August 31, 2009

Pica Press.




A recent trip to a blog via another blog found me here, at Pica Press. Once I arrived, I looked around and discovered some fabulous "state-tionary". Love the use of bold graphic and small typography combined to make really clean and fun pieces. I guess its a good thing no one from the "square states" asked for any letterheads. Not sure how pretty Colorado, Wyoming or Kansas would turn out compared to a curvy state like New York or Florida. No offense to Coloradoans Wyomingites or Kansasonians.

August 26, 2009

Nike Really Does Do It...The Best.






After seeing Art & Copy Monday night, I felt the sudden urge to look up a lot of the ad campaigns that were shown (you will have to watch the movie to see them all). One in particular that is near and dear to my athletic soul, Nike, who does a lot for the female athlete. See above images, which are one of their latest for Spring 2009 by design studio, Jager Di Paola Kemp Design, with creative director, copy writer, and super talented (seriously, check out her site) Kimberly Harrington, at the helm.

August 25, 2009

Art & Copy...Inspiration & Entertainment


Jeff Goodby of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Rich Silverstein of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

David Kennedy & Dan Wieden of Wieden & Kennedy

Mary Wells, considered the "First Woman of Advertising"

Lee Clow of TBWA Worldwide Chiat Day


What can I say about a movie that inspires? I don't know if any words can really do justice to a piece of film that makes you leave feeling, well, really grateful that you ARE a creative, ready to take on any project and makes you WANT to take on anything and really accomplish & create something wonderful, smart, beautiful and creative. Films like this are rare (Helvetica was another in which I left the IFC feeling the same) and the previous statements are not ones I make lightly. If you are a right-brainer like myself who possibly needs some inspiration in their lives then let me recommend to you Art & Copy, a film about creative advertising which features some fantastically talented, enlightening and humorous people (shown above..images from Art & Copy website). Three characteristics that truly make a creative professional skyrocket to the top of the business world.

August 24, 2009

Bikes & Life.


I bought a bike last weekend and life has changed – I have 2 wheels! It's awesome. I can't believe I haven't had one since high school (and THAT was pink & seafoam green. And a Huffy.). I guess I thought that spin classes at the New York Sports Club was enough for the past 6 years but now? Spin class will take a backseat to being able to do laps in the park in the great outdoors. And since Matt also got a bike, I love that we can go "ride bikes" together. It's so simple and sweet and was a wonderful way for us to spend a Saturday afternoon together exploring Brooklyn in a different way than we usually do.

Sari has been chronicling her own bike adventures here and I am sure she is going to love this sweet print I found from artist Jessica at Vol. 25 (above).

August 20, 2009

Coco Chanel: The Anti-Amélie.


One of my favorite movies of all time is Amélie, about a quirky and lovable girl in France played by Audrey Tautou (famous in France but not as much here in America, though she did play Tom Hanks co-star in The DaVinci Code). Her whole demeanor is that of a sweet girl and yet in her next role she will be playing Coco Chanel who, supposedly, was the anti-Amélie in terms of personality. She was tough and rough but at the same time a trailblazer for fashion and businesswomen. After reading this article about the new movie, Coco Before Chanel, I am pretty intrigued about this woman I know not too much about but whose name comes up in almost every discussion of "the best and most timeless brands of all time".

August 18, 2009

Blues & Greens: Calming from Anthro.





Checking out Anthropologie's home section of their website is sheer torture for me. Torture, I tell you! I start to envision their well-chosen collection in various parts of my home and see myself clicking "add to cart" on every other item I see. This time around was no different as I fell hard for their retro-inspired blue/green collection and have decided that if I ever decide to wear an apron while cooking (a look that I am sure might shock but entertain Matt all at the same time) I would have to wear this one above.

Items above from the Anthro website here: ceramic coasters, apron, timer, dessert dish.

August 17, 2009

Le Fooding.






Yes, that's the official title of a most fabulous-sounding French/New York foodie event taking place in none other than Long Island City's PS 1 art museum (that's just east of midtown across the East River, dear readers who don't live in this fair city of New York). I am sure that tickets to Le Fooding will be extremely hard to come by but a gal can dream, right? Not only that, but proceeds go to Action Against Hunger. Eating for a cause with some fabulous sponsors and the best chefs in New York? Again, I am signing up as soon as possible. Plus, the illustrations for each chef or sponsor are quite delicious themselves (see above some of my favorites). A great summation of the event as the website states:

"12 chefs, three mixologists, two butchers, one ice-cream maker, two DJs, 15 graphic designers, a select vintner, a fine Champagne, some fromages and a mystery guest, to feast your senses and do some conscious good."


August 12, 2009

Take Your Vitamins.




Fabulous concept design for vitamin packaging from Polish designer Viktoriya Gadomska. I see this as something I would have loved to create in college for a design class; combining my love of building things and typography all rolled into clean and beautiful packages. If this existed for real, I would take my vitamins everyday! And proudly display them on my counter or in my bathroom.

Found via the Dieline

New Hand-Written Goodness from Kate Forrester.




Kate Forrester's work really makes me jealous. And makes me want to completely ditch this computer I am on right now. And pick up every black OptiFlow pen that's sitting in my desk, along with a stack of heavy white paper and call out sick from work for the next month. I would just draw and draw until my heart's content. Play with letters. Make some drawings. Play with gorgeous text that was inspired by whatever I was sitting next to at the time. Combine them all and not stop...

In the meantime, I will have to take to just admiring Kate's new work on her blog. Check it all out here.

August 6, 2009

Kenji Toma.





Kenji Toma's portfolio happened upon my desk the other day and wow, I was happy to have made the time to open and go through it. Would I get the chance to use him for a future photoshoot I would be pretty excited! Above were some of my favorite from a make-up series.

August 5, 2009

Go MAD.






No, no, no. I am not suggesting that you go angry but am in fact talking about the MAD, aka Museum of Art & Design. Yesterday's warm weather prompted a midday creative field trip for our group over to the less-than-a-year-old museum in Columbus Circle here in NYC. The building is situation on a funny-shaped block/corner/segment diagonally from Central Park and the Time Warner Center. Not only were there some good exhibits on display BUT I really liked some of the internal structure design of the different floors. One of the current exhibits is The Object Factory: The Art of Industrial Ceramics, some samples shown above. Honestly, I could look at ceramics all day PLUS the some of the walls were painted a most fabulous blue color that I made a mental note to remember next time I paint my bathroom. Not that our bathroom is painted now...perhaps a next design project?!

August 3, 2009

Movie Posters. Simple.




Not sure how much I will like these movies – Only, Whip It, and Despicable Me – but I love that their posters on Apple trailers are done minimally in three colors or less!