I Like CB2

I had mentioned CB2's online store before, but earlier this month I had the chance to actually go to a CB2 store. It was so cool—I already loved their stuff but seeing it all in person was really fun! I would describe CB2 as a higher end Ikea with a more artistic feel. They have some really creative, modern items.

So I thought I'd share a few of my favorite items from their website with you all.

01 // cage fuel pendant lamp

02 // orange chick candle holder

03 // victory pendant lamp

04 // slip c table

05 // bruno task lamp

06 // meat and potatoes plate

07 // hitch marigold stool

08 // idle/go 12" clock

09 // techno crazy stripe plate

10 // plaid orange 18"x12" pillow

11 // concrete low dresser

I love the way CB2's style is modern and a little bit minimal, but still colorful, happy, and funky. It doesn't look stark and blank, but it still has a fresh, modern appearance. Do you have a favorite item from the ones I posted?

Check it out yourself: CB2.com

Artist Spotlight: Tang Yau Hoong

I saw a link to Tang Yau Hoong's work on Smrvl, one of my favorite design blogs. He does both graphic design and illustration, but I love his illustration the most, so that's what I want to feature today. What's so cool about his illustration is that it looks good but it also reveals some pretty ingenious concepts and ideas.

In this piece, I really like the contrast between dark and light. The dark, looming black buildings compared with the bright, cheerful sky, is interesting. The texture is also really nice. I think it gives the illustration a little bit of a retro style.

This piece is just so cheerful. I love the colors (gray!) and the use of white space is good as well. Having everything "float" in the middle is interesting composition-wise, but it works really nicely in this illustration.

The detail and use of light in this one is amazing. The style reminds me of engraving art (where you scrape away black covering to show a silver or colored background). All the tiny marks look meticulous but really neat. I like how the light gradually radiates from the middle, and how the circular shape and the light draw your eye into the middle of the illustration.

This one is just amusing to me. It's called "Moustacheville." What a creative idea to draw just about everything in moustache shapes! The texture is nice in this one as well, and the black and white makes for good contrast.

I love this one. It's so beautiful but not in a prissy, flowery kind of way. The focus on one shape (the feather) makes it look very cohesive, and I like the image within an image. This is in Tang Yau Hoong's negative space category, and the way the birds are "cut out" of the feather using negative space is really cool.

I like the contrast in this piece. It's similar in color scheme and contrast to the first image, and I like how the silhouettes make such a nice contrast with the blue sky. The eye shape with blinds drawn over it is neat visually and an interesting idea.

This is another ingenious illustration—it's called "Hourglasses." Love it! The colors and texture are very cheerful, and I like the way the colors and the style of the glasses gives it a bit of a vintage look.

This is one in a series of playing cards. I would never have thought of illustrating playing cards (not that I could do it if I tried), but I love the idea. The texture is really nice, and I like the way the clubs descend in size as they go farther back.

This is the final image I want to feature, and it's from Tang Yau Hoong's series "Surreal Light." Again, this concept of illustrating light is a very creative concept. I like how joyful this seems even though it's a scene taking place at night. The little boy looks so happy to be on his light-swing!

I'd love to know what you think of Tang Yau Hoong's illustration! Do you like it too? Great illustration is always amazing to me. I have no idea how to do things like Tang Yau Hoong does, but I sure appreciate his work.

Update: Thanks to Jalynn, I looked on Threadless and found some Tang Yau Hoong t-shirts. Check them out!

tang yau hoong's:
illusion & surrealism
negative space
pop & fun
playing cards
surreal light

Art Books, III

One last post about art books for today - this batch is mostly picture books and books that are just fun to look through. I hope you like them!

15. 10 by Marion Bataille // I haven't seen this one in person, but since it's by the same author as ABC3D, I'm sure it's really neat.

16. ABC3D by Marion Bataille // I looked through this whole book twice when I saw it. It's a pop up book with the whole alphabet in it, and the way the letters are presented is so creative!

17. Farm Anatomy by Julia Rothman // The topic of this book doesn't directly have to do with art I guess, since it talks about farm life, but I love the wonderful illustrations by Julia Rothman.

18. 642 Things to Draw // I saw this in Anthropologie and it's really neat! I definitely need some incentive to keep on drawing, and this looks like a fun way to do it.

19. The Exquisite Book // I mentioned this before, and it looks really neat. I like that it has fold out pages (I know that thanks to online pictures).

