Just Saying...

I know everyone is busy with starting up a new school year (I am too!), but I did want to just briefly mention that...

Thanks. :)

Inspiration: Words, Part 1

Today I thought I'd share a quote about Christians and the arts. As a Christian who does art, and is planning to study art seriously in the future, truth-saturated writing about what it means to be a "Christian artist" is so helpful to me. This quote is one that is particularly encouraging and inspires me to think rightly about art. It's from an article by Andy Farmer called "Values for Christian Artists" that is such a wonderful, concise resource. I'd recommend reading it (you can access it here), but for now, here's my favorite quote.

That's what art is. It's pouring perfume on Jesus' feet. Worshiping Him. Adoring Him.

But it's easy to think of art as so many things. And it is other things. But nothing that art is could possibly be more essential or central than this. First and foremost, art is for worshiping and honoring our Savior - just like all the rest of life!

This is important for me to remember. Of course I know it in my head, but I forget it so often in practice. When I'm doing something creative, I usually am thinking about how it looks or how much I like it or how much other people will like it. When I think about the part art might play in my future, I can focus more on getting a job or reaching out to other people or being in a certain environment. But while those things are relevant and have some degree of importance sometimes, I can make them primary when really, what matters is whether I'm being creative for the glory of God, and wanting to please Him with the art that I'm doing.

I like the image of pouring perfume on Jesus feet, like the woman whose story is told in the New Testament. She was so amazed and in awe of Jesus that she bought expensive ointment and poured it on His feet. Is that kind of amazement and worship characteristic of me? Often it's not. That's why I need to write about this - to talk to myself and remind myself of what's true! But this quote inspires me to become more like what this quote describes. To seek to worship with my art and not just "do" it. To use it as one more avenue to bring praise to my glorious Savior because He is so worthy of my whole life. He gave His very life on the cross for me, so I could be counted righteous and adopted into God's family. So shouldn't all I do be worship to Him?

Inspiration: Graphic Design, Part 1

Today is the second installment in my inspiration series, and the first post in the graphic design category! I have some fun things to show you all today. While not all my inspiration posts will have a certain theme or focus within their category, today's does. All the things I'm going to share today inspire me to think outside the box. The design I want to show you today is very creative, unique, and nontraditional, and looking at graphic design like that makes me want to think beyond the boundaries of the Adobe Creative Suite and plain colors and fonts (although those things certainly are valuable and powerful).

Let me show you what I mean. To start off, I want to show you some book covers (you know I love book covers) that incorporate a craft technique that usually isn't associated with graphic design. These book covers for classic books, designed by Jillian Tamaki, are embroidered!

The Secret Garden, by Jillian Tamaki

Emma, by Jillian Tamaki

Aren't those cool? Even aside from the fact that they're embroidered, the colors alone are striking. But the detail and the creativity of this idea is so inspiring to me. Black Beauty is also part of the series. You can view that, and the entire dust jackets for all the books here. (Please do, because there's lots more coolness than what I posted!)

This concept of outside the box design seems to be in style right now, but beneath the trend, I think there's some wise thought. There's nothing wrong with traditionalism in design, but there's also a place for doing something brand new and innovative, and to a large extent, that's what designers have to seek to do. Of course, there's not really such a thing as complete originally, but there is such a thing as "different from the norm," and embracing that can make for a more interesting design and more successful marketing. I don't know about all designers, but I know I can get stuck in a rut of doing things a certain way, and while systems and routines are good and helpful, sometimes I get so bound by those that I forget that - hey! - someone could just embroider a book cover! And Jillian Tamaki did. Her work on the Penguin Threads series is great. I'd love to have one of those books, probably The Secret Garden.

Next up is another neat, out of the box piece of design work. Do you remember me blogging about the designer Jonathan Ogden? This is a typography poster he created using loose tea.

I think it's such a neat idea to make typography out of some object. And doesn't the poster look neat? It's nice typographically, but the texture that the photos of the tea letters provide make it more interesting and unique. Again, this is an outside the box idea. You could make an alphabet poster by typing A through Z in some computer software. Or you could use tea. Which do you think is better? Honestly, both ideas have merit. The sheer power of typography (even when it's just typing in software) needs to be noticed. But there's something about rethinking the obvious that is fresh and unique, and should be applauded. And probably practiced a little more often.

