Pantone Postcards + Giveaway

With a Christmas gift certificate, I bought a box of 100 Pantone postcards. I love them. They're very fun and I love the way they look just like Pantone chips. And I want to share them with you.

so how about a giveaway?

Do you like that idea? I sure do. Here are the details:

• Three winners get a set of five postcards each (pictured above).
  
• To enter, comment on this post. It's that easy!
• The giveaway ends on Sunday, January 22 at midnight. I'll announce the three winners on Monday!

Happy commenting!

Some Fashion Inspiration

ModCloth is a favorite online place of mine. They have so many fun styles and my "love list" on ModCloth has 177 items as of the time I'm writing this. In other words, I'm a big fan. So I thought I'd put together some imaginary outfits from ModCloth today (like I did before) with color schemes at the bottom - this way I get to share some of my favorite ModCloth items and explore color options. There are links to each item underneath the collages.

outfit one:

shoes + shirt + skirt + necklace

I love the pattern of that skirt, and the way the little patterns make up the big chevron pattern. It's probably my favorite item in this outfit. The color scheme is very warm and cheerful.

outfit two:

necklace + sweater + dress + shoes

Of course I had to have a gray and yellow outfit. No surprise, right? Of course I love the color scheme in this (kind of like my blog!), and I especially like that necklace. Big, funky necklaces are a favorite of mine.

outfit three:

dress + boots + bag + scarf

This outfit has a very warm color scheme which is cozy and cheerful. I really like the white dress with funky boots. And the crinkly scarf is such an interesting texture.

What do you all think of these outfits and color schemes? I'd love to know what your take on them is.

2011 Type Highlights

Since I've downloaded some free fonts from MyFonts, I get their newsletters, and one came recently that I enjoyed. This newsletter talked about MyFonts' most popular fonts of 2011, and a few were really excellent. I picked three I liked the best to feature today, but you can see all 15 of them at the online newsletter.

one: centrale sans

This is a strong sans serif typeface for sure. It looks like there's a pretty big variety of styles and widths to the font, which is always great. This is the kind of typeface that I think would be great for designing a book - easy to read, with lots of flexibility for different styles of titles and text.

two: burgues script

This is a gorgeous script font. I love the multitude of swirls and how they turn the text into what looks like an independent graphic elements instead of just lines of text. This would be really pretty for a formal design like an invitation.

three: populaire

This font is so fun. I'd probably use it on a fun, indie looking magazine cover. It's handwritten, but also consistent and "regular" enough to be readable and look organized. It has a different look than most handwritten fonts, which tend to be very whimsical and casual.

Do you have a favorite of these three? (Or if you look at the full newsletter, are there any fonts you like from there?) I'd love to know what you all think.

Lovely Calendars, II

I'm back this week with some more lovely calendars! First up is this delightful vintage handkerchief calendar from Mink Letterpress (via Design Work Life).

find it on etsy!

I love the vintage look, the letterpress (a favorite technique of mine!), and especially the colors. They're soft and soothing, but not so pastel as to be boring. They're vibrant and really have a vintage look to them. This calendar is so pretty.

Here's another great letterpress item: a linear calendar from The Made Shop (via Design Work Life).

buy it!

I love the modern, graphic look of this calendar. And that look paired with letterpress is a great combination. Both the colorways this calendar comes in are great. The neon of the pink and yellow design is bright and fun, and the white and gray one is simple and striking. I'd put that one on my wall in a minute since I love gray so much.

And for a different kind of calendar, here's a chalkboard wall calendar from Three Thirty Six on Etsy.

buy it!

I love chalkboards, and this calendar is a great idea. It looks nice on a wall, and it would be very useful too!

Also, this desk calendar by Delphine at Felt & Wire Shop is very fun.

buy it!

I like how each month's calendar is a work of art, and yet they all have a similar style so they match and look somewhat consistent. I really like some of the color schemes, like January and September for instance.

Another cool calendar I saw is this tape measure calendar from Present&Correct. It's very compact and such a neat idea!

Wouldn't it be fun to have such an unusual calendar?

Finally, before I go, I want to link you up to another free download: a printable calendar by Love vs Design (via Poppytalk).

download it!

This is quite well designed - I'm loving these printables that are actually well done. There are four different color schemes to choose from, and the style itself is cheerful and fun.

Which of these calendars do you like best?

Who Knew

That packaging for olive oil could be so creative? I like this design a lot - especially since, if I'm not mistaken, it uses Quicksand, one of my favorite typefaces and the one I used for my blog redesign.

Via Lovely Package.

Weekend Links 1/13

+ channeling your inner lumberjack

From Fossil.
Saw these fun pictures on the Fossil blog recently - plaid + work boots is a big win in my book!

+ 50 strange and unusual buildings

A fun list of some pretty cool architecture. Here's a favorite:

+ 2012 utility crate

From Felt & Wire Shop.
Some lovely office supplies - very cool!

+ handwritten type

Via Lovely Package.
I love the typography on these food packages!

+ thousands of stickers

Via Poppytalk.
Really fun images of what happens when you let kids go crazy with stickers in a blank white room. I'm posting before and after images, but you can look at the whole process.

+ assorted letterpress notebooks

From Felt & Wire.
I love these fun, colorful notebooks!

Do you have a favorite link from today's assortment?

Jane Autumn

My friend Veronica asked me if I would design a logo for her. She is a writer, and she's in the process of developing a blog and starting to get her work "out there" more. Her pen name is Jane Autumn, so I used that as a springboard to create a design.

The first version of the logo incorporates Veronica's pen name with an icon. She told me she wanted a bit of a Gothic feel to her logo, so I incorporated that through the typography I chose.

I immediately connected "autumn" with leaves, so I used a leaf as the main icon to go with Veronica's logo. The leaf icon incorporates her initials in an abstract way.

In creating two versions, I tried to create a look that would work together well, but also that would allow each element to stand alone and be identified by itself. This was such a fun project for me to do - I'm happy with the results and Veronica loves it, too! I'm so glad she's pleased with how it came out. What do you all think of this new logo project?