20. Design*Sponge at Home by Grace Bonney // I love the Design*Sponge blog, and the book looks neat, too. There's a special Anthropologie version with 16 extra pages.

21. Hyperactivitypography from A to Z // This is a typography activity book that looks like fun. Some things don't look entirely G-rated, but the design is good and I like the concept of an activity book about typography.

22. Paul Thurlby's Alphabet by Paul Thurlby // This is meant for kids, but I love it. I actually blogged about Paul Thurlby in my inspiration series. This is one of the books I saw while I was shopping, and I really liked it. It has such fun, vintage illustrations.

Any favorite books from today's list?

Art Books, II

I have more fun art books to share with you today! If you missed part one, check it out here so you know what's going on with these weekend posts.

8. Indie Publishing by Ellen Lupton // I got to flip through this one in a gift shop, and it looks really cool. It talks about all kinds of independent publishing—from "real" publishers to handmade books.

9. Colour Mania // This looks like a fun design book. I really like the colorful cover, and from Amazon's preview, the inside pages look filled with design inspiration.

10. Little Book of Letterpress by Charlotte Rivers // Another book I got to look at in person while shopping recently. The cover is actually letterpressed (whoa!), and the book itself is full of pretty letterpress items, organized by company.

11. Little Book of Screenprinting by Caspar Williamson // Haven't seen this one in person, but if it's anything like it's letterpress relative, it's bound to be very cool.

12. How to Make Books by Esther K. Smith // I found this one at a gift shop recently, too, and it's really excellent. The cover is made of cardboard which is way cool, and almost any book about making books is lots of fun.

13. Fingerprint No. 2 // I don't know much about this book or the first version, but it's about using handmade elements in design which I think is a neat concept.

14. Fingerprint // The first in a series of two about handmade design elements. I love the idea of not only using the computer for design, and these books seem to support that.

So do any of these books sound especially interesting to you?

Art Books, I

Recently I got to go to an art museum and to Anthropologie and other places with some friends (it was delightful!), and I kept running into neat artistic books along the way. I was able to pick up and hold some books that I'd seen online, and this reminded me of all the neat artistic books that there are in the world. I didn't buy any books, because if I had bought all the ones I wanted, it would have cost many $. But I took note of the ones I could remember, and I wanted to share them with you, along with some other graphic design and art books I've heard about on the internet.

So I thought I'd do a little weekend feature about art books. I'll post part one today, and parts two and three will follow on Saturday and Sunday. I hope you enjoy a peek at some of the books on my wish list!

1. Making and Breaking the Grid by Timothy Samara // Grid systems are big in graphic design and while I know basically nothing about them and this book looks way over my head, it looks good!

2. Just My Type by Simon Garfield // This looks like a book for a type nerd like me. Something that would be interesting to read—informative and fun.

3. Logo by Michael Evamy // This is an anthology of logos—it looks packed with lots of great logos.

4. Type Addicted // I know very little about this book, but it caught my attention because of the topic (typography!) and also because the sample images I saw on Amazon looked like they had some unusual type ideas shown.

5. Paul Rand by Steven Heller // I don't know anything at all really about Paul Rand's life so I'm not sure what this book says, but he did some excellent logo design and it would be interesting to learn about him.

6. Vignelli Canon by Massimo Vignelli // This is a book with designer Massimo Vignelli's rules and standards of good design—it seems like a great resource! Recommended by a designer who knows what he's talking about and available as a PDF.

7. Symbol by Angus Hyland // Similar to Logo, this is an anthology of symbols. Again, this seems like a vast resource!

Do any of these books jump out to you as being really cool?

Artist Spotlight: Jude Landry

While I've featured artists on my blog before, this is my first official artist spotlight post! Today I want to introduce to the work of Jude Landry.

Jude Landry does graphic design, illustration, and lettering quite well. I heard about his work first through seeing his "You're Just My Type" poster featured on FPO, and that poster is pretty cool. The typography is custom done in an font he designed.

I like the way the letters are laid out on an angle—that makes it more interesting. The print process was also interesting to read about. He used silver ink screenprinted on dark paper.

Another poster he designed using a similar technique is this one for a Jessica Hische lecture. I love the pretty, ornate J. It's kind of like Jessica Hische's own work which was intentional - it says on Jude Landry's site that the letter was inspired by Jessica Hische's drop cap designs.

