Chicago | August 2015

I visited Chicago for a long weekend in late August 2015 and absolutely fell in love with it’s architecture, people, food, and overall accessibility. 

Here are some of my favorite shots from the trip! It’s an odd mix of everything I admired about Chicago: the eclectic mix of architecture, art & design styles; the inventive food; the welcoming people; and the beauty of the city at large.

So.my WBFF (work best friend forever) Erin has left our company and moved on to new & exciting adventures. Partly because I love making & writing cards for people, and because I needed a venue to write all of my silly, sappy, thankful, and nostalgic thoughts, I made this card for her.

She is leaving the office world behind and entering the fun world of specialty food, and I could not be happier or more excited (and a tinge jealous) of her. 

The top three illustrations are of commonplace items/objects she encountered while here at the office, and the bottom three are just some of the many, many, many exciting items she will be writing about and styling/photographing (not jealous at all, promise ;P ).

I experimented with a new illustration style (for me) - using colored pencils and then adding detail, outlines, and shadow with a Micron pen. I will continue to pursue this style. 

Photo via Erin on Instagram

Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens

Over the weekend, I finally had the chance to visit Isaiah Zagar’s sprawling artistic wonderland, tucked away along South Street. I have known about Zagar’s work for a while now, and have seen it on buildings, in stairwells, and out in the open in the rest of the city - but never visited the Magic Gardens themselves until Saturday.

You could spend hours (days, really) scoping out all of the hidden parts of the space.  We spent some time exploring inside, then spent the majority of the time outside, working our way through the labyrinth of tunnels, caves, walkways, and gardens. 

Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens | 1020 South Street, Philadelphia PA 19147 | http://www.phillymagicgardens.org/

At The New Yorker’s Midtown offices, a wall of covers arranged in chronological order shows a distinct change in tone. Today, the magazine’s covers, which have been drawn or painted by artists each week since its founding in 1925, frequently reflect, or subvert, the news.

The turning point is around Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Remnick said, when The New Yorker ran a black cover with a black silhouette of the twin towers, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Art Spiegelman, who has long collaborated with his wife and the magazine’s art editor, Françoise Mouly.

A great article about magazine cover design, illustration, and process. 

Google Doodle, May 8, 2013 - Saul Bass

I’m a huge Saul Bass fan. My interest in his ground-breaking movie title design piqued during college, when I was taking a Graphic Design history course, focusing on the 20th century. 

I ended up writing a research paper on Bass’ work with noted directors like Hitchcock and Preminger and how Bass’’ unique style and vision revolutionized the film and design world. 

I love and admire his bold use of line, shape, and concept in a design field that before him, was almost non-existent. 

Happy Birthday, Saul. 

Nina Harcus - click for more food + typography

Stuffed Birds

Who doesn’t enjoy a taxidermic bird behind a die-cut card?

magnolius:

Walking Shadows by Jason Ratliff

Indianapolis artist Jason Ratliff creates a series of illustrations where he replaces the subjects dark shadows with colorful patterns. Check out the rest of the series on his site HERE

Love these.

visualgraphic:

Toy Typography

designcloud:

Brands in Full Bloom

These are great. Love the McQueen one (naturally.)

Tom & James Draw

Tom & James Draw is the beau­ti­ful col­lab­o­ra­tive art project between James Gulliver Hancock and his brother Tom, who was born with Down’s Syndrome. Their work is gor­geous — lay­ered, col­or­ful and fas­ci­nat­ing. Here’s more:

Their col­lab­o­ra­tion is unique as they are shar­ing expe­ri­ences between the out­sider and “insider” art world. James iden­ti­fies with Toms abstract use of visual cod­ing and Tom builds around James’ skilled and con­fi­dent mark mak­ing. Tom relaxes James’ tech­ni­cal obses­sions, and James enables Tom’s con­cen­tra­tion and play­ful mark­mak­ing. Together they make worlds of expe­ri­ence, encom­pass­ing peo­ple around them and their actions, ani­mals, plants, engines, and some­times hilar­i­ous nods to the human expe­ri­ence and perception.

Both of them are inter­ested in obses­sion, both within mark mak­ing and the role obses­sion plays with per­cep­tion and life in general.These guys are awesome.Amazing collaborative art!

Love this. I think it’s wonderful that one piece of art/design is being created by two people at the same time. I think the cross between graphic and illustrative styles is really interesting, vivid, and intriguing.