Photo of the week

Photo of the week is back folks! And I know you're just as excited as me right? But first I must apologize, there is no real excuse for the reason I have not been posting the Photo of the Week, except for the fact I went through some of my best photos already, haven't been out lately to take any new shots and been too damn busy to spend the few minutes each Monday morning to do so. There they are, the lame excuses I'm allowing myself to give. But to ensure I keep it going, I'm going to mix it up and feature more photographers and their amazing lens works.

Today's photo is of Sarah Britton, a holistic nutritionist and vegetarian chef and writer of the fabulous My New Roots food blog who lives in Denmark. The photo was taken by Hilda Grahnat for a segment in Kinfolk Magazine. If you haven't heard of Kinfolk, it's a beautiful publication about a growing community of artists with a shared interest in small gatherings. I love the friendliness of this photo, the texture, colors and thought of putting myself right where Sarah is, somewhere in Copenhagen heading off to the market on my bike (with a basket on the front of course!) What a great way to start a weekend day!

Here's a little more on Kinfolk.

via Kinfolk: Every element of Kinfolk—the features, photography, and general aesthetics—are consistent with the way we feel entertaining should be: simple, uncomplicated, and less contrived. Kinfolk is the marriage of our appreciation for art and design and our love for spending time with family and friends.

Don't you just love that manifesto?

Image from Kinfolk website.

Great excuse

This gives me a great excuse to crawl back to bed!

Image from The Cool Hunter website.

Delicious food and design

I couldn't resist posting about this fabulous restaurant in Shanghai China, Table No.1. From the menu to the food, everything is perfectly done with exquisite touches, but not in a ritzy, can't-even-afford-to-look-at-the-menu way. Instead, rustic, communal and unpretentious are the items of the day and it's fabulous! Starting with that gorgeous rusted steel signage to the friendly rubber stamped craft paper menu cover! All of it designed by the incredible Singapore-based Foreign Policy Group. I miss Singapore... I can smell the deliciousness of roti prata at Newton Circus right now!

Images from Under Consideration and Table No. 1 websites.

Looking down at humor, literally

This installation project blows me away! The idea, process and typography is amazing! Created by Gordon Young (a UK visual artist who creates art for public domains) and typography by London-based Why Not Associates, the Comedy Carpet in Blackpool England is a celebration of comedy on an extraordinary scale.

via Comedy Carpet: Referring to the work of more than 1,000 comedians and comedy writers, the carpet gives visual form to jokes, songs and catchphrases dating from the early days of variety to the present. Installed in front of Blackpool Tower, the installation contains over 160,000 granite letters embedded into concrete, pushing the boundaries of public art and typography to their limits. A remarkable homage to those who have made the nation laugh.

There are more amazing photos and information at the links below:

Typetoken

The Comedy Carpet

Images from Typetoken and The Comedy Carpet websites.

Coming soon!

This is a not to miss show! Opening on February 6th at Chapman University Guggenheim Gallery in Orange, CA is Fanatical Mechanical: Photo-Lettering and the Paste-Up Era. Hosted by House Industries, this sure-to-please-the-handmade-crowd exhibit, features an opening night lecture from Rich Roat of House Industries at 7pm and on-site screen printing by Fresh Pressed. Opening night runs 5:30 pm to 9pm. More details below. See you there!

via House Industries: The exhibit celebrates the craft of Photo-Lettering’s past while presenting it in the context of contemporary relevance. David Dodde’s prodigious hand-printed panels and substantial scrims mingle with custom lithographic layers and fascinating alphabetic fixtures by fanatical fabricators Marc Wiegers and Roger VanTill of Greenwood Studios. Sprinkled throughout the exhibit are carefully excavated and curated historical Photo-Lettering components including original films, rare specimen books and ceramic artifacts.

The exhibition runs from Feb. 6 through March 9, 2012. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Image from House Industries website.

Bravo to branding

Have you ever seen better looking branding? Bravo to Bravo! This clean, approachable restaurant branding for Five and Dime, was designed by Singapore-based Bravo Company and is pure perfection. Everything down to the pencils and erasers is branded, just the way it should be. So yummy!

via the Bravo site: A coin was used as a visual representation of the name. Five & Dime refers to a variety store where everything is sold for 5 or 10 cents. As such, we produced a series of cheap goods to be sold in the restaurant.

And don't miss the rest of Bravo's stellar portfolio of work here.

Thanks to Bri Emery over at DesignLoveFest for the heads up on Five and Dime.

Images from Bravo website.