I love how simple and striking the design is. The J takes center stage, but the text is still prominent because there aren't a lot of competing elements in the design. The two color look makes it really eye-catching.

Another poster I like a lot is "Do You? Recycle." It's a different style from the first two, but it still has that simple, striking quality of design which is hard to achieve.

I like how he took the recycling symbol and reconfigured it into a question mark—very cool idea. It's also worth noting that this was designed back in 2008. I think it's admirable when designers have work over a span of several years that remains good.

And Jude Landry has also done some music-oriented stuff, which I really like. Band items and album covers are some of my favorite graphic design items. Here's a custom type t-shirt that he did for a band called Otis Ockley.

The typography is neat—I like seeing custom type that's not a swirly script font. Although those are great, it's good to remember that custom type is not limited to that style.

And here's the CD packaging for a bluegrass band called Nash Street. I love album covers, and this one is excellent. Great colors and style.

I like the way this has a collage, scrapbook kind of style to it while still looking cool and band-like. It's warm and inviting, but not warm and fuzzy (if you know what I mean).

All in all, from what I've seen of his work, Jude Landry is a versatile and good designer. He's one of many whose work I enjoy seeing. What do you think of his work?

Ampersand Love

Ampersands. They're a well-loved symbol among graphic designers, myself included. They're a wonderful graphic element all on their own, even aside from the fact that they're used as a symbol for the word "and." I saw a post about ampersands on Design for Mankind and found several things I loved, and I ran across another ampersand poster I wanted to feature. So enjoy some ampersand love today. :)

I love all the ampersands on the identity for Bloom & Stone (via Design for Mankind). Using many different styles of ampersands was a great idea!

The mix of ampersands with fun patterns is excellent. It really gives them a look that's recognizable—a very important element of a brand identity. I also love the die cut ampersands in the business cards—interesting paper treatments are always so cool!

This letterpressed ampersand poster by Jessica Hische (remember her?) is so lovely.

This custom done ampersand really highlights how beautiful and elegant these symbols can be. I'm always a fan of custom type, and the turquoise color on this print is great, too—it's elegant but not stuffy and has a little bit of a modern look that's a fun mix with the ornate design.

And finally, Design for Mankind pointed me to some neat products by Ampersand Design Studio. What? A whole studio named after the ampersand? What a cool idea. Their signature series prints and platters are really nice.

I love the main ampersand best—what a great typeface that must be! But the pattern with lots of different ampersands is fun, too. I love the neon and silver prints—what great colors.

Do you love ampersands too? What do you think of the items I featured?

Artist Spotlight: Introduction

Two things for today:

[one] Keep your eyes out for artist spotlight posts in the coming weeks. Every now and then I feature the work of artists I like. This is a fun thing for me to do, and I had thought about doing a series on it something like my inspiration series - a post each day for a week or two. But as I thought about it, I decided to just make these kind of artist posts a regular part of my blog schedule, so instead of a series, I'm going to make it an official ongoing topic. So that's what's up with that.

[two] I want your participation and help in this new venture! Please feel free to suggest artists to feature. Most of what I post will have to do with graphic design and illustration since that's what I'm especially interested in, but I'd like to throw in some fine arts and photography sometimes, too. So please keep the comments coming on my artist spotlight posts. I'd love to make these posts a dialogue about good art. If you'd like, you can start now by sharing your thoughts about this topic in the comments section!

And I also would love your help in coming up with ideas of artists to feature. If you have an idea, email me.

Room Redesign

Over the holidays, about a month ago, I started redecorating my bedroom. It's the first time in years and years since I'd had my own room, and it was fun to pick all the decorations myself. So today I wanted to give you all a little tour of the room so you can see what it's like.

When you walk into my room, on the right is my desk (from Ikea) and chair (also from Ikea) with pictures on the wall.

Above the desk, I have a picture with Helvetica in it (from an old typography book), a clipboard covered in fabric, and some pictures in a frame.

I really like my desk. It's so nice to have a big tabletop to work at (before I had a tiny desk with an angled top). The desk was just about the cheapest one from Ikea, but the legs are sturdy and I like the way it looks.

In the corner, I have a set of stacking drawers where I keep my scrapbooking supplies, journals and papers and stuff, and extra electronic things (like cords and chargers). My beloved typewriter sits on top with a page from an Anthropologie catalog inside. That's another thing I can change whenever I want.

