HOLLA!

Hi all! How was your weekend? I had a fabulous time in Toronto and my presentation on Friday went super well. I got some great feedback and am looking forward to refining my text, presenting it again and trying to get it published. All good, right?

I still have to give you guys a sneak peak into my argument for the paper—I can promise I will do that tomorrow! Until then, I am using this awesome hand-drawn text by Brad Simon (taken from his Tumblr series here; found via OK Great here) to give myself a proverbial pat on the back. Is that too much? Either way, I needed an excuse to post his awesome type drawings; brighten up your Monday and go check them out!

IN THE CLASSROOM: PROTEST SYMPOSIUM

As I mentioned yesterday, I am in Canada today attending a graduate symposium at the University of Toronto. I was lucky enough to be accepted to give a talk: The Art of Protest and the Year that Changed the World: A Study of the Student Demonstration Posters in Paris and Mexico City in 1968. I have been furiously working on this paper for the last several weeks and am very excited to give my first official academic paper at a conference.

Anyway, this post is meant to be a teaser; I promise when I get back to New York on Monday I will share a full description of my talk and a lot more of the amazing posters these two student groups created.

Until then, have a great weekend!

(For those of you who may not remember, 'In The Classroom' is a series I created in the spring of 2010 to chronicle all of the fascinating artists I was coming across in my history of graphic design class. Check out the archives here.)

BAGGU: PACK IT UP

I have excitedly posted about Baggu bags before (see here and here). But in the last couple months I have gotten even more giddy over the Baggu brand because I have gotten to know (electronically) one of the wonderful people at Baggu: their promotional guru Jen Ng. It is so fun to exchange emails with smart, creative people—Jen has been super nice about helping me get studio shots of Baggu goodies to post on here!

Basically I am re-posting about Baggu because I have become completely dependent on them. I throw one of the grocery bags into my backpack before heading to school. I pack my lunch in a super adorable "baby Baggu". Today, when I hop on a plane to go to a symposium in Toronto, I will organize my suitcase with the Baggu zippered pouches.

Plus, it doesn't hurt that they come in super cute patterns and colors. Check it all out here.

Need something a bit more heavy duty? Baggu also just did a cool collaboration with Threadless to make some sweet canvas totes. Sneak a peak here.

(Thanks to Jen for the help with this post; all images courtesy of Baggu)

DOUBLE (OR QUADRUPLE) RAINBOW!

It has been cold and snowy here for a couple of days now, so I thought I would brighten up your day a bit by featuring some super cool 'rainbow' things I have come across recently. Because we all want to live a bit more colorfully, don't we?

An amazing Rainbow House in London, designed by Ab Rogers Design

(found at Lucky So and So, where there are frequent rainbow sightings)

Double rainbow! A gorgeous drawer pull bought at Anthropologie by Alicia and Tony

(see original Chroma Lab post here)

"Instant Collections" in different colors of the rainbow, sold by Etsy seller SushiPotsParts

(found first at the SCOOP here)

Another great rainbow product from Etsy—a CMYK Cross Stitch from seller YouHeartUs

(also found via Chroma Lab; so glad they are posting regularly again!)

PER YOUR SUGGESTION: COOL COOKING CONCEPT

I know, based on the photos above, you are likely skeptical about the direction of this post. But never fear! "The William" is a concept stove that allows a chef to transcend the standard four burner idea and potentially cook fifteen things at once. You can easily control the temperature and size/shape of your "burner" with awesome touch controls. I can promise you that if you are even remotely tech-inclined and if you watch this video explaining the idea, you will most certainly want one in your home. Check it out!

Now we just have to convince someone to actually produce these!

(Thanks to Dan for the tip; originally seen on Gizmodo)

TOP OF THE (BILLBOARD) CHARTS

Did you have a good weekend? I spent most of it doing work, but I did manage to sneak off and do one fun errand—I will try to share it in a weekend update later this week.

In the meantime, I thought I was overdue for a post about clever advertisements (see here and here). Here are some eye-catching billboards I have come across recently . . . . I am totally in love with the first one! Which is your favorite?

(top to bottom: 1, 2, 3, 4-6)

FONT FANTASTIC

Oh my goodness (swoon) I am in typographic love. Apparently this font—Brandon Grotesque—came out last year and somehow it has taken me this long to stumble upon it. I just saw it used in the sweet new Comedy Central logo (see description here). I like it so much I am seriously considering using it in my wedding invitation design . . .

Here are the details:

Brandon Grotesque is a sans serif type family of six weights plus matching italics. It was designed by Hannes von Döhren in 2009/10. Influenced by the geometric-style sans serif faces that were popular during the 1920s and 30s, the fonts are based on geometric forms that have been optically corrected for better legibility.

Brandon Grotesque has a functional look with a warm touch. While the thin and the black weights are great performers in display sizes the light, regular and medium weights are well suited to longer texts. The small x-height and the restrained forms lend it a distinctive elegance.

My cursor is hovering over the purchase button . . . too bad fonts are so pricey or I would be in design heaven already!

(tip from designworklife; I told you I had a crush!)

