I signed up have you?

I'm so very excited to have signed up for the Sketchbook Project 2010. I've never participated before but think this is a great way to force myself away from so much computer design and back to more regular sketching. It's certainly been a goal of mine since moving but I haven't been able to get on a very regular schedule. I am excited I've been able to start incorporating more hand drawn work into my designs lately which has been a great change of pace and highly rewarding. I've even sketched up a new logo design based on what I already had. I'm hoping to update the logo more frequently as my own personal design mission to keep things fresh.

I also was given a shout out on the pedalin' with a purpose website  the guys are now in Utah and I couldn't be more proud of them! If you get a chance please head on over to their website and donate to the wounded warrior project in support of their cross country trip.

Inspiration: Lorenzo Petrantoni

I just ran across a fun illustration in my husband's Cigar Aficionado magazine and am loving the rest I found on the website of illustrator Lorenzo Petrantoni. 

If you want a great use of scale, type, pattern and image please take yourself over to his website: www.lorenzopetrantoni.com and view the rest of his works. 

Death & Taxes Poster, holy wow!

I just stumbled across this awesome poster project. Jess Bachman spends 2 months every year researching and creating this visual record of our tax dollars at work. It's an amazing endeavor and turns out beautifully. Check out this small section of it and view it's entirety here.

Design Inspiration

So I am loving these posters by Ork Posters:

And then of course there's the lovely promo poster for the Cooper River Bridge Run that happened last weekend: 

Find the whole poster at the poster store for the race.

Fun clothes shopping at Mod Cloth

So I ran into this site the other day and wanted to share some of the goodies I've found here on Mod Cloth. I'm really loving all their clothes, shoes and accessories. I definitely plan on bookmarking this one and showing it to my husband, I definitely have a birthday coming up....

Eco friendly with a great illustration

I was checking out reclaimed wood furniture online and stumbled upon this awesome illustration on the webpage for the old wood co.  I love the use of the tools in the body and feathers of this rooster as well as the different textures. I'm working on some bird illustrations for an upcoming project and this patterning is great inspiration. Enjoy!

Camping is IN-TENTS!

So this is a present I made for my cousin and his new wife Caitlin as part of their wedding present. I don't know where Andrew heard it but it's one of his classic "Andrew" jokes. I do the joke terribly but it's awesome when he does it. Either way, inspired by bustedtees.com (which is a great pick me up anyway to look through) I made my own matching shirts for the couple. Caitlin's was green and Andrew's fire-safety orange.

Compliment Cards

I was going through my old papers and came across one from our sorority recruitment days. We would all get together the night before it began and each put a sheet of paper on our backs. We would then go around and write something nice about each person on their backs. At the end of the night you could remove them and you had your own mini emotional boost right there for the rest of the time! I loved doing that and as a new years resolution would like to start complimenting the people in my life more. I know I always love a random nice word to boost my spirits. In honor of this new resolution I'd like to come up with a line of "compliment cards" so that I can have them ready to send out at least twice a month to a different person. I think it will help me to recognize my friends strengths and brighten their day with a kind word. Here's a very preliminary example of what I'm thinking of....

More stop-motion fun

So I am apparently on a stop-motion kick and am loving this video my friend Ashley found. You can also watch it on you tube at: Deadline.

Stop Motion

Just a quick post so that you can check out a great stop-motion animation done for the New Zealand Book Council! Find it at: You Tube - Going West - NZ Book Council

Beautiful Promo Posters

I just crashed into these checking out some other bloggers on the web and really love the design of these jazz promo posters. You can check out the rest of them at: Behance Network