You may remember me writing about Dana Tanamachi about a year ago – I love her chalk lettering. In the last year, she’s done a lot of cool stuff, including the lettering for the cover of this month’s Oprah magazine. She now has a line of paperweights for West Elm. I think paperweights are kind of useless – but they’re sooooooo pretty. I want one.
[via Uppercase]
One of my favourite illustrator/designers, Katie Kirk of Eight Hour Day, has published a children’s book. Called Eli, No!, it’s about her dog and his troublemaking antics. It looks adorable.
If you don’t know who Susan Kare is, I’m sure you know her work. Remember these old-school software icons from Macintosh? She designed them. Telegramme is now carrying a bunch of prints of her classic icons. I’d love to get the “smiling computer” one (above) for my office.
I saw this post on Cool Hunting about a new book called Beer Craft, and I immediately sent it to Ian. Ian’s been into home-brewing for a while now, and has created a few tasty beers in our basement (yep, I was totally skeptical at first, but seriously, they’re good!)
This book looks rad – Ian says the content is really good, and I love the design. It was written/created by a couple – he’s a beer critic, and she’s a designer. How awesome is that? I think we need this book at our house, so I’m adding it to my online shopping cart right now…
Don’t you just love Kate Spade? Lately I find that Ms. Spade and Jonathan Adler are my biggest sources of design inspiration. Both are so good at working with bright colours in a way that looks chic and stylish, and not childish or sloppy.
Check out Kate Spade’s Living Colorfully/The Year of Color project. She’s choosing 12 signature shades, and unveiling a new colour each month (with accompanying limited edition prints, short films, and products, of course). First up – red. Just what we all need for the January blahs!
Lately I’ve been really enjoying the blog from Eight Hour Day. Eight Hour Day is the name of the design studio run by husband and wife team Nathan Strandberg and Katie Kirk. They do really cool design and illustration, and their projects include websites, posters, branding, and even a children’s book. Oh yeah, and of course their own website is as gorgeous as everything else they do.
And as if that wasn’t already cool enough, they decided to take a year to travel across the States, setting up camp and working along the way. More on that here.
But anyway, back to the blog. They do a regular thing called “The Best Thing I Saw Today” and both Strandberg and Kirk post an image of something they saw and liked. It’s inspiring.
You may remember a few months ago when I wrote about my love for type designer and illustrator Jessica Hische. She just announced that letterpress prints of her amazing Daily Drop Cap series are available for sale through her online store.
At just $40 each, you can get a bunch. I would love to have an A and an I for me and the mister. But I suspect Ian might not like the I. Oh well, maybe just one for me then!
I’m having a serious case of life envy right now. No, not in the Single White Female kind of way – more in line with admiration and inspiration. It’s all for Rosie Brown, a Scottish designer and stylist. I read about her on Design*Sponge in 3 different posts (which also define why I think she’s the coolest and kind of want her life):
1. Sneak Peak into Rosie Brown’s gorgeous home in Edinburgh
2. Sneak Peak into Rosie Brown’s gorgeous home in rural Scotland, where they moved to after leaving Edinburgh
3. A recent feature on Papa Stour, an online shop run by Brown, featuring the best of Scottish contemporary design. Just look at these awesome Scottish items. I love the posters with taglines from Scottish treats, like “Taking Over Teatime” from Tunnock’s Teacakes. Or “It’s the National Treat” from Tunnock’s Caramel Wafers.
Oh, and while perusing the Papa Stour website, I noticed this – they’re renting out their holiday cottage in the Highlands. I’ve seen this cottage before – I keep coming across it when I’m daydreaming of trips to Scotland. Could this be a sign? Am I supposed to rent this cottage in Scotland? I just might have to…
aken directly from her website, “Jessica Hische’s work combines equal parts design, typography, illustration, brown sugar, and heavy cream.”
I like her illustrations and her design work, but what really blows me away is Jessica Hische’s hand lettering. Hand lettering is a big trend right now, but this girl seriously does it the best. Just look at her ribbon type. Or check out her Daily Drop Cap project, where she does a new illustration of a letter every day. That probably sounded like a good idea at first, but keeping that up every day, after 6 months? That takes serious skill. (those are her letters up there, and the “T” over there at the left came from Daily Drop Cap)
Her blog is great (especially this post about why you shouldn’t hire non-web designers to design websites, and also this guide to twitter that’s gone viral). I really like Jessica Hische’s irreverent writing style on her blog and website. She’s not too stuffy with her professional writing – her personality shines through. Obviously it’s working for her – she’s only 25 years old and has a portfolio and client list that much older designers would kill for.
I was just catching up on my reading, and came across this sneak peak of designer Jen Bilik’s home on Design*Sponge. Jen Bilik is the force behind Knock Knock – you know, those cool, witty, and slightly irreverent notepads and stuff that you can get at Chapters and fancy paper stores?
I love Knock Knock. I have the “To Do” notepad on my desk, and the “All Out Of” grocery list pad on my fridge. After seeing the photos of Jen Bilik’s home, I think I love her, and by extension, Knock Knock, even more. She has an Airstream trailer as a lawn ornament. And she has a really cool shed/studio. I have always wanted a separate building for my office, but in Canada, the shed/studio thing doesn’t work so well. I can dream though… and drool on my keyboard looking at these photos…