The next thing I want to share is another book. I saw The Good Life Cookbook on A Friend of Mine, which is the design group responsible for it. It is such a neat book.

The Good Life Cookbook, by A Friend of Mine

The cover is well designed, but I think the real excitement in seeing this book lies in the cumulative effect of the different pages, and in the typography techniques.

First of all, isn't the style so charming? I think that's a good word for my opinion of it. It's warm and fuzzy and happy. But the design techniques were also SO creative. Look at the prominent use of photography, for instance. Most of the book is full page photographs with design interwoven seamlessly. The AFOM website says that there is "harmony and unity between type and image," and that is certainly true.

The way typography was used is also interesting. Here's a picture from the website with some of the stencils that were used:

It's so neat to see a hands-on picture from a graphic design project. There's something original (or maybe something old being rediscovered) and wonderful to me about designing at least partly away from the computer. The custom typography was used in different formats throughout the book, like ink and flour and pastry. Isn't that cool? A word of type made out of pastry. A Friend of Mine does such neat work.

Here's one last picture showing the pastry word.

Please, please, pretty please check out the rest of the images right here on A Friend of Mine.

I have one more neat graphic design-y thing to show you before I finish for the day, and this one also has a lot to do with typography. Dana Tanamachi is a graphic designer and chalk artist. Chalk artist? Maybe you had never heard that term. I honestly have never heard it applied to anyone but Dana Tanamachi. She does amazing typography all with chalk! If you have ever written on a chalkboard, you'll know that it's easy to make it look like ugly scrawls, and hard even to make it look as good as your normal handwriting. Somehow, Dana Tanamachi makes it look just like this...

From Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine, May 2011, by Dana Tanamachi

That's so neat, isn't it? It really is chalk art, and I love how neat the typography is and how each "font" used is unique. And most of all, I love how this expresses the whole outside of the box concept I've been talking about. Chalk is an unusual media for graphic design, and yet it works so well! Who would've known? See lots more of Dana Tanamachi's work here.

Well, that's all for today, folks! I'd love to hear what you all think of these inspiring, outside of the box graphic design things that I've shared. Which one do you think is the most inspiring?

Inspiration: Art & Crafts, Part 1

Welcome to the first day of my inspiration series! I'm so excited about sharing some really
neat stuff with you all this week. I hope you enjoy it.

I did want to mention that most of the words and comments I give during this series have been thought up on the spot. I haven't thought about how certain things inspire me and how I could act on that inspiration until I'm writing the post in many cases. So I am thinking on my feet here. :)

Also, I realized I forgot to mention in the announcement post what inspired me to do this series. Ellie did a series on her blog awhile ago on inspiration, so that's where I got the idea. Thank you, Ellie!

Today's theme is art & crafts, so I'll be highlighting some different artists' work and other artistic things.

I'd like to start with some classic photography. Jalynn mentioned in a comment that photographers like Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, and Elliott Erwitt. I had already been familiar with Dorothea Lange's work, as you probably are, too. She was a well known photojournalist from the Great Depression era. She is best known for her migrant mother photo. As I looked at her work, this photo caught my attention.

Members of the Mochida family... by Dorothea Lange

I think this photo stuck out to me because it was different from most of what Dorothea Lange is known for. Her Depression photos are unforgettable (as you will see soon), but this one is of a Japanese family awaiting deportation to an internment camp during WWII. The clarity and realness of this photo is beautiful. And I think it's so interesting to observe the different expressions of the members of the Mochida family. I think the second little girl from the left looks so sad. I think the reason this photo is important because it says something. And that's hard to do. It really speaks to a heartbreaking time in American history.

I want to share another of Dorothea Lange's photographs with you because they are just so excellent. This is one of her Depression photos, but one I hadn't remembered seeing before.

...Children living in camp by Dorothea Lange

I love the emotion in this photo. The children truly look alone and scared in the midst of much hardship. But what's also interesting about this photo is the use of proportion. A closeup of the children would have been powerful, but the faraway perspective makes the building look massive compared to the small children. To me, that only reinforces the themes of sadness and fear.

These photos inspire me mainly because of what I said before: they say something. Also, I like them because they're bold. Dorothea Lange wasn't afraid to capture what was true even if it wasn't happy or lighthearted. I think that's a good quality in art.

