On my way home tonight, I was just thinking about adding some fonts to my collection for some inspiration… and hello, in my Inbox was an email from FontShop - new fonts!
P22 Imperial Script, from International House of Fonts (IHOF), above - so pretty, still very readable. I’m working on a “moving” card for my grandmother and had used a pretty flouncy script without thinking of who would be reading it (older eyes). I think this one is beautiful and still seems readable.
Matinee Idol, from Comicraft, above, looks fun for a letter, maybe even for a name on stationery.
P22 Zaner, also from IHOF, above, includes over 3,000 glyphs (oh, overwhelming!) and features “the beautiful stroke contrast of penman Charles Paxton Zaner.” It’s awfully delicate, but I love anything with a bit of a flourish…
Need something with less flourish? They’re also introducing a big handful of fun new comic fonts from Comicraft.
Filed under: greeting cards, letterpress | Tags: greeting cards, letterpress
Once again, digging around in my folder of saved favorites, I noticed a theme of some I’ve been hanging on to: letterpress animals. Here are a handful from several letterpress studios, featuring beautifully detailed halftone animals.
Above, a peacock and goldfish from Joie Studio (I noticed she’s all sold out of these at her etsy store - cross fingers for more!?). Below, happy birthday cards from Fiddlesticks Press. Lynne Amft at Fiddlesticks designed and created a whomping big line of animal cards for many occasions, and supplements that line with some beautiful custom work. (Although, for some reason, her animals all say something… odd… I suppose I’d prefer if they just moo’ed or coo’ed.)
And, of course, a fave from Sesame Press, below. I picked this one up at Paper Source in Chicago. Sesame features the most amazing curlique accents, and has quite a collection of animal coasters and greeting cards. I’m so not down with Illustrator-squiggle-technology, and I remain in a state of swoon over their beautiful curly ornaments.
Cactus - the next big thing.
I’m just saying. They’re so bizarre, these plants, in all their round and phallic shapes, all covered with fuzziness and prickles. Surreal… I first noticed them this season at a local nursery, Goldner Walsh, which had tables full of tiny and odd varieties in tiny pots - perfect for a “gardener” like me. (A gardener who appreciates plants that appreciate neglect, that is.)
I couldn’t get enough of the wild specimen at the Garfield Conservatory in Chicago. Rob thought I was nuts; he had no interest in the cactus whatsoever. But I just kept staring at them and had to go back to take more pictures. Even A New Leaf on Wells Street had a beautiful little display of tiny versions, hard to pass up.
Get out of the way, standard hens & chicks. Make room for more sculptural, hyper-textural varieties.
So, here I am, yawning on to Rob about cactus; about how weird and utterly fascinating they are. Are they not weird and fascinating, from their appearance to their biology to the way they have adapted to their environment?
And then the other day I received my email from 1st dibs, announcing their new batch of antiques - and lo and behold, I noticed these fabulous faux cacti (above) for sale! Except, they were no longer for sale; they’d already sold! Further proof that cactus are totally hot right now, right?
When I logged on to my computer at CCS the other night, I often check and see what leftover little images people leave on the desktop. No kidding - there was only one image saved to the desktop, and it was a southwestern vista featuring cactus. Like a sign.
I’m no trend-setter. I’m not terribly a trend-follower. But, like I said, you heard it here first - cactus. A perfect way to have a garden without doing too much gardening; and a lovely and inexpensive way to invite texture and sculpture into your space.
Was so happy to be introduced to a neat little website with a fantastic concept - collecting submissions of photographs from all over the world and categorizing them by color. Random Got Beautiful (RGB!) was created by Nikki Farquharson, a British graphic designer and photographer (visit her main website to check out her work right here) and encourages you to submit your own images, so long as they feature a dominant color.
Screen shots of purple, blue and green images via Random Got Beautiful. Can’t wait to see it grow and grow. And, a big thanks-so-much to Karey of Mackin Ink for pointing me in its direction. Visit Karey right here; I adore her writing style so much (and she tells such poignant stories and includes beautiful pictures to boot).
Filed under: art, color, photography, typography | Tags: art, neon, photography, lettering
Not only did it snow here yesterday, but it snowed… a lot. Full coverage snow: shovel the sidewalks, scrape the car windows, lumpy white-covered yews. I was ready for spring months ago and this winter is becoming positively agonizing. So - sorry to go on and on about it, but seriously! As a result, I’ve found myself seeking out colorful, fresh, springlike artwork, photography, inspiration… anything to cling to the hope of spring!
Take this photograph, Lawn, by Scottish artist Graham Fagen, and his War/Garden (After Tubby), below, in fabulous green neon. I’ve never noticed neon so much before - for some reason, I’m totally keyed in to looking at neon signs and lettering - and can’t get enough of this hand-writing style of neon lettering.
