Inspiration

This woman makes incredible jewelry out of silverware. I have a bracelet made of a fork that I got from her at a craft fair. I want to experiment with making my own this summer when I have the time:

http://www.silverforkjewelry.com/

Font Book

Here's my final book:


Front and Back Cover:

Inside Spread:

35 Characters

Here are some shots Lauren got at the 35 Characters event in Wilmington. The last one is just after me and the little guy high fived!

Plus d'inspiration

Here is a great greeting card company:
http://www.vigocards.com/

Here are a couple tea bag pouches I got at Iron Hill last night that are really nicely designed. As a set, the different kinds of tea worked well together

Inspiration 5/3

While brainstorming for our typeface design project, I found myself really liking the featured display typeface, "Underware" on http://www.vllg.com/

I like the swatches and the contrast in thick and thin lines. I also like its hand-drawn impression, but I would hesitate to use it in words where certain letters are repeated, because the uniformity from one letter to the next would detract from it appearing hand-drawn.

Blackletter

Here's my letter K looking svelte in its black paint job...

May 1st Inspiration

After being in Chinatown in Philly, my interest in an Asian design aesthetic has been "re-awakened." Here are some cool home items that are made from chopsticks:

http://www.chopstickart.com/-c-0_26.html

http://www.weirdomatic.com/chopsticks-art.html

And I've done a very very limited amount of this myself, but I really want to experiment with Chinese knotting:

http://ornamental-knots.com/

May 1st Process

I painted my letter K black on Thursday. I forgot to take pictures, but there will be plenty of them from our excursions on the 5th and 7th, I'm sure. :)

Instead, here is the poster I made to promote the event. I didn't stick to the CMYK color scheme of our letters... I decided to focus on conveying the camaraderie of happy little letters frolicking outdoors, which is how I picture our class will be :-)

I've also been working on side projects. I have a phone painting in the making that I will probably post sketches for later, and I made some jewelry this weekend:

Inspiration: 4/25

Yesterday I was in Philly. It was an incredible day, which makes being selective about my "weekly inspiration" difficult. But one of the greatest things that we experienced was the Magic Gardens on South Street, a mosaiced indoor/outdoor labrinth of glass bottles, bicycle weels, ceramic plates, shards of mirror, carved wood... and we happened to get there just as a band was setting up to perform. The artist, Isaiah Zagar, has done many other murals in the city as well, each one filled with his very distinct character.

www.phillymagicgardens.org


Here are a few shots:

PAPYRUS SIGHTING

It's not the first real-life Papyrus sighting of my life, but I was in Wilmington yesterday and saw this:

Process: 4/25

This weekend I engaged in a divergent artistic process. As my comrade and I persevered through using my dubious oven/sporadically heated stove top, we experienced the rising crescendo of triumphant joy that ensues after one has traversed uncharted waters and come out alive and well on the other side.

a.k.a. We made Chai Tea Cupcakes and ate them with 86% dark chocolate and strong, strong coffee.

Also, here is the layout of my Z fold book and cover:

Process: 4/18

Here's what my (unpainted) letter looks like in its proper setting.

Inspiration: 4/18

When I picked up my spray paint for the cardboard letter project, I also pilfered a few of the paint sample chips/pamphlets. I thought Lowes did a nice job creating a design free of extraneous details/imagery. Effectively clean.

And this is a great album cover.

Inspiration: Wedding Flower Arrangements

I love plants and I love wedding arrangements. THUS, I like to use them for design. This company has gorgeous arrangements:

http://www.flowersbymums.com/index.html

Process

One of my potential ACL Book layouts. The illustrations were done in Illustrator. I used my melted record experiments as the heads of the flowers

Grid Poster

Here are two versions of the grid poster with a couple minor variations in logo placement, etc. I still think some of the text spacing/leading could be made less awkward, perhaps... but I'm not sure how!

Process (brought to you by the letter K...)

Here are some photos of my 'K' during the construction process. The best part was how much fun my cats had with all the cardboard and making my letter into a new home...

Later on I made some adjustments and added eye holes and an arm hole:

Inspiration for week of 4/4-4/10

Here are some things that I accumulated over spring break that are "inspirational"...

Packaging for my new watch (based on the dada movement):

Business Card for the Russian Tea Room in nyc. This is great and so is the matchbook that follows, but the only issue is that they don't seem to create a cohesive set/image for the restaurant because they are so different...

Process: Random Posters Thus Far

Here is what my posters currently look like mid-process. I know the text on the bottom left of the reddish/brown one is not working and in general it's pretty busy, but for now it's just creating a shape of some sort. I need to simplify.

The letters on the other one were done with potato stamps that I made and then scanned. I unintentionally took the long route with that... instead of just stamping them on paper in the orientation that I wanted, I stamped the individual letters and then on screen I made the words and positioned them on the page. That took quite some time. But I think I like where it's going, so no worries!

Feedback is welcome!

Inspiration: Counterform Compositions Revisted!!!

If this doesn't remind you of Tricia's class, I don't know what will! This is the perfect synthesis of Ashley's Sonic Form Project and Tricia's counterforms. Pretty cool:
http://zaumbrown.blogspot.com/2008/03/helvetica-gary-hustwit-blu-ray-limited.html

Inspiration: Communication Arts

Here's the last page of the latest Communication Arts magazine. It's all about typography trends and the upper right corner talks about the daily drop cap!

Inspiration: Bad Typography, Good Design

Let's get the bad out of the way first:

In "Out & About Magazine," (the logo for which has unfortunately awkward letter spacing and tensioned-filled overlaps... it's a shame because their ampersand is really nice), I found these two ads on one page:

In looking at the Stone Balloon's logo, I was reminded of Robyn's opinion of Home Grown's Logo, because it doesn't quite do justice to the really well designed interior. Plus, the Stone Balloon logo is stretched vertically in the ad (you can see it in the grapes) which detracts from the professional and well-thought-out appearance the restaurant is striving for.

Below that is an ad for a "Graphic Web Design" company that isn't working. There are three entirely separate elements: the sharpie-esque writing, the eye, and the grey rectangle. Especially for a design company, this logo could do major damage to their reputation and hinder their gaining new clients. 

Now, here's the good: 

I bought a snack/protein bar the other day from a company called "Kind Snacks" 

https://kindsnacks.com/ 

Though I don't love the rainbow motif, the layout is clean, clear, and logical. All the important aspects/distinguishing characteristics of their company are listed right on the front, drawing you in, and then continue to the back of the wrapper, creating a physical representation of just how many things make them special... you literally have to rotate the product to see the whole list. It's also great because I follow a vegan diet and all the major details I look for are right on the front of the package in white letters against a solid black background, not in small print hidden under a flap of plastic.

New Radial Poster & Different Versions of Dilatational Poster(s)