I also wanted to show you one photo from another photography Jalynn mentioned, Elliott Erwitt. I really liked his work when I looked it up. Some of his photos are PG-rated, but there's such a creativity and a genuineness in so many of them which I really love. Here's one that I think is especially neat.

Alabama, 1955 by Elliott Erwitt

The silhouette is neat, the composition is stellar, and the fact that the sign says "Southern Charm" makes it a winner in my book. The excellence of this photo is inspiring, but also the southern-ness of it (at least for me). I love the south. A lot. And even though some of his photography is pretty lighthearted (like his portraits of dogs!), other photos, like Dorothea Lange's, really say something. Even this one seems to have undertones of social commentary. Is the woman walking by this sign a recipient of "southern charm," or does she suffer under a society dictated by racial prejudice?

These kinds of photos that say something may seem rather disconnected. How can we use these great ideas when we're not photojournalists walking down the street recording fascinating commentary on society? I think the fact that these photos say something is broader than just photography. Graphic design is certainly capable of saying things (sometimes literally using words!) and manipulating images to say things within graphic design is a way I could apply this idea.

I'd like to show you another photography-related source of inspiration. It's a blog I came across recently called The Burning House. What? A blog about houses burning down?

Yeah, I know it sounds odd. But it's not a blog about burning houses. It's a blog that posts pictures and lists of what different people would bring if their house was burning down. It's an interesting study, and the presentation photography is very artistic I think. Just the idea of gathering a bunch of stuff and taking a picture of it is unique. I thought I'd show you two of the pictures with links to the posts.

UPDATE 9/1/11: I recently saw a post on The Burning House that was significantly inappropriate/disturbing. I still certainly appreciate the idea behind the blog, but I wanted to let you know that there was something inappropriate so you can decide whether you'd like to visit the blog.

What a 2-year-old would bring. Details here.

What a 19-year-old would bring. Details here.

Now I'll transition from photography to other types of art. First I want to show you an example of fine art, a piece by Charles Demuth. I know nothing about this artist, but I really like the piece! I saw it on the blog Smrvl.

I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold by Charles Demuth

I love the typography in this design, and the overlapping colors. But what I think inspires me most about this piece is the detail. This was not a quick little something Charles Demuth whipped up. This clearly took time and attention to detail. That's an important part of art that I can sometimes forget, and seeing things like this certainly inspires me to take time and work carefully. Also, look at all the layers and three-dimensionality in this piece. It looks like it continues back farther than the canvas.

Before I wrap up today's post, I have one more artist's work to show you. And I think it will make your jaw drop.

Peter Callesen does the most amazing paper cutting work I've ever seen. This is no fold-a-paper-in-half-and-cut-a-snowflake deal. (And snowflakes can be pretty elaborate!) Just take a look...

The Roots of Heaven, by Peter Callesen

Are you wowed? Talk about patience and attention to detail! That is what strikes me most about this piece of art. And I love the creativity of having the tree hang down off the page. That takes skill too, to cut it all out in one piece. That technique is pretty prevalent in Peter Callesen's work.

But it gets even more stunning.

White Window, by Peter Callesen

Isn't that neat? It's so huge! I can't even imagine making something that big out of paper.

That's it for today... I hope you all liked looking at this art & crafts inspiration! Please let me know what you think! Did you have a favorite piece I posted? Or is there a piece of art or an artist that really inspires you?

Inspiration Series

Okay, it's time for another series, everyone! I'm so excited to do this series on inspiration. Now you see what was in the back of mind when I asked you all what inspires you, right? :)

This is going to be one huge series, because I've found a lot of inspiration to share with you all. I've divided all my inspiration into several categories: graphic design, art & crafts, home decor, color, and product & fashion design. Some of these hold more examples of inspiration than others, so some categories will have one post, and others will have a couple. Just to spice things up, I'm going to be alternating these categories as well (instead of doing all the inspiration in each category at one time). In addition to the main categories (which all have to do with visual types of inspiration), I'll be doing a couple posts containing words that inspire me. Those posts will be a little shorter, probably with a quote or excerpt and then my response to it.

But real quickly, I want to be clear on what I mean when I use the word "inspiration." My meaning is simple. Inspiration just means things I see that I like and that make me want to be creative. That's all. It's not some wishy-woshy, pseudo-spiritual, feelings-based aura, which is how the word is sometimes used.

