olympic fever

I've been completely addicted to watching the Vancouver Olympic Games this past week. I always watch at least a few events (like figure skating and downhill skiing) but this year I've been watching everything NBC deigns to show us. In keeping with this obsession, I thought I'd show some of my favorite designs from Olympics past. My favorite is probably Munich 72 - the now iconic identity system included a massive array of posters, pictograms and signage, all designed by Otl Aicher and team. Every single piece is amazing and you can see a lot of it here. Mexico City 68, designed by Lance Wyman and Eduardo Terrazas, is also great. The op-art poster works as a stand-alone piece, but if you look at the identity as a whole - the icons, signage, posters, etc., I think it's quite striking and really reflects the spirit of the location. I give honorable mention to Montreal 76. The logo is brilliant in its simplicity and I also enjoy some of the posters. You can see posters from just about every Olympics here, and you can see the logo, poster, medal and more for 46 past Olympic games at olympics.org.

Munich 1972
Mexico City 1968
Montreal 1976

alexis anne mackenzie

Alexis Anne Mackenzie is a collage artist based in San Francisco. She composes each piece by hand, using images cut from vintage books. According to her artist statement, her intent "is to portray the world as a flawed thing of beauty - a place that shines brightly, but has a dark side to match." Mission accomplished, I'd say.

via SeeSaw Designs

letterheady

I recently found a new blog to obsess over. Letterheady shows interesting letterhead designs - noteworthy for their design, who they belong to, or both. There are some real treasures, including the letterhead of Johnny Cash, Hitler, Albert Einstein and the Star Wars Corporation (ca. 1976). The ones I'm showing here are some of my favorite designs from the site.

via Letterology

stacey rozich

Stacey Rozich is a Seattle-based artist and illustrator whose work draws inspiration from folk art and children's books. She uses gouache, ink, watercolor, and even acrylics to create a cast whimsical creatures and dreamlike narratives. She shows regularly in Seattle, and has a show opening February 13th at Dolce Vita in Ballard. For those of you who don't live in Seattle, you can see more on her blog.

creative condition

I started using Add-Art a couple of months ago. It's a service that replaces adds with art, in conjunction with Adblock Plus, in Firefox. Sometimes the art is really interesting, and sometimes it's just so-so, but it's almost always better than the ads it replaces. These pieces created by New York-based design firm Elastic Brand caught my attention recently. According to the creators' statement, they were inspired by "creative individuals and their real encounters with people in their lives as they started to define their goals and pursue their dreams." They asked fellow creatives to submit "a quote that marked a turning point in their creative lives," along with a photo of themselves as a child and put the them together using a simple color palette and bold type. The goal was to highlight the opposition that many aspiring artists, musicians and performers encounter from family and friends who, however well-intentioned, don't understand what it means to be a creative person. It's a simple concept, but the results resonated with me.

cloth bound

I came across this collection of gorgeous cloth-bound classic novels during a recent shopping excursion at Anthropologie. Designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith for Penguin Classics, each book is decorated with a Victorian-inspired pattern printed directly onto the book cloth. The result is a beautiful object that would enhance any library. I wish I could afford the whole set. According to Design Sponge, Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters are the only retail outlets for these books in the US, but I haven't seen them on Urban Outfitters' website or at any of their stores.

mark newport

Backstage, 2009, Archival ink jet on paper, 13 x 19 inches

This Thursday I'll be at the Greg Kucera Gallery for the opening of Mark Newport's exhibition New Work. Mark was my fibers instructor when I was a student at Western Washington University. He was always one of my favorite teachers because he encouraged his students to think about the relationship between the subject we were attempting to depict and the medium we used to do so. You can see this in his own work as well. He uses the themes of knitting and superheroes to examine and challenge traditional roles of masculine and feminine, creating life-size hand-knit superhero costumes that he himself sometimes wears in photographs and performances. If you live in Seattle, I highly recommend taking a moment to check out his work in person this month. The show will be up through February 13th. If you can't make it, you can see more here.

L to R: Bobbleman, 2006; Batman 3, 2006; Naftaman, 2008; all hand knit acrylic and buttons

L to R: A Man, 2009; Argyleman, 2007; Sweaterman 4, 2007; all hand knit acrylic and buttons

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.