I found the curtain at Bed Bath and Beyond, and I love it a lot. The branch pattern (which you can't really see very well in this picture) is kind of similar to the tree branch I have in the corner of my room. I just found one from outside that I liked, but it in a vase with some rocks to keep it steady, and hung little white Christmas balls on it for decoration. I don't really mind that it's not Christmas anymore - these can be a year round thing.

Oh, and the curtain rod was from Ikea. I like the way it looks, and it was only $1.99. Score!

My bed is on the left side of the room, with pictures hanging above it like a mobile. I just used a white quilt I had already—it has a flower pattern on the other side that doesn't match, but you'd never know it since the white side is plain.

Beside the bed, I keep that Ikea trash can for some books I'm reading and journals I use regularly. Even though it's meant for trash and not books, I like it because it's tall and hides everything pretty well. I realized that of all the things in my room inspiration post a couple months ago, this trash can was the only thing I actually ended up buying!

The pillows are also from Ikea, but the color they came in didn't match, so I bought fabric at JoAnn's and made covers for them. I love both patterns of fabric—they're just exactly what I wanted.

The photo mobile was so much fun. I really love the way it looks right over the bed. The photos spin so it looks a little different each time I look up at it. And it means I can have dear friends nearby all the time!

It was actually really easy to do. I just had a bunch of black and white 3.5x5 pictures printed, and stuck one on either side of a piece of thread. It took some planning ahead to figure out how many pictures I wanted on each thread and where to hang them, but that really paid off in the end because it meant I didn't have many mistake holes in my ceiling. The one thing I learned is that it's really important to use lots of adhesive!

So I guess all that's left to show you is the wall where the door is. If you're in the room facing the door, I have a bookshelf to the left of the door. Here's where I store all my paper-covered books. Then, on top of the bookshelf, I keep my iPod alarm clock (such a wonderful invention!) and a vintage camera and pair of opera glasses and a leather @.

Above that, I have a small bulletin board. You might remember that I used to have a really huge bulletin board in my room, but in redecorating, I decided to use a smaller one. I like that it's a small, contained space in which I can put up things I like. Right now I have some magazine pictures and a few Post-It notes with Scripture verses on them. Originally the bulletin board was regular cork colored, but I painted it with the gray wall paint so it would blend in more.

To the right of the door is a tiny space between the door and the closet where I have a hook for my camera a picture frame with fabric in it, and a bin of magazines where I also stuck the other @. The fabric was going to be a temporary solution until I could put something with words in the frame, but the fabric idea has really grown on me and I think I may leave it just like this.

I do want to say that even though my room looks pretty clean and orderly, I've got my mess areas. My closet is pretty junky, as is the area behind by bed by the wall (and yes, it was intentional that I did not take pictures of those places!)

But minus the messy areas, that's my room! I'd love to know what you think, so please comment and give me your thoughts.

Giveaway Winners

The winners of the Pantone postcard giveaway are...

Meghan, Veronica, and Mary H!

I will be getting your postcards to you soon. Congratulations!

Giveaway Ends Soon

Enter to win a set of five Pantone postcards before midnight tonight! Go HERE.

Maricor/Maricar + Land of Nod

Remember me talking about Maricor/Maricar and their embroidery? It's quite excellent. And on Design*Sponge recently, I saw a cover they did for a Land of Nod catalog. I love this catalog cover.

It's really detailed as you can tell, and yet the basic two color scheme makes it a really strong design. I really like the embroidered look and how it embodies that "out of the box" style and philosophy for design. Do you like this cover too?

Weekend Links 1/20

+ linus dean rugs
Via Design Happens.
I love these typographic rug styles. They are so fun and make good use of excellent type.

+ 10 diy wall art ideas

Via Poppytalk.
This blog post features some fun wall art ideas like this one. I love it!

+ blogs notebook

Via Design Happens.
I like this notebook (from J. Crew, surprisingly enough). It's a nice, simple, design, and the concept of writing down internet bits in a notebook is great, I think - it seems like an effort to keep paper things going even in an wired world.

+ harvest season ruffle scarf

From Ruche.
Love this. The color and the ruffles.

+ photobooth glasses

From Oh Happy Day.
These printable photobooth props are very fun. They'd be great for a party! And they're free, too.

+ patterned silverware

Via Design for Mankind.
This silverware is so fun. It's funky, but elegant too.

Any favorites from today's weekend links?