To help you keep track of all this craziness, here's a handy schedule of what I'm planning to do starting on Monday, the first day of the series:

Week One:

8/29 art & crafts, part 1

8/30 graphic design, part 1

8/31 words, part 1

9/1 home decor, part 1

9/2 weekend links

Week Two:

9/5 product & fashion design

9/6 graphic design, part 2

9/7 words, part 2

9/8 art & crafts, part 2

9/9 weekend links

Week Three:

9/12 home decor, part 2

9/13 color

9/14 words, part 3

9/15 graphic design, part 3

9/16 weekend links

That's what I'm planning on as of now. Things could change during the series, so we'll see how it ends up!

And even though I usually do a giveaway along with the series I've done in the past, I'm not doing one this time because I just finished a giveaway yesterday, and even before that, I had two giveaways associated with my business card sale. So this series is just for the sake of having a series.

A word about links...
I often link to other people's websites throughout my posts, and I'll be doing a lot of that in this series. Instead of saying this each time I link to someone, I thought I'd just say up front that, while I try not to link to anything that is highly inappropriate, I also don't automatically endorse everything I link to. I'm recommending the specific images and things that I post about, but other things on websites I link to may or may not be wholesome. Usually they are, but as always, please follow my links with discretion. :) 

I hope you all like my inspiration series! Please comment and join in the fun. :)

P.S. The font for the banner in this post, and the one I'll use for all other banners, is Theano Didot.

The Winner

I've chosen a winner through Random.org, and I'm happy to say that the winner of their very own copy of Celtic Cross's new album Commence is...

Really.

Truly.

Most definitely...

Brooke!

Congratulations! I will be mailing you your CD, and it should get to you within 3 weeks.

Act Quickly!

The giveaway for the Celtic Cross album Commence ends today at 12:00 noon. Hurry and enter before it's too late! 

I'll announce the winner here on the blog by the end of today.

Some New Free Fonts

Since my computer got revamped, I've had to download and reinstall all my fonts and Photoshop actions. While I was browsing through FontSquirrel looking for the fonts I had before, I came upon some new ones as well that I thought I'd share today. Under each image is a link to the download page on FontSquirrel.

DOWNLOAD

DOWNLOAD

DOWNLOAD

DOWNLOAD

DOWNLOAD

DOWNLOAD

DOWNLOAD

DOWNLOAD

I'd love to know what you think of these fonts! (And I'm sorry. I just realized I misspelled "permanent." Don't follow my example.)

Announcement Time

Hi everyone. I have an announcement to make. It's a change in how I'm going to be blogging.

Instead of doing a post every day, from now on, I will do one 5 days a week (I'll take off Saturdays and Sundays every week). As the schoolyear is about to get under way, it just seems like a good idea to cut back just a little. But of course I still love blogging and want to keep up with it as much as I can, so this 5-post-a-week thing seemed like a good idea.

I hope this doesn't shake up your world too much. I'm not signing off forever or anything like that!

And there's another part to this announcement, too...

I'm stopping Friday Finds.

What, you say? How could you stop Friday Finds? :) Well, I'm only stopping it because I think I've come up with something I like even better that will fit better with my new posting schedule.

It's called Weekend Links.

Instead of a find each week, I'll post a picture (or a couple pictures) and a link for you all to enjoy over the weekend. It might be an Etsy shop, and artist or designer's website, a few books that look interesting to me... we'll see how it goes. In lots of ways, it's pretty similar to Friday Finds, just with a slightly different title and purpose. This Friday, I have a special series to announce (ooh, suspense!), but every Friday after that will be a weekend links post.

I'd love to know what you all are thinking about these changes. Thanks for being super great blog readers!

P.S. Please don't forget to comment/follow/like what I posted about yesterday. It's a giveaway!

Celtic Cross: Commence

Today's post is one I've been just itching to write. I cannot wait to share this with all of you! This past fall, I had the opportunity to start working on a really neat graphic design project: CD packaging. I loved designing this project (and I got to take the pictures of the band for the album), and now that the CD is finally in print, I can share it with all of you!

