eva nouveau

You Work For Them

You Work For Them is a great source for designers, offering everything from stock illustrations and fonts to Japanese design books and limited edition posters. I always find some thing to inspire me... take some time to poke around the shop... lots to love.

You Work For Them

Oh Joy!

I have been a daily reader of Oh Joy! for about a year now, and each day I get a tasty little nugget of loveliness to carry me through. Joy always finds great fashion, home furnishings, and resources to inspire. With the launch of her business, Oh Joy! Studio,  we find out that Joy is a very talented designer! Joy's work is whimiscal, romantic and feminine (check out her wedding invitations to her sweetie, Bob).

See the work: Oh Joy! Studio   Read the blog: Oh Joy!

I love Freebies!

Well, maybe I should be more specific. I love free stuff I can use, like sample sizes of my favorite hand cream (great for your purse!), loads of free paper samples and other paper related goodies (thank you HOW Conference!), and of course free fonts and typography resources. Which brings me to Font Shop's typography magazine, Font. Editor and type god (how many times can I read Stop Stealing Sheep???) Erik Spiekermann describes the magazine as filling a "basic need for more typographic knowledge amongst designers regardless of the medium in which they work." Word up. oh yeah, its free. :)

This Spiekermann chap is a generous fellow... on the Font Shop site there is plenty of stuff to lose yourself in like, free fonts , Type Tips and stock photos  taken by designers for designers.

Font Magazine

Say What?

I get lost in this site.... The Visual Dictionary is a collection of 3000 photographs of 2000 words found in the "real-world". Not only is it a cool idea, but it is a kick-ass way to see a lot of typography, good and bad. Best part? You can contribute your own photos.

The Visual Dictionary

This ain't your grandma's quilt

The other day I was getting my nails done flipping through an old issue of Vogue when I came across a little story about Ian Hundley... Ian makes beautiful quilts based on typographic maps of Europe... what I like about his work is that his inspiration comes from something entirely unrelated to his craft... remixing what it means to be a quilter.

Ian Hundley Studio

so much inspiration...from just one piece!

Sometimes I like to document my path across the web as I explore... tonight I have been spending a lot of time inspired by this piece that was at the Crane's display... it is a promotional piece for Lettra... I began researching it and here is what I discovered along the way...

I started searching on Lettra and that led me to the Philadelphia AIGA where they describe the above piece as having been designed by Michael Osborne Design in San Fransisco... as I was looking over MOD's work I began to remember that I saw Michael speak years ago at an OTIS lecture series... I remember how inspiring he was and how is discussed his process of sketching as a way to think through designs...

MOD has done some really inspiring work for Target, William Sonoma, Janie and Jack and Gymboree not to mention designed one of my favorite stamps ever, the 2002 Love Stamp for the USPS... take a minute to look over his portfolio when you get a chance.

From MOD I traveled to One Heart Press, which is owned by Michael Osborne, so I bet it was the printer for the Alphabet 26 piece from Crane. I remember Michael showing some One Heart Press pieces during his lecture (could that lecture been the beginning of my love for letterpress?)... There is some lovely work done there, and next time you are in SF you can drop by for a tour...

Then I was off to find out more about Alphabet 26, the typeface featured in the Crane's piece. Designed in 1950 by Bradley Thompson, Alphabet 26 was an attempt to unify upper and lower case letterforms as a way to simplify the alphabet. More about Alphabet 26

Typography Intensive

I got a pretty comprehensive look at the mechanics of letterpress from an awesome resource called TypeCulture. You can watch movies of everything from how a Ludlow and a Monotype work to a silent film from the 1930s of Frederic Goudy, yes the Goudy, hand-lettering and then casting type for Saks Fifth Avenue. My favorite is the TypoMania piece from the 1980s that features typographer Erik Spiekermann's take on how type moves us.... his insights are still true today.

In addition to the movies, TypeCulture offers up what could be a typography intensive course through its compilation of educational resources, articles and essays. I am going to have to block off a couple of hours to dig through all the goodies...

TypeCulture  A Digital Type Foundry and Educational Resource

great design resources

I love this Thinking with Type book by Ellen Lupton... it is a great resource for understanding how to use typography, and it is a quick easy read with lots of insight. I remember when I bought it I was flipping through a bunch of books on typography, and this one was the only one that went into the Golden Section, so this is the one I bought. The other day at Sw pe in Toronto I saw that Ellen Lupton edited a new book, D.I.Y Design It Yourself and I had to get it. It is also a quick read and has tons of great ideas and project starters... everything from how to design a press kit to t-shirts. If you get a chance, check these babies out.

D.I.Y and Thinking with Type

If you are looking for something to do, visit Ellen Lupton's site. She has a ton of great links and even offers free advice!

Flatstock Rocks

I am becoming addicted to silkscreen posters and I am sooooo bummed that I missed the Flatstock 8 show at SXSW last week. Flatstock is a "...poster show series is presented by the American Poster Institute(API). It is an ongoing series of exhibitions featuring the work of many of the most popular concert poster artists working today. The API is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to serving poster artists and promoting the art form."

 If you missed it too the Flatstock site has a bazillion links to the artists that showed. Most of the artists offer prints for $20 to $40... real art for your pad, at "fake art" prices! 

Here are some of my faves: 1.Kangaroo Press  2. Strawberryluna  3. Ghost Town 4. Amy Jo  5. Furturtle

Check out all the artists at the Flatstock site.

Oh Canada!

OK seriously, I have fallen head over heels in love with Canada. Until I moved to Detroit from Los Angeles I never really gave Canada much thought. Sounds weird, but I just thought of them as our friendly neighbors to the north*, and since I had always lived in states that boarded Mexico, I poured my affection on my amigos. Now I am singin' another song. I have been to  Toronto  a bunch of times over the past year, and each time I go I can't wait to get back.   What I like about Toronto is that it feels like New York, but its not so congested that you can't drive if you want, you have the option of public transportation and you can have rockin' city living without the outrageous prices of Manhattan. Plus, if you live in greater Toronto area, you can have Candice Olsen  design your space! Oh to dream...

Thanks to swiss miss I found these great cards from Uppercase Gallery in Calgary, BC. Next time I am in T.O. I am gonna send one of these home.

Uppercase Gallery, Books & Papergoods

*Here is a bit of trivia for you... to get to Canada from Detroit, you actually drive SOUTH to cross the border into Windsor, Ontario. Neat!