happy happy joy joy

December has proven to be a very busy month for me. Between my job, my internship, and making cards and gifts I've barely had time to think, let alone blog. But I did want to take a moment to thank you for reading my blog in 2009, and to wish you all the best in the coming year. I'll be back in January, but I leave you with a little hand-drawn and collaged type I created for my Holiday card this year. See you in 2010!

novel package

During a recent shopping trip, I came across these lovely packages for A Rather Novel Collection perfumes at Anthropologie. I really like the juxtaposition of the organic line drawings with geometric shapes. There's a lot going on here, but the monochromatic color palette, minimal type treatment and generous negative space help to create a design that is eye-catching yet simple. I haven't been able to find any information about the design online, just this blurb from Anthropologie's site.

Not a travelogue, but a scent-o-logue: each fragrance in this edition was inspired by a different flavor of tea found in one of six global locales. Housed in book-like boxes, the titles of each are based on the tea's place of origin.

I'm tempted to buy the entire set just to display the boxes, and I don't even wear perfume. That Anthropologie really knows how to sell me things.

beka goedde

Beka Goedde is a Brooklyn-based artist whose paintings employ etching, pencil, gouache and plaster gauze on panels to illustrate the movement and architecture of the city. Her images are at once geometric and organic; visions of the city as a growing, moving, living organism. You can see more here.

via But Does It Float

city market

City Market is a small grocery and deli in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. It's probably best known for the humorous sandwich board signs which regularly grace the sidewalk in front of the store. These witty signs have been delighting hill dwellers for years. I've been enjoying them myself since I moved to Seattle three years ago, but I only recently learned the identity of the artist behind them - City Market's manager Cain Morehead. Apparently the first sign was created on a whim and the tradition took off from there. This is just a sampling of a few personal favorites, but can see more at Moorehead's myspace and flickr pages.

rob tyler

My friend Rob Tyler, a Portland-based filmmaker, has been uploading some pretty amazing photos to his facebook page lately. These were all taken with his cell phone (I think he has an iphone app for the polaroid-esque borders) and they're pretty great. A testament to Chase Jarvis' maxim the best camera is the one that's with you.

vintage books galore

So, I talked about one fabulous vintage book blog in this post a few months back, but I've recently run across a few more and had to share. I just can't get enough of these!

I came across UK Vintage's flickr collection via a post on Drawn! It's a fun collection of mostly pulpy paperback covers like this one:
A friend turned me onto A Journey Round My Skull a couple of months ago and I've since lost hours to it. Will (no last name shown) shows an extensive collection of book covers and interior illustrations, as well as other art and design, from all over the world. There's some really amazing stuff here - these are just a few of my favorites:

again

Well, once again it's been a bit longer than usual since my last post. I just started an internship which has changed my schedule quite a bit - I don't have as much free time as I used to. Excuses, excuses, I know. Anyway, I hope to get back into my once or twice a week posting routine now that I'm settling into my new schedule. I promised some photography a couple of weeks ago, and that is still in the works, but it's not quite ready yet. In the meantime, I've got some great vintage book design coming up tomorrow. Thanks for your patience!

tania alvarez

Tania Alvarez is a designer and illustrator based in Montreal. I recently came across her Overseas Type and Fabric Type on Behance and fell in love. Beautiful work.

...and I'm back

I know it's been a while since my last post, but it has been an extremely busy couple of weeks. I have a lot going on right now between my paying job, freelance work, and social stuff, but I promise to get back to posting more regularly. Also, I'm starting a new drawing-a-day blog. I'll be sure to let you know when that is up and running. In the meantime, I've got some gorgeous typographic work for you to look at today and some photography coming up later this week.

justin gibbens

I recently saw one of Justin Gibbens' paintings on Punch Gallery's site advertising their current Winner Takes All fundraiser (which sounds pretty cool) and had to learn more. Turns out I've seen his Birds of Paradise series before, although I can't remember where (perhaps I'll wake up in the middle of the night with the answer to this question). His watercolor and gouache paintings are a little like Audobon on acid - highly realistic traditional renderings of wildlife with a surreal twist. In Gibbens' world, cranes have four heads, moles have unicorn horns, eagles are 'American Griffons' and owls have Bird of Paradise tails. You can see more here.

toby lunchbreath

I saw one of Toby Lunchbreath's illustrations on Drawn! the other day and proceeded to lose the next several hours looking at his flickr stream. Some of his drawings are pretty insightful and most of them are totally hilarious. I highly recommend checking out the whole collection - just make sure you have a couple of hours free.

josh keyes

My friend Jesse Lortz just turned me on to the work of artist Josh Keyes. I love his use of realism to portray surreal scenes of our possible future. His work is a beautiful warning of what could be to come. Keyes is originally from Tacoma, WA and I feel a lot of the Northwest coming through in his work - from the animals depicted to his use of Northwest Native imagery like the totem pole. The end result is somehow familiar, even though what he is showing us is (hopefully) a worst case scenario.