Happy Weekend!

Five more minutes until 5 o'clock...

Happy Friday everyone! This week has been very busy – in the very good kind of way. I got a lot of work done, have some new potential clients lined up that I am very excited about, and started a new term of school teaching my favorite topic, typography. I am still fully engaged in the "it's going to be a great year" mentality.

This weekend my brother-in-law is coming into town for a med school interview. We have some fun things lined up, but are most excited about spending some good quality time.

Before the weekend clock tolls, I wanted to share the above image from artist, Dalton Ghetti. Ghetti carves teeny-tiny sculptures out of the graphite on top of pencils. If you can believe it, that is the full alphabet on top of the pencils. AMAZING! I have admired his work, especially the piece above, for some time. I thought it would be a perfect image to start the weekend because it describes my week in a very artistic and slightly abstract nutshell (hard work, #2 school pencils and the alphabet). Hope you enjoy!

Inspiration Overload: Juniper Books

I love books – reading them, designing them, and collecting them. There is something simply wonderful about the tactile quality of flipping through the pages of a book that will never be matched through digital e-readers. Today, while "digitally" reading the New York Times, I was ecstatic to see an article that combined books and design.

Juniper Books, operated by Thatcher Wine, is an online store that sells books both new and old to interior designers and architectural spaces. I am fascinated by every aspect of his business, but am most inspired by his custom designed book jackets. These breathtaking jackets wrap around a wide variety of different books, but, from what I understand, the intention is to create well designed interior spaces using books as art. I am a firm believer that books can be a great example of design and/or art, and love that Wine is pushing this idea to greater heights.

Wine's clients range from wealthy home owners to national retail stores like Kiehls. The paper he uses is stunning, and his custom designs are practically magical. The photos from this post are all from his custom wrapped book (via his website) and just give a glimpse into his work, but I recommend going to both his site and the NYT's article to be inspired more.

I hope that one day I have a library big enough to have both a nice book collection and one of Wine's creations. (ahhhh – to dream.)

My Cousin Amy's Wedding Design

My first goal for 2011 is to finish my new personal identity logo, and to finally, after much delay, build a new and improved portfolio website to showcase my work and availability. As of today, my logo and business cards are almost complete (stay tuned to see the finished product), and I have started pulling work to photograph for the website, which brings me to today's post...

Almost two years ago my cousin, Amy, asked me to help with some of the design for her wedding. Of course I was thrilled to help, both because Amy is a close cousin and friend in Chicago and wedding design is an area my job that I absolutely adore. She was getting married in Atlanta and wanted her wedding to capture sophisticated southern charm. We kept the design classic, adding texture with sophisticated patterns and focused on Amy's favorite color, Tiffany blue. The design details were a nice touch for a beautiful wedding.

The favor cards were placed at each table, and helped carry the design through the reception (which took place at the gorgeous Kimball Hall in historic Roswell).

My grandmother and aunt's hosted Amy's bridal luncheon at the Swan Coach House. We wanted to invitations to allude to the ceremony design, and play off of the extremely southern and charming Swan Coach House.


The wedding programs were a nice and simple touch for all the guests as the walked into the ceremony. To give the programs a formal and textural feel, we used high quality pale blue paper in a linen texture, satin ribbon and a vellum overlay. This was our DIY for the wedding, but the hours of putting these together paid off in the end. (Thanks to Brenda Upton for the wonderful shot.)

TCHO Chocolate Inspiration

I ran into Macy's State Street the other day to pick up one tiny thing, but came out with a few boxes of fabulous chocolate (pictured above). While walking through the 75% off gift section, I spotted TCHO's holiday gift boxes and couldn't pass up the great deal (fancy chocolate at a very reasonable price) or the stunning package design.

I have been very impressed with TCHO's package design for quite some time. The San Francisco company uses simple and modern design to grab the attention of the design conscious. Recently they joined forces with Max Kisman, a Dutch illustrator, to create a remarkable holiday campaign. Kisman's work has also been an inspiration to me in the past. He works with a cut paper aesthetic which strongly plays with positive/negative space leading to subtle meaning and humor. Each illustration also uses bold colors in an effective way that is hard to achieve.

TCHO + Kisman = Design Inspiration Love!!! What do you think?