DAILY COLOR

Man oh man, if I weren't super committed to my Moleskine planner system, I would totally be on board with Poketo's Daily Color Planner. Isn't it lovely? I think I would be a lot more excited to go to those classes and meetings if they were penciled into this bad boy.

If you are still looking to buy a planner for 2011, I suggest you pick up your daily color here.

p.s. Poketo has a ton of other great things, including this checklist pad that I am drooling over.

PRACTICAL PRODUCTS

Here are a couple amazingly useful products I have come across lately and will be quickly stocking my supply cabinet with.

TOP TO BOTTOM:

Sugru, a miraculous flexible compound designed to stick to many different materials—forms a strong bond to aluminum, steel, ceramics and glass. Sugru is easily molded to any shape before it begins to firm up to a hard rubber-like texture. It is completely waterproof (even in seawater), it shrugs off extreme temperature (-60º to +180ºC) and is also dishwasher proof.

Cyber Clean Home & Office Standard Cup ($8) is a patented high tech cleaning compound. It is non-toxic and biodegradable. This amazing Swiss formula is a cleaning compound designed to get deep into all the cracks and crevices on any item or device. Cyber Clean is effective at removing 99.99% of harmful particles that live on everyday surfaces and it is fun and easy to use. Cyber Clean is a viscous, elastic compound designed to mold itself to fit the nooks and crevices that harbor harmful dirt. Cyber Clean will not migrate to other surfaces. Simply fold over the compound after each use and the debris is microencapsulated into the cleaning compound. Cyber Clean may be used over and over again. Each Cyber Clean package has a color strength reference guide so you see when Cyber Clean has reached its maximum absorption capabilities. This Cyber Clean comes in an air-tight, resalable standard cup for safe and convenient storing.

Bheestie Bag ($20). Dropped your cell phone in a puddle? Your ipod in your drink? Your digital camera in a sink? Just drop it in the Bheestie Bag, leave it to sit overnight, and voila! It's as good as new! And you can do this over and over again. Brilliant.

BLOG CRUSH: DESIGNWORKLIFE

In August I wrote this post about a blog I had a crush on. Well, recently I have realized that I have a new crush (see this post): designworklife. designworklife is written by the people behind the incredible New York City-based design firm Seamless Creative (check out their portfolio here). They update it daily with amazing projects ranging from student portfolios to corporate commissions. Do yourself a favor and bookmark it pronto!

Some of my favorite posts from designworklife of late, top to bottom:

Katie Evans' design for the Kate Spade 'Live Colorfully' campaign

(totally going on my wedding inspiration board!)

The Conquest by Delane Meadows, an infographic of the travels by characters in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (awesome!)

Nathan Godding student project for a modern circus

(can you tell I LOVE bright colors?!)

Annual Report designed by Hyperakt for the non-profit White House Project

(sometimes I think everything should be produced in graphs and charts, like this book that I got for christmas)

p.s. Hope you all had a great weekend!

I DO: THE WEDDING FILES

After having gotten engaged over the Christmas holiday, I have recently started collecting ideas for my own wedding (thankfully still almost two years away!). Several months ago I stumbled across this amazing book published by Chronicle: Handmade Weddings, Over 50 Crafts to Style and Personalize Your Big Day. For only around $25, this book packs a big punch of inspiration . . . I am already drooling over a bunch of projects and 'crafting' ways to include them in my wedding.

Need more convincing? Watch this adorable promotional video! It will prove that this book would be great for planning parties of all sorts, not just weddings.

So, imagine my excitement when, after buying the book on Monday, I saw this preview of the book on Design*Sponge on Tuesday. They even feature a project from the book: how to make cupcake liner pom poms. Awesome!

You can buy your own copy of the book here.

(This marks the first in a long series of wedding-related posts on this blog, called "The Wedding Files". I am adding a permalink to all the posts in the right column. I hope you like them!)

THE ARTIST SPEAKS

Today I went, for the first time, to a Creative Mornings lecture. Milton Glaser, the legendary graphic designer, gave a wonderful speech and, as soon as the video is posted, I will share it with you. In the meantime I will leave you with this amazing quote from his talk.

TRICK IT OUT

Speaking of the iPhone, how kick ass is this decal made by Photojojo? Stick it on the back of your iPhone and voila! Your cell looks like the awesome Polaroid Land Camera. The best part? The decal is only $6. Get yours here.

Don't know about Photojojo but consider yourself a photo geek (or know someone who is)? Do yourself a favor and check out the many other cool camera gadgets and add-ons in their store here. (I mean, really, any company that uses product models who wear awesome green nail polish has to be cool, right?)

(first seen over at swissmiss)

AT LAST!

Is anyone else super excited about the Verizon iPhone?! I have been waiting for this announcement for a while and can promise I will be the first person in line to pre-order. Get the details here.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Verizon iPhone Announcement
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Why has it taken me so long to get an iPhone when I am clearly obsessed with all things Apple (see here)? Well, John Stewart summed it up pretty perfectly on his show last night. Enjoy!

WEEKEND UPDATE: COLORADO

Here are some of my favorite photos from my trip to Colorado last weekend. Can you tell that I like taking photos from the plane window? Everything just looks so lovely at sunset . . .

See lots more here.