First, a little background. The CD I designed is called Commence, and it's the debut album of a band called Celtic Cross. This band is amazing and they play both traditional Celtic music and Celtic Fusion. Musically, the album is fabulous (I'm listening as I'm writing this!), and I saw them in concert this past week which was also amazing. So I cannot recommend the music more highly to you.

For the design of the cover and the rest of the packaging, I chose green, gray, black, and white - colors that are a little Celtic looking but also a little funky. The Celtic Cross emblem is a main design element throughout the whole package, and I'm so excited I found a font that mimics the lines of the cross so closely.

The background on the front and back covers, and the inside pages too, is a combination of a plain gray color, a picture of telephone lines, a picture of wood from the stage of the Ryman auditorium in Nashville, and a picture of blurry wood. It was fun to blend those together to make this one-of-a-kind background!

I wanted to keep a good deal of continuity throughout the whole design, but I did add in some different colors to keep from making the texture background overpowering. The CD itself is plain black with white writing (I like the contrast that gives).

And then the inside of the booklet, with descriptions of all the tracks, is green with a slight texture.

I love this album, and it's so exciting to finally have a copy in my hands after working on it for so long.

And you know what?

I'd like to share a copy with one of you. I'd like to put a copy in YOUR hands.

So I'm doing a giveaway.

Here are the details:

• You can win a copy of Celtic Cross's new album Commence, with the packaging designed by me.
• If the winner lives nearby, I'll give their CD to them in person; if not, I'll need a mailing address. I will get your prize to you within 3 weeks of the giveaway's end.

How to enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post (easy, right?).
2. Follow my blog. (Only new followers get an extra entry.)
3. Like Celtic Cross on Facebook HERE.

If you follow or like Celtic Cross on Facebook, you must leave a second or third comment on this post letting me know you did so that you can gain your extra entry or entries.

The giveaway ends on Thursday, August 25 at 12:00 noon. I'll announce the giveaway winner before the end of the day. I hope you enjoyed looking at the CD cover, and please comment to enter the giveaway!

Important information:
My portfolio (where you can see images of the album).
Celtic Cross on Facebook.
Celtic Cross on MySpace.
If you would like to buy a copy of Commence, please email: celticcrossmusic[at]gmail[dot]com.

I'm Back!

My Dad so very kindly spent most of yesterday giving the computer I use a complete overhaul. It worked wonderfully and the computer is back to normal and running just great! I will be back to normal blog posting starting tomorrow now that the computer is all better. Thanks for your patience!

Look for a post tomorrow, but in the meantime, check out the Periodic Table of Typefaces. It's so cool! I have it set as my desktop background right now.

[Thursday] Finds: The Futura

I'm doing Friday Finds on Thursday this week, but after that, I'm sorry to say I'll have to take a couple days off because my computer has been moving really slow lately. Over the weekend, I'll be trying some things to help, so hopefully I'll be back soon!
I saw a bag with this design on it awhile ago, and I was so excited when I ran across the poster version on Etsy. Isn't this cool? Find it here.

Some Design Inspiration

I'm planning to talk a lot more about inspiration soon, but for now I wanted to show you some of the work of a designer I recently found. Jonathan Ogden is a web designer for Message:Creative but he also does graphic design, and his work is excellent! And he's a Christian, besides, which is so encouraging for me. I love seeing believers doing great art.

Here's some CD packaging that he did. (View more about it here.) I really like the natural, almost woodsy style mixed with modern, cool, and simplistic.

Jonathan Ogden also curates Typographic Verses, a Tumblr site containing posters of Scriptures and lines from hymns. Here's one of the posters he did.

Another set of work by Jonathan Ogden that I really like is his 100 Daily Designs. There's lots of really neat design there that I've enjoyed browsing through. Here are two of my favorite pieces.

Aren't those neat? I'd recommend the rest of the designs, but do be aware that there's one mild swear word in one of the designs (on page 3).

Jonathan Ogden's work is great, and it inspires me because it's not cluttered or crowded, but it's still purposeful and detailed. I like that balance. I hope you've enjoyed the things I've showed you! I'd love to know what you think!

P.S. Jonathan Ogden is also a musician. Check out Maffiss Music!

I [Heart] the Beach

I said I post beach pictures, so I will. I loved this trip to the beach even more than usual. Lovely weather, lovely ocean, and wonderful conversations with my family. Hope you enjoy a few beachy pictures!

I'd love to know what you think of the pictures!