Art from another Turner Prize finalist (see my little post about finalist Tracey Emin right here), Nathan Coley, We Must Cultivate Our Garden, is pictured below (line is from Voltaire’s Candide). I admit that right now I immediately like these pieces for the superficial sentiment (despite the fact that both pieces above and below indeed have deeper political meaning) - I appreciate the literal call, in bright spring green, to forget about things and just get our hands into the garden.
So excited to have come across these fantastic videos from Boxcar Press. (I don’t know if I can embed the video, so click here to watch the series, with more to come.) I’ve often thought Boxcar has some of the best resources, information and inspiration on their site, and now they’ve set a seductive letterpress video to funky music a la a VW commercial. As if I needed another reason to want to do this letterpress thing?!
I could also continue to yawn on about how much I admire the work of Boxcar’s sister company, Bella Figura… fantastic! They’re doing such amazing letterpress work in Syracuse - holy cats, I am green, green, green with envy. How far is Syracuse from Detroit? Anywho. Right. Letterpress videos.
Is it spring yet? Here in Michigan, it’s just not. warm. enough. The grass is an awful dead color, mini piles of snow are now covered with blech dirt. So, another dreary day on the books here, which is why the cheery colors of British designer’s Anne Kyyro Quinn’s gorgeous felt pieces - pillows, cushions, throws, table runners - are the perfect antidote. Using felt and linen, she designs vibrant and textural pieces… just had to share a few! Love the graphic circle cushions, above (available in a range peppy colors) and loop cushions below.
If you, too, are in need of a spring boost, try Anne’s tulip cushion, pictured below. Select cushions are available via Rose and Radish, or visit Anne’s site for the full fix and to locate other suppliers.
The few days following a major candy holiday provide for some major willpower tests. Easter is particularly tough, what with the beautiful little pastel foils around Reese’s peanut butter cups and the pastel rainbows of M&Ms - offered at 50% off the subsequent week. So far, I’ve been good. No sale candy here.
But I’ll make a candy exception for the delicious photography of Craig Kanarick, featured online right here. (Above, Big Rounds is a bit Damien Hirst, no?)
Aptly named 16 Starbursts, above, and Bear Pile, below:
And studies of shape and design are of particular graphic/design interest - candy sorted by color and arranged artfully. The color candy studies, besides offering a very cool graphical and color block image, include some candy I’ve never seen but will have to search out (red candy Eiffel towers! all those gummy letters!). They also encourage the idea to take a second look at everything around you - even the most mundane objects can offer some terrific inspiration.
The color-sorted candy piqued my interest because this weekend I learned that Rob never sorted his M&Ms or candy by color as a child. I thought that so odd, because I almost always did. He says he didn’t because he had competition around in other siblings; I had all the time in the world to sort my M&Ms and think of different ways to eat them without any threatening hungry siblings - whether working my way down to one of each color, or eating all of one color at one time… Mmmm! See much more here.
It’s a bit of a dreary day here today, despite being the first full day of spring. So it was such a treat to come across the colorful artwork of Jacob Dahlgren (via the fabulous Dear Ada, who apparently also needed a good, strong shot of color!). Pictured above and below are shots of his installation in the cafeteria at the Volvo Powertrain headquarters, in which he used loads of colored wooden blocks to create a random graphic wall installation.
In his other work, Jacob also uses a lot of color blocks. Featured in his portfolio is “color reading and contexture” (pictured below), a room-sized installation which includes “wood, tiles, chocolat, carpets, plastic, isolation and a lot more” all organized by color and displayed in stacks:
Filed under: art, color, furniture, textiles | Tags: art, chairs, felt, stuffed animals
Moss’s Daily New email today mentioned the book about the fabulous work of the Campana brothers, Fernando and Umberto. The book, which includes a complete overview of their work and a forward by Murray Moss, is now out of print - so be sure to grab yours now!
The book would make an excellent substitute for their pricey and limited edition work, and will surely provide miles of smiles and loads of inspiration. The Brazilian artists design and create some pretty wild stuff - particularly chairs - using felt, stuffed animals, metals, found wood, synthetics. Below is a smattering from their collection, most of which are available through Moss.
Above are two variations of the Sushi Chair IV, built with felt (yeah!) rolled into concentric rings. Other sushi chairs play with the variations in slices and color mixes - some are sliced more cleanly, some left a bit more wild (above right). Below, the Sushi Chair II reveals more of the rolled “sushi” detail by using flattened cross-sections.
What a zap of fantastic, graphic color! I could see the close-up of the cross section (below right) informing so many other designs - from rugs to pillows, artwork and tapestry, stationery, floor or ceramic tiles… agh, endless - it’s fab! The chair below (and many of their designs) was created in a limited edition batch of only 35.
And, of course - impossible to resist their even more whimsical Banquete Chairs, featuring both alligators (only) and a mix of stuffed animals (pictured below). Hello!
[Photos via the amazing Moss.]
