This is beautiful.

Printzzz

"The road is life." My first ever broadside! I loved doing this. It's a quote from Jack Kerouac's On The Road.


"Shipwrecked." Polyester plate lithograph.

OU Site Re-Design: Not a Fan.

Ouch. It physically hurts me. It looked like Microsoft Paint threw up all over UO's homepage. Urban Outfitters, usually a haven for fun, hip, funky design, is using stretched and skewed type. Weird placements, awkward arches of type, questionable typeface choices--it's just awful. However, I recently came across an article that at least made the ugly explainable. Brand New had this little blurb that said that "UO’s new look feels purposely ugly. It’s hip-ugly without a wink."

Wha??? I don't get it.

It also gave a link to this excellent Michael Beirut article that further explained it. Apparently, Ugly is Back. But I agree with Beirut: "Dear God in heaven: at long last, is nothing sacred?"

Hopefully UO's site re-vamp comes sooner rather than later.

Into Lately #4.

1. This photostream.


2. Scott Avett's art, especially his woodcuts.


3. Lizzy Janssen.


4. J.Crew's website design. Simple, classy, and fun.


5. The Apache Relay.

Into Lately #3.

1. Billy Elliot.
An old favorite of mine, everything about this film is gorgeous. I'm in a film class right now, so I was way more aware of the quality of this movie than I have been in the past. It's perfect. Plus, I can't get over the accents, and the set. I want all the wallpaper from his house in mine!



2. Kid CuDi.

Okay, okay, I'm quite late to the game on this one, but he's fantastic. Plus, look at that album art. Sweeeeeeeeeeeet.

3. Dolan Geiman A mixed media artist I came across about, oh 10 minutes ago in my daily blog rifflings. "Contemporary art with a southern accent," gotta love it. His stuff is rad.

4. Modcloth I can't get over how much I love this company. Their clothes are pretty and I love their site. Every piece of cloth (EVERY PIECE) has a funny, clever title and a cute description next to it. Plus, they feature indie designers, so you're getting really unique pieces. Who doesn't love a little vintage flair?

5. This song by Neil Young. I wish the video was in sync, but at least the audio is pretty high quality. I love the lyrics!

I want to work here: Modcloth.




Yeah.

So glad I came across this guy.

Just listen.

Mixed tape.

"What do you love about music?

...To begin with, everything."

Into lately #2: Short and sweet.

1. Road trips.

2. Yulia Brodskaya.

3. David Sedaris.
4. New Mexico.
5. Joan Armatrading circa 1979... though she's still pretty grand.

Campus Christian Fellowship Poster

splatters and drips.

I made a mess doing this!

It's up!

I just submitted a new design to Threadless! Check it out by clicking the link below, and, if you're so inclined, vote on it to give me a better chance of getting printing! Woot woot!

Things I'm into lately: #1!

I've decided to start a weekly "inspiration" post. It'll keep me at least a little on task updating this thing, even if it's with other people's design/work/creativity rather than my own! It'll be five-ish things that I'm "into" that week.

#1. Kelly Cutrone.

She's the PR diva and marketing queen who founded People's Revolution, a super successful fashion PR and marketing firm. I first saw Kelly as Whitney's scary-as-hell boss on MTV's The Hills (Say what you will, but I love that show... and if nothing else, the episodes are only a half hour long, so I'm not wasting THAT much time!). She says things like, "Do not roll your eyes at me. Do not question what it is we're asking of you to do. I'm not here to be your friend."* She soon turned into one of my favorite parts of the show--she's sarcastic, down-to-earth, unforgiving, and completely unafraid to hurt others feelings (but in a good way).

I was at my sister's apartment and noticed a book with her picture on the front, titled If You Have to Cry, Go Outside, and Other Things Your Mother Never Told You. It's a book she's written for women that's a refreshing slap in the face. A real-world guide to following your dreams, Kelly talks about finding yourself by listening to yourself and following your intuition. I'm only 30 pages in and I'm already hooked. Who knew the scariest bitch-boss could be so inspirational? Kelly, you're my hero.

2. Crazy Heart

I saw this film starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Robert Duvall last week. It's about an old, washed up country singer who is broke, sleeping with a different woman every night, on the edge of his health, and drunk more than he is sober. He meets a younger woman and considers changing his ways. The soundtrack is fantastic, the cinematography is superb, and Jeff Bridges gives the performance of a lifetime. It really is a great film. The back of the movie box said, "The harder the life, the sweeter the song." Beautiful, right? Plus, it takes place in the Southwest, and I'm gearing up for a road trip down that way, so I was especially delighted by the setting.

Speaking of which, this also leads me to the next item on my list...

#4. Palo Duro Canyon,

Located in the panhandle of Texas, it's the second largest canyon system in the United States, and a place I plan on stopping to see on my road trip. Pretty stunning, right? I can't wait to see it in person! I've never been to the Southwest, so I'm pretty psyched to check out that corner of the country. Plus, there's something so completely American about a road trip. The open road, the corny roadside attractions, the fast food stops... it's going to be superb! Plus, we're camping the whole way down, so that should be an adventure in itself.

#4. This desktop wallpaper.