Goodbye 2010 & Hello 2011

an engagement photo by Olivia Leigh Photographie

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2010 was an overall great year both personally and professionally. January 1st always leads to reflection over the previous year. I am so thankful for all that happened this year. Topping the list of wonderful things in 2010 is the fact that on June 19 I married my best friend and "now" fantastic husband, Reid. It was truly the most special day of my life so far, and I will cherish the memories forever. I am a very lucky girl to have such a loving, caring and funny man in my life. Our first 6 months of marriage have been a blissful learning experience.

wedding photo from Lindsey McIntyre Photography

As for 2011, I am very excited to see what happens in the upcoming year. I feel like I am finally realizing the creative direction I want to take in life, so stay tuned for exciting changes over the next year.

Reid and I had a great discussion about our resolutions for the New Year yesterday. I want to share the few I came up with, partially so I have them written down and posted to the whole world. Hopefully, this action will hold me more accountable for them.

• Focus: I want to stay focused on my professional goals for the year. I have a tendency to get sidetracked from all the things I dream up, but know that in order to achieve my newest goals I must stay committed.
  
• Keep Perspective: I worry way too much about the silliest things. This year I am going to try and relax and not let the little things stress me out.
  
• Be Domestic: I want to start cooking and tidying up more so our little apartment feels more homey. Right now, Reid cooks all the time and I take it for granted. And, I often let work get in the way of me doing little domestic things, but I am going to attempt to take breaks to accomplish this.

I really look forward to the next 365 days and to fulfilling each of these resolutions. Most importantly though, I hope that 2011 brings another healthy, happy and prosperous year for all my loved ones (including my blog readers).

Happy New Year!

Champagne in Style

Over the holidays I have been watching a LOT of Mad Men, and, to put it simply, I absolutely adore the "Mad Men" style. I am almost finished with Season 1 – I can't believe how long it took me to start watching this series. Everything they do on the show seems classy, even when, most of the time, it's not. Each episode I watch gives me some sort of inspiration whether it's a lipstick color or a creative concept. Recently, I caught myself wanting a pair of yellow rubber gloves to do the dishes just because Betty Draper has them. It's a problem, I know.

Today, I have been thinking more about the sixties style of Mad Men and how they would celebrate the New Year. No doubt about it, they would be using beautiful crystal coupe glasses. As we get ready to head out the door for a simple celebration with a couple of friends, I wanted to share a few pictures of my favorite vintage and vintage-inspired coupe glasses. They are beautiful, and I love a glass of bubbly.

Just an FYI, if you are interested in searching for these vintage glasses online use "sherbet glasses" instead of "champagne" or "coupe". You will get many more results, which just makes me giggle inside. I guess, since most of these were made in the 50s and 60s, sherbet sounded much more refined and "appropriate". :)

Betty with a "sherbet" glass.

These are simple and elegant. Found on ebay.

Vintage Waterford Lismore coupe glass. Found at replacements.com which is a fantastic place to find vintage crystal and china.

These, from Kate Spade, are festive and fun!

This incredibly festive glass, from Glastonbury and also found on replacements.com, might be my absolute favorite.

Happy New Years Eve! I wish you all a fun and safe celebration tonight.

Farewell Kodachrome

As of today, the last role of Kodachrome film is being developed as reported by the New York Times. This is a very sad day indeed, as it shows, in my opinion, the negative affects of technology on photography. Kodachrome is (was) AMAZING – one of my absolute favs. This is probably because of its ability to capture extreme color, which I am obsessed with.

I get very morose when I think about film being retired because "everyone in the world" is digital. Honestly, there is just something about film and the photographs it produces that cannot be matched digitally. Words cannot explain, the relationship that is built between the photographer, the film and the darkroom. It's a magical relationship that isn't experienced enough today. Once upon a time, I could spend hours upon hours in a darkroom. It was a zen like experience that I still yearn for.

Anyways, I digress...

I tried to find old Kodachrome slides of my work to scan in and show you today, but they seem to be in storage. You heard me right, these beautiful slides are carefully packed in a "literal" binder somewhere down in our apartment's storage basement, and I don't have a digital version. Bummer!

Let's all take a moment to remember and honor the great Kodachrome. Oh, how you will be missed.

image via NYT