Classics and Illustration = Beautiful!!!

I often go into the book store or library just to look around. I am mesmerized by books both new and old. Absolutely everything about books excites me: the stories, the characters, the typography, the design... Honestly, I could look at book jacket design for hours just to pass time. A couple of months ago I was in my local book store and saw these beautiful new covers by fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo. Penguin Classics has done it again. These are absolutely beautiful in every way imaginable. The mixture of type, image and the hand-drawn illustration make me speechless. I am judging all of these books by their cover. STUNNING!!!

THINGS I LOVE: color photography, extreme perspective and a good soft, fuzzy horse nose

For those of you who know me, you know that horses have been and will probably always be a MAIN creative inspiration. Since moving to Chicago, I haven't been able to ride and I miss it terribly. It was always a good stress reliever after a crazy day of design. Lately, I have been dreaming about riding ponies, cleaning hooves, mucking stalls and smelling all-sorts-of disgusting after. Here are a few old photos and one drawing of the horses that have touched my life.

IT'S BACK!!!

This post is WAY overdue. Sadly, back in January 2008, my actual thesis work took over all my good intentions of blogging about the process and progress. So, Tailored, the thesis is DONE. The final product was a success and I graduated with my MFA in May 2008. Since then I moved to Chicago, started my own freelance design company, began teaching at a college in downtown Chicago, and got married to a wonderful guy. A lot has changed, but my passion for creative things is still ever present. Honestly, since moving to Chicago it is working in overdrive. I am constantly inspired by my urban and cultural surroundings, my students and my life in general.

Today, I gave my class the assignment of creating a personal creative blog. I want my students to start focusing on inspiration, design research and the dreaded design writing. There are a lot of assignments and projects I give to my students that I actually want to do myself. This blog is just one of the few that I am actually going to follow through with. So...

Introducing – TAILORED 2.0 – the blog about all things creative custom to my life. Basically, this will be a simple, creative outlet where I post my design concepts, art ideas, books, fashion, interior design, photography, and anything else that inspires me and my work. I hope you enjoy!

PERFORMANCE

Yesterday (while wearing Learn) a conversations was sparked about my skirts as performance art. The more I wear each garment the more I feel that I am living through these designs - the actual wearing becomes my piece (or at least the core part of the project). The idea of blending graphic design with performance art really intrigues me. I want to be an active, living example of graphic design - how the body communicates within natural environments. Since I have been wearing these frequently - they are becoming less noticeable and more "normal". They are beginning to blend - which I think is giving me the results I want. I don't know if it has been done before?

The Key Questions

Why do we wear the clothes we do?
What do our clothes say about us?
How do our clothes help build relationships?
How do they affect community interactions?

Illustrations

In the beginning, I had the idea of working illustration into the overall project. As it turns out - it didn't really relate well and has pretty much been scrapped. To give the work some deserved viewing time I decided to post them here...

Designed Shots

I may be jumping forward in process, but I just cannot hold back any longer. Last Friday and Saturday, Clint (my amazing, dedicated and incredibly fun assistant) and myself started photographing directed shots of me wearing the skirts. It was really cold outside and taking these images provided a lot of stares from on-lookers...