november 15, 2008

did I discover a trend?

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.

wall type

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

why I don't miss my CAs

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 I even managed to score other people's old outdated books for my collection, only to see them sit in boxes in the basement.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

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!

the baby calling card

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.

beautiful pictures

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.

obamabats font

I am blown away by the amount of creative backing our president elect has gathered on the world wide web. Download your free ObamaBats font here. And expect more features on the blog of all of the beautiful, positive artwork people have created from his inspiration.

via: SwissMiss

alison carmichael

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.

how do you spell relief?

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.

poor lucky me

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!