JURISDICTION: an ode to Shepard Fairey's HOPE

Reid, my husband, is a law clerk on the Seventh Circuit for Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook. As the holidays quickly approached, Reid and Chip (his co-clerk) came to me with a design challenge for Judge Easterbrook's Christmas present. They wanted to recreate Shepard Fairey's Hope poster from Obama's campaign as a "jurisdiction" poster for their judge. Supposedly, it is really funny law humor, but quite frankly, I don't exactly get it.

At first, I was a little hesitant to design something that was so closely related to Fairey's piece. In the end decided it was an ironic and humorous twist on his illustration style. Is it too close for comfort? Maybe, but I think it is funny. And, who am I kidding, Shepard Fairy reuses images constantly (for example, this link references Josef Muller-Brockmann's famous piece).

Unlike Fairey's original piece (seen here), my recreation is purely digital. And for those that are curious, no, I did not use the facebook or iPhone app to illustrate this. It is done purely and 100% from scratch. I first used Photoshop to break up basic areas of contrast and then drew a vector illustration in Illustrator. The final piece is a 12 inch x 13 inch print (the first formal printout from my new Epson 1400 printer) which I matted and framed. I have been dying to show it to you, but had to wait for the chamber gift exchange. Honestly, it wouldn't be fair if I shared it here before the judge saw it.

Reid said Judge Easterbrook really liked it. I sure hope so. I will see him tonight at a holiday party and am eager to see if he says anything. I will be sure to let you know if he does.

Shots from Life

Only a few moments ago, I tried to capture the simple beauty of this year's little family Christmas tree before the cats knock it over again. (Yes, that is right, at 2am last night they worked diligently together to make the tree tumble over. Thank heavens we didn't put any of our nice breakable ornaments out this year.)

The tree shots were not turning out as I had hoped so I started snapping photos of the view outside our city apartment windows. The sun was just starting the set, the snow was still on the ground and the photos had some interesting outcomes that I thought I would share.

As I have stated before, we live in the heart of downtown Chicago with direct views of the lake and the Chicago Public library. These photos capture a little piece of what I love about our location.

The Little Things Count at Renegade

As I stated in a post last week, Renegade's Holiday Fair was this weekend and Reid and I ventured out in the snow to check it out. In my opinion one of the best things about Renegade and other craft/DIY fairs are the collection of beautiful business cards I come home with. I snag cards from all the vendors I enjoy, and also have a tendency to grab any that are letter pressed or screen printed especially if they are on beautiful paper. I tend to get very excited about each of these small pieces of design goodness. Sometimes I can't wait to get home so I can spill out my bag and look closely at each one: the printing technique, the paper, the inks, etc.

Above, is a small collection of my favorites from this weekend. Pictured from top to bottom are: One Canoe Two, yellowlion, Pearl & Marmalade, the bird machine, and Just a Jar Design Press. Business cards are such an important piece of design for every creative person. They are a little piece of marketing and promotion that you can carry with you at all times. Each of the pictured do such an amazing job of promoting the designer and/or crafter. I can't help but look at more of their stuff purely because I respect the craft and care that went into their business card design.


One Canoe Two's business card combines beautiful and hearty paper stock with simple and effective illustration.

Bobby's card, from Just a Jar, is an nontraditional size (much larger than the standard card) printed on singly ply cardboard. The stock and size initially made me pick it up, but his use of metal type, design glyphs and metal illustrations is effective and showcases his abilities to work with traditional letterpress materials. Stunning!

I saw a lot of great stuff at the fair which I may share in another post. I also got a LOT of holiday shopping completed.

Hope you are all having a great Monday.

Blog Sharing Time: Wild Ink Press

I have decided it is time to share the Wild Ink Press Blog with all of you. I have been reading it pretty regularly for the past couple of months and am always impressed. I must admit that Rebekah Tennis leads the life that I dream about: she lives on an old and beautiful farm, she has an adorable family, and, the best part, she works in her very own letterpress studio. The designs of Wild Ink have a simple elegance that many of us strive for.

All in all, her blog and her design website are worth checking out. Think of it as a good weekend link.

Plus, she will be featured on the Nate Berkus Show next week. I may need to start DVRing the show since two of my favorite bloggers, Rebekah (above) and Grace Bonney from D*S, will be on next week.

Winter is Here and Snow is Falling

Image via

I get absolutely giddy at the first snowfall. I was excited last night when two microscopic flurries hit my face, and am ecstatic that I woke up this morning to full blown snow. It is even starting to stick on the ground, and since I live right in the middle of downtown that really means something. The cats are in a trance sitting by the window watching the flakes fall. I am in my office, but run to the window every 30 minutes to make sure it is still falling. Silly, I know! But I adore it. As a girl that grew up in Houston, who knew that when I moved to Chicago I would fall in love with snow and winter to the extent that I have. I don't know if I can live without it anymore.

Some of the best things about snow are: it's white, it's fluffy, it doesn't mess up my hair like rain does, it allows for all sorts of new winter sports and activities, and it inspires me creatively and makes me WAY more productive. That last one may seem weird, but it is completely true. From now until March I constantly feel the creative juices flowing (as long as it is snowing). Weird, maybe, but it works for me.

So, enough about me and my passion for snow.

Since it is the first snow, it seems like the perfect day to share The Starn Twins with you. These identical twins and collaborators are among my favorites. Pictured are a couple of shots from an older series, Alleverythingthatisyou. These snowflakes are actually the photographs that made me fall in love with this pair.

Image via

Image via

The Starn Twins are contemporary photographers and artists whose work focuses on extreme scale and altering our perception of the world. In this series, they have taken microscopic photos of individual snowflakes and blown them up to an enormous proportion. In my opinion, each snowflake makes us question individuality and uniqueness. Even if you ignore the artistic meaning, you can't help but see the pure beauty in each piece. I am always inspired and impressed by artists that can take the ordinary and transcend it into a whole new visual realm. As an artist, it is important to change the way people see the thing around them.


If you are intrigued here are a couple of links about the Starn Twins:

• 20x200 feature
• MoCP
• also you MUST visit Starn Studio, their official website

*All artwork is the property of Starn Studio

One of My Favorite Cities Featured on Design*Sponge

Illustration by David Siglin

Today Design*Sponge featured Greenville, SC as the city guide of the week. Greenville is a city that is very near and dear to my heart. My mother was born and raised there, my grandparents live there, and it was the first place I lived on my own after college. I cannot say enough wonderful things about it: the people are friendly, the food is delicious, the city is historic, the shops are a plenty and the roads are NEVER too crowded. I made a lot of good friends in Greenville and often find myself reminiscing about the "good ole days." It made my day to see this blog post, and while I don't normally repost things directly from other blogs, I felt this one deserved the "shout-out".

Hope you enjoy!

Saturday Can't Come Soon Enough...

The Renegade Holiday Craft Fair is this weekend, and I can hardly wait. I am hoping to get a LOT of holiday shopping done. If you are in the Chicago area you should also plan on going. See you there!