1000 Days of Drawing

Since I'm on the subject of hand lettering,... Cromwell, CT-based graphic designer and illustrator Chris Piascik is one of my favorite artists (I think I've mentioned that a few times before). His illustrations and hand drawings are utterly amazing! It's no surprise his 1000 Days of Drawing book project on Kickstarter was fully funded, including moi. I can't think of a more deserving guy and can't wait to add 1000 Days of Drawing to my library! If you're interested and would like to help contribute, head on over to 1000 Days of Drawing on Kickstarter. And don't miss his plethora of work samples here!

Image from Chris Piascik website.

Calligrapher extraordinaire

When I see amazingly beautiful hand lettering, I melt. Seriously. I'm green with envy first, then I melt. I've always wanted to do it and I've taken a few classes over the years.... even studied with the great Claude Dieterich. But yet, my fingers just can't turn out pretty letters. I'll pick up the pen again in the future at some point, I'm determined to learn, but for now I think I'll just admire the stunning work of Jersey City-based graphic designer and lettering artist Lila Symons. Her enormous variety of letters and compositions is mind blowing. Stop by her blog at Daily Calligraphy for more. I think you'll be blown away too!

Images from Lila Symons website.

Stitch office

If you missed the mention of the Stitch Design Co. studio in my last post, then keep reading. Stitch Design Co, located at No. 9 Cannon Street in Charleston, South Carolina, is just about all you could ever want in a office space: it's full of charm, warm and inviting, historic with mid-century touches and (excuse me) just cool as shit. As a 1940's historic storefront, it would have to be cool as shit right? Take a look here for yourself. Did I mention I would love to work for these gals? Yes, I did and yes, I would.

Images from Stitch Design website.

Rewined + recycled

A short time ago, I started a list of things I could do with empty wine bottles. Yes, I collect that many the thought of how to recycle them has crossed my mind more than once. But Charleston, SC-based Rewined Candles went a step further and actually did something with theirs.... and I love it! With scents that mimic the flavors and aromas found in wine varietals, the natural soy wax candles are poured into discarded wine bottles from local restaurants and bars who are responsible about their waste.

And when the company wanted to step up the look of their packaging, they turned to Charleston-based Stitch Design Co, an insanely creative design studio run by two gals with gifted hands (who I love and want to work for.... did you see that studio at No. 9 Cannon Street? Amazing!) They're drawn to paper, texture and type and bring a tactile sensibility to all their projects. My kind of gals! AND, they have a sister letterpress company right behind the studio called Sideshow Press. I'm moving to Charleston! No, not really, but it would be very tempting.

Here's more on the fabulous candles -

via Commarts site: They redesigned the logo using hand-drawn type and updated the kraft paper labels with simple typography and a layered labeling system. Each candle has a “vintage and producer” label signed and dated by the candlemaker. Additionally, a wood veneer wax topper keeps the candle clean until use, a system of wax seals colorcodes each scent, each label is letterpressed and hand applied and the packaging is finished off with a small green sticker reminding buyers to please recycle again.

An absolutely wonderful product in so many ways!

Images from Commarts website.

DIY fabric

Have you heard of Spoonflower? I hadn't until I dropped by SwissMiss yesterday and was excited to see custom printed fabric is actually well within reach and for a really great price! Project Runway actually had a few episodes with each person sketching and printing their very own fabric, and I remember thinking how fantastic it was. And now, Spoonflower has brought it to the masses! This could make for a huge disaster for some however, so create and print away... tastefully that is!

Image from Spoonflower website.

Apocawhoops

Just another fabulous illustration and downright funny content from my fav guy Chris Piascik.

Image from Chris Piascik website.

Message on a bag

I'm totally digging this Future Messenger Bag from Medium Control, a Minnesota-based design studio. You can even select your graphic print color. I'm not sure if I'd go with gold (shown) or black? Not only does Medium Control produce eye-catching fabulous design, they have a very cool line of hand printed apparel, art prints, bags and more over at Etsy. Check it out! You can even get 10% off if you enter the word 'cheers' during checkout.

Image from Medium Control website.

Sup, sup, suppertime

Check out this super cool tableware designed by New York artist Dan Golden for CB2. The simple black sketch outlined pieces, which launched this past week, are clean-lined takes on old-time Americana and current day food crazes. Choose between the Tofu plate and the Meat and Potatoes plate starting at $5.95. Bon Appetit!

Images from Design Milk website.

Beam me up

This is exciting. Someone finally realized that we all don't enjoy being hunched over on all fours beneath the desk to locate our inconveniently placed, unsightly power strip. And the redesign is nothing short of beauty and functionality. The PowerPod, designed by MINIMAL, Inc. for Coalesse is thoroughly minimal as expected, and intentionally designed for today’s mobile worker who regularly need to charge mobile devices. With PowerPod, there's no more inconvenient plugs. The tabletop solution (yes, tabletop, what a concept!) is convenient, easy to use and slick-looking. And the best part, when not in use, the outlets are concealed by a small items storage tray, neatly tidying up the workspace. Brilliant! Get a PowerPod here on Coalesse.

