Thursday's Textures: Leather and Knit

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Before seeing this I would have shuddered at the thought of yellow crushed velvet. Pulled off brilliantly!
source: http://clarigoodblog.tumblr.com/post/3963846038

I'm in love

 

with the strange planet animal figurines by Good Machinery. www.thegoodmachinery.com

Green Crepe Skirt

being terrible at taking photos of myself  means I get to go buck wild in photoshop

done! And as my first sewing project in years... surprisingly easy. I love my Brother. It's older than I am, and has never broken. Probably because there's not a single digital component in the beast... 100% analog baby!

Happy Spring!

From Lisa Congdon's A Collection a Day project.

At about 72 degrees yesterday, we were really feeling the spring. Unfortunately, with all the pollen out, so was my nose!

Thursday's Textures: Acid Green Dream

For some reason I've always had an aversion to kelly green. Too overused in college sports? Just a shade too lacking in yellow? I suppose I should set aside these differences on International Kelly Green day, but instead I ended up with this unintentionally vintage collection of chartreuses and olives with the requisite balance of coquelicot (my favorite of the pretentious color wheel.) Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Anthropologie Pendant Lamp / Madewell Silk Blouse / Soubrette Knits Big Bobble Hat / Gaslight Ephemera / Phillip Lim Dress / Free People Necklace / Rothko Orange and Tan / Lulu Organics Hair Powder / JCrew Merino Sequin Mini

Robert Longo, Men in the Cities (1979)

Saw this stops-you-in-your-tracks-awesome series of charcoal drawings by Robert Longo on Frank Chimero's Tumblog, "The Mavenist". (great stuff, by the way).

Tour de Fromage Inspiration: Gaslight

I'm currently working on the new round of posters for Scardello's second annual Tour de Fromage. Last years' were constructivist-inspired, this year I'm going all Wild West-- clashing reds, turquoises and yellows, outlined type and gaudy serifs, excessive Gaslight-Baroque ornamentation, sun-bleached textures and layers of borders.

Matching the level of slightly irregular intricacy that only an era before Illustrator and Photoshop could produce is a tall order, so I might have to scale back and take a minimalist approach to the aesthetic (if that isn't completely paradoxical).  Sources of inspiration: DoubleM2's flickr, Exile Bibliophile's flickr, the Library of Congress, Typographie Vintage by Steven Heller, Gaslight Ephemera.

Why designers should write. (& vice versa?)

"Good writing is clear thinking made visible."

-- Ambrose Bierce

"Good design is clear thinking made visible."

-- Edward Tufte

1500 unique covers from 2 PMS colors

I've long felt that limitations foster creativity. Sometimes having too much freedom can lead to obvious choices, and likewise being restricted forces the most interesting solutions to pop out-- you're never going to get Playdoh spaghetti without pressing it through the pasta maker.

Struggling with the challenge of representing a huge range of art with a single, cohesive cover concept, the designers of this series of catalogs for the Swedish Royal Institute of Art's Degree Show chose to limit themselves to two PMS colors, blend them together, and manipulate the dyeing process while the covers were being printed, leading to 1550 completely unique, "consistently inconsistent" catalogs. Beautiful. Via the ever-inspirational FPO.

Thursday's Textures: Raincheck

I've been sick these past few days, so here's a texture palette that feels how my head does: cloudy!

Ben Sherman Bag / Free People Dress / Sparkle & Fade Dress / Splendid Cardigan / Anthropologie Nimbus Bedding / ModCloth Dress / Valentino Shawl / Jeffery Campbell Virgo Wedges / Kate Spade Tote

Developing (#2)

Yura Yura Teikoku, Ohayo Mado Yaro

My boyfriend played this song on repeat all weekend, making for pretty much the best lazy soundtrack ever. Leave it to the Japanese to make me a smooth jazz convert.

Thursday's Textures: Facets

Lotta Stensson tunic / Phillip Lim top / Folds by Tine De Ruysser / Dwell's Facet Cream/Citrine Rug / The Inimitable Marian Bantjes' I Wonder / Jake Phipps' Stellar Mirror / Selflesh Original Collage / West Elm Bedding / West Elm Rug

Another California

Another stunning series by Tatiana Plakhova of Complexity Graphics in collaboration with photographer Leandro Sanchez. Haunting.

Love for long skirts

International Street Style, Chloe Spring '11, Carlos Miele Fall '11, Asos

Prints by Amanda James

I'm really digging these intricate, delicate, cute and slightly spooky screenprints by Amanda James. Sort of a Edward Gorey-meets-Ernst Haeckel with a little Shel Silverstein thrown in. Check out more in her Etsy shop.

Who says wasting time has to be unproductive?

Have you seen ScribblerToo? At nearly 30K FB likes I'm hardly the first to find it... but it was a discovery to me and one I was quite happy to make. Merits of insta-art aside... it's certainly more fun than MSPaint.