One of my favorite design blogs, Design*Sponge, features a new artist every month by releasing a sweet desktop wallpaper with a calendar on it. I really love this month's, which was made by Betsy Walton of Morning Craft. Pretty swell.

#5. Threadless.

This super cool site features t-shirt designs submitted by designers. Other users of the site score and critique the designs. Then the Threadless gurus hand pick the designs to be printed from the highest scored designs. If your design gets chosen, not only do you get the glory of having your very own piece of art made wearable for anyone to buy, but you also get 2000 green ones! Pretty rad right? Above is one of my favorite shirts that's been printed. Keep your eyes open, I have submitted a couple of designs myself, and am continuing to work on some others! I would be pretty psyched to get chosen, and I know it's a long shot, but a girl can dream! I'll keep you posted when I submit my next design.

That's it for my first designspiration post. I'm suspecting most weeks won't be this long....

Tel-Alumni Posters.

Here's a poster series I worked on for my job on campus. I heart hand-drawn type! This was probably the most fun I've had with a job so far this summer. Yayay.

Upcycled thrift store belt

I recently went on a little visit to the local thrift stores in downtown Kirksville, just to browse. These days, thrift and second hand stores seem to be the only places that I can afford!

Anyway, in addition to a great, super soft vintage-y ringer t-shirt (Iowa State Wrestling Champions 1987, woot woot!), I found this great leather belt with roses engraved into it. It was tiny (I think it must have been made for a little girl!) but I thought I could do something cool with it, so I bought it. Along with the t-shirt, I spent an outrageous 75 cents. Not bad, eh?

Yesterday I finally got around to being crafty and made some leather bracelets out of the belt! I got out my x-acto knife, bought some suede cord, and got crackin'. They came out pretty neat, yes? Oh, and I had another leather cuff that had fallen apart, so I used the suede cord to make it wearable again! Maybe I'll donate them to AIGA for our fundraiser this fall, or give them as gifts... hmm!!

Painted jars and bottles

A few weeks ago I decided to actually use the glass jars and bottles I've been trying to remember to recycle by sprucing them up a bit with some paint!

I've only done the two so far, but I plan on doing more. I also was delving through the archives of a newly discovered design blog that I love, Poppytalk, and saw this post. I thought it was a really cool yet simple way to paint bottles that gave them a really finished, polished look (more so than mine anyway, lol). Hmm... next weekend project? I think so!

4 posters and a thought.

Ey, I haven't been keeping up with this as much as I would like. But here is my post: 4 posters and a thought.

Yesterday I was working behind the ice cream counter at my minimum wage, high school-esque restaurant job, and in worked a group of construction workers wanting some ice cream to help them cool off after a hard days work. I could tell by their accents they weren't from around here; their drawls were so thick I could barely understand them. They each paid with their ice cream with damp money. It was damp from being on their body, sweaty from a full day's work. At first I was kind of grossed out, but then I wondered why it seemed so familiar. I realized it was because I remember the money my dad gave me on hot summer evenings for ice cream was always damp from his sweat after a long day.

This little reminder of a small detail from my childhood is what my creative writing professor would have said was gold. He loved little nothings like that, details that seem so meaningless but can add so much life to a story.

"My father handed me a dollar bill; it was damp, wet with the very sweat that earned it."

And on a different note, here are 4 posters I adore. I could spend hours looking at posters at Gigposters.com.

Doublenaut

Subject Matter Studio

The one and only Hatch Show Print.

Farm Barn Art Co.

Couldn't resist.

Solo afternoon.

I went on a hike yesterday after work at Rainbow Basin, a conservation area in Kirksville. I love the place. I used to say that I didn't think this part of the state, the northeast, was as pretty as the rest because it's too flat, not like the rest of the state, and certainly not like the beautiful hills of the MO River that I grew up on. But if you step out of Kirksville in pretty much any direction, it's breathtaking. I am self-admittedly in love with my Missouri, and getting out in it is awesome. Reminds me of tramping around the woods as a kid, spending all day outside.

Lovely.

...Oh, and I brought my camera.

Yellow flowers are pretty...

but purple ones are, too.

I see you.

I took about a million pictures of this trying to focus on it. At least this one turned out.

Brown-eyed suzies are my favorite, even the damaged ones.

I thought this was beautiful.

Just thought I'd share.

I stumbled upon this project while browsing the web one day. It's a father-daughter collaboration between David Eustace and his daughter Rachel. They went on a road trip together and documented the whole thing. I think the coolest thing about it is that, as beautiful and moving as it is to outsiders like myself, I know that the images and everything they collected and the time they spent together means so much more to them than it ever could to anyone else, like a secret.

.....Plus, I love anything having to do with road trips, and the fact that they are in the southwest makes me more excited for my own road trip down to NM later this summer.

Filling up my notebook.

I've been filling up my notebook with random sketches/drawings/musings/whatevers. I love handwritten typography (maybe because of my Sagmeister fixation?...eh, join the party), and I it's fun to practice. I think it's a great way to liven up pretty much any poster or piece of design, if appropriate, of course. I always find a lot of great inspiration at WeLoveTypography.

Quote from Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, a book I've been visiting.

I wish I could remember from where I picked up this quote.

From Emma, my sister, who claims to have written it herself.

Justin Vernon, how I love thee.