Images from MINIMAL, Inc. website.

Cup o' info

An interactive infographic, who would have thought? Well, Column Five thought so. As a show of appreciation to their clients and partners this past holiday season, C5 sent a limited edition print of 'In Caffeine We Trust', an interactive coffee poster to track consumption data over the course of a month. Once monthly tracking is complete, the drinker can use their coffee to ‘paint’ their data onto the poster to complete the visualization. If that's not interactive enough, C5 also included a half pound of coffee from Lord Windsor Roasters, a local micro-roastery. But it doesn't stop there.... upon completion of the poster visualization, clients and partners can send in a photo to put their name in a hat for a year’s supply of coffee. How's that for interactive? Leave it all to Column Five!

If you want a copy of the cool 'In Caffeine We Trust' poster (which is offset printed on 18×24 Strathmore 140 lb. acid-free heavy weight cold press watercolor paper with black ink) get it at their Five & Dime shop.

Images from Column Five website.

Special delivery

Carolyn Sewell and I could definitely be friends. And I'm pretty sure she'd be totally cool to hang with! I came across her work recently while perusing the big wide world web and was at a loss for words looking through her amazing work. It speaks for itself: colorful, masterful and full of energy! She's part Jessica Hische, part Saul Bass with a dash of (my fav guy) Chris Piascik, but she's in a league of her (handmade) own. I love that she sends handmade postcards to her favorite people, like her parents and her peeps. Seriously, who doesn't love to get a postcard in the mail? I still love getting the mail (some crazy obsession carried over from my youth I suppose, where growing up in a small town, the mail really was the highlight of the day). Excuse me, I need to go mail a super cool Sewell-esque postcard to myself!

Image from Carolyn Sewell website.

Write on

It's true, I'm a sucker for anything paper related, especially letterpress! I gushed when I saw these Albertine Press Cityscape letterpress journals on the blog of the most adorable store in Middlebury Vermont, Clementine. I tried to find them on the Albertine's Etsy shop, but it appears they were a big seller this year, but they have a 2012 Cityscape postcard wall calendar that is just as fabulous!

Don't forget to check out the Clementine blog too! Emily is as lovely as they come and is the type of person I'd love to sit down with and have a cup of tea right in her store!

Image from Clementine blog.

Renegade Handmade

If you haven't heard of Renegade Handmade, where have you been? I'm kidding. But if you haven't heard of them, welcome to the best craft fair you will EVER attend. Sadly, the 4-year old brick and mortar store in Chicago will be closing its doors on 31 January of this year. But it doesn't matter! It's closing because of the highly successful Renegade Craft Fairs, which will keep Renegade going for years to come, with eleven fairs in six cities, including one fair overseas. And they continue to expand!

In case you didn't know...

via the renegade website: The Renegade Craft Fair (RCF) is a large-scale and free-to-attend marketplace event. Featuring hundreds of artists at a time, vendors travel from all over to sell and showcase their handmade goods and original artwork. RCF is held yearly in urban centers of creative indie-entrepreneurship – including Brooklyn, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and London (UK). The Renegade Craft Fair differs from traditional arts and craft fairs by focusing on DIY and indie-craft culture. Each individual fair is juried from hundreds of applications to purposefully feature a curated, eclectic array of young and emergent designers producing original and handmade goods in a wide variety of media. We feature artists with a DIY background – creating innovative work using traditional craft methods, but not based on preexisting patterns or products. Each event features paper goods, housewares, ceramics, bath products, jewelry, craft kits, accessories, clothing, comics, plush objects, knits, curios, collectibles, artwork, and so much more!

If you live near a Renegade city, you must go and see the amazing wares of the artists. You'll go crazy! Go, enjoy! View the upcoming calendar in a city near you here.

Images from the Renegade Handmade website.

Tweet digs

This spring, give your birdies the coolest digs on the block. The modern City Dweller bird feeder from Chiasso. Your birds will tweet you with love!

Image from Chiasso website.

Tell it like it is

This just might have to fashion one of my walls. Then again, anything from Hammerpress can hang on my walls!

Image from Hammerpress website.

Mixed case

The Austrian duo Peter Olschinsky and Verena Weiss of Atelier Olschinsky create memorizing graphic prints and illustrations. I'm in awe over their Cities Deconstructed series and magazine cover ideas for Minimal. Their typography, graphic design, photo manipulation and illustration utilizes muted tones, patterns, textures and extreme details with ease. They have an amazing range of design versatility which is both incredibly inspiring and fresh. Every composition displays a huge talent for mixed media covering a range of techniques, styles and materials. This is some seriously fantastic stuff!

View more projects on their Behance portfolio.

Images from Atelier Olschinsky website.