This past week I happened to find myself in an old abandonded fire station. Within it, I came across an old slate chalkboard. It was heavy, a bit ricketty, and fire engine red. I loved it immediately. More importantly, I knew right away what I had in store for it.
I’ll be the first to admit that I did draw inspiration from one of my absolute favorite design shops,…the things makers from Portland, Oregon….Official Manufacturing Co.
– Christian
I’m pleased to announce a new contributor for the new year; Christian Williams an uber-talented art director and author of the biking blog Spoke Fiend. He’ll be bringing his design sense and a male perspective to fancy seeing you here.
I’m sure you’ve all been wondering where I have been. I recently went on vacation to Peru starting in the city of Cusco and then doing a 5 day Salkantay hike to Machu Picchu. It was an amazing adventure. Here are some of my favorite pictures from walking around the city of Cusco. The city was so rich with bright colors, beautiful architecture and great hand drawn type. More pictures from my trip to come soon.
I currently designed some business cards for a friend of mine and wanted to share some of the beautiful cards that I have found during my research. I’ll be sure to show you my finished design once it gets back from the printer.
top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right
Great business card resources: Card Observer, dailypoetics Flickr, Francesco Mugnai
And if you are like me and like to keep well designed business cards I got wonderful business card holders via MoMA Store.
One of my favorite stops during the San Fran trip was the Musee Mecanique, which is one of the world’s largest privately owned collections of mechanically operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines. (Just a warning, the website is really scary and is not a fair representation of the collection at all.) All of the games and musical instruments were amazing eye candy especially for a designer; amazing typography and imagery…in hind sight I am actually a little disappointed that I didn’t take more photographs. And the best part is there are only 25 cents to play. The collection also contains two miniature portrait booths (aka old school photobooths, not the yucky digital ones) that we posed in for 4 sessions. It was so much fun and just the start of an obsessive hunt to find every photobooth in the city.
Musee Mecanique is a must see if you are visiting San Fran!
I attended the DC Big Flea Market over the weekend with my friend Alison and boy was there tons of great stuff. I walked away with some vintage buttons, wood type, a burlap sac, two Japanese paper mache trays and some gifts for my mom. Here’s a few pics from the trip.
If you missed out on this show there is another one coming up March 6-7.
I recently participated in a limited edition letterpressed calendar with 15 talented designers/printers. Each page was designed by a different person. I designed the month of May. The project is a fundraiser for Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring, MD.
See more photos from the project here and here.
There are still a couple left for purchase here.
I recently won this Lauren Haupt ascending wing necklace via a giveaway on this is love forever. I was so ecstatic when I recieved the email, because I truly never win anything. I am smitten over the simplicity and classic beauty of this necklace. Thank you to Kayte and Lauren for the wonderful gift.
Check out more of Lauren’s jewelry here and at meanings.crystalsandjewelry.com/october-birthstone-guide/
And if you aren’t a follower of this is love forever, you should be!
I’ve never really written new year’s resolutions in the past, but I have a good feeling about 2010 so I decided this would be a good year to start. I am looking forward to this year as fresh start to reinventing myself and focusing on what i want. I am putting these resolutions out there so that all of you, (if there are any people reading this) can hold me to these goals. Here they are, in no particular order:
1 blog blog blog
2 photograph my work
3 craft shows
4 spending hiatus: 3 months without buying anything non-essential. more to come on this later.
5 organize craft room
6 exercise
7 meditate regularly
8 let go of the past
9 take chances
10 do at least 3 things for myself every single day
11 be green
If you are having a hard time writing your own here’s a resolution generator to help.
Meredith Dittmar’s creations are absolutely stunning. There are so many layers and details to each piece.
See more of her work here.