fave) little people.
This is a great compilation of logos from their conception to current day. I love seeing the ones that have been around forever. The logos from the 1930s and 40s speak to me so much more than the modern ones. And it is cool to see how some have not changed much at all.
via: Swiss Miss
I used to be an awesome journal writer. That would be BK ... Before Kids. And what's crazy is that the inner growth I have experienced as a mom could fill many many books. If only there were a few more hours in a day. I guess that blogs are journals, but you guys would be bored with my inner thoughts, so let's just stick to the visual.
Chronicle Books recently featured the 1000 Journals Project on their blog. One thousand blank journals circulated throughout the world, beckoning contributors who find the journals by chance on trains, in cafés, and anonymously left on doorsteps. The results are beautiful.
Not sure how I stumbled onto The Do Lectures. But I was not surprised at all to see that they were created by David and Clare Hieatt, the founders of Howies (previously mentioned on S+C). Over dinner one night the couple was talking about how they wanted to DO something about the issues that they cared about. And low and behold, they asked an amazing group of people to get together and tell them how to do it.
Howies has also sponsored Little Big Voice Lectures: practical tools to get media attention to your cause.
Both of these sites are full of amazing inspiration.
Having a new president come January (whomever that may be) doesn't mean that we have to stop working for a better world. We are the people that make the change.
Today I was thinking about how for the first time in my 35 years I feel fully engaged in my community, in my country, in the world as a whole. I wonder if it has to do with age or having a family or just the general state of this world. I sense that other Americans are feeling it for the first time too. Maybe this is what we have needed to wake up to for so long.
T and I are finishing up our mail-in ballots tonight. I hope that all who read this blog are voting. It is so important. Especially now.
Tomorrow Partners was featured here recently. They have created a series of voting posters that you can either purchase or download for free. Makes the miss the giant ad agency printer. I'd have them plastered all over the place if I could!
via: Grain Edit
We are working on some calling cards and personalized note cards for a family friend. I absolutely love personalized paper products. They make me want to write more snail mail, a truly lost art.
Jack and Lulu create beautiful stationary and personalized cards. Their products and their site are refreshingly simple.
Etsy is always a bit overwhelming to me. I tend to just hop around other people's favorites. It is always great to find kindred spirits in tastes. Penguin & Fish is the company of Alyssa Thomas out of Minneapolis, MN. She makes adorable stuffed kitties (seen above). She also has a great eye for other artists (most of whom are on Etsy) and features them on her Penguin & Fish blog.
above: textile art by Fabbiz
above: Orange Moon Toys shadow puppets
via: Bloesem Kids
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