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Category Archive:   nice work!


Ack. I am kind of in love with this potential wallpaper by Toronto illustrator and designer, Alanna Cavanagh.

Alanna, if you’re listening, I’ll take the black, please and thanks!

OK, this is a fresh take on a Year of the Rabbit poster – Pennsylvania Dutch. Whoud’a thunk?

year of the rabbit by dutch door press

The letterpress print is by Dutch Door Press. Unfortunately it’s sold out, but they’ve got lots of other goodies in their Etsy shop, here.

It’s that time of year when we start to see a lot “top 5″ and “top 10″ lists. You know, the top 10 best bikini bodies of 2010. [ Except, this is a place for me to reflect on design, so we'll skip the celebrity smut, shall we? ] Quill and Quire recently announced its top five Canadian book covers, and they are a great bunch.

Quill & Quire top Canadian book covers of 2010Design credits, left to right: Goya’s Dog (David Gee); Fauna (Jennifer Lum); Kenk (Nick Marinkovich, Alex Jansen & Jason Gilmore); Cigar Box Banjo (Heather Pringle); Seven Good Reasons not to be Good (David Gee)

My personal favourite is Heather Pringle’s design for Cigar Box Banjo. I love how rich it feels, and the dimension the design gives to the cover, and the joy it seems to express. I am also struck by the similarity of the cover designs for Cigar Box Banjo and Seven Good Reasons not to be Good. Both use movement and direction to jump the eye around the cover… but with completely different (really, almost opposite) design aesthetics. And yet my first thought when seeing them was “wow, they’re so similar!”

Anyway, nice work! You can read more about each selection on Quill & Quire’s website.

DKNG Studios does some pretty sweet concert posters, don’t you think?

The Swell Season by DKNG Studios

[o how I love The Swell Season ]

James Taylor Carole King poster by DKNG Studios

[ o how I love Carole King - Tapestry is my favourite album, I think, ever ]

Many of the posters are available in DKNG’s shop. So check it out for yourself. First seen on Veerle’s blog. She does have a way with curation.

I’m quite taken with the retro-meets-naive style of these Victory Garden of Tomorrow posters, designed and screen printed by Portland OR’s Joe Wirtheim.

You can see the full collection of posters here, and read the backstory (this is a self-initiated design project) here.

Is this not the cutest idea for a birth announcement? Love the originality of the design thinking!

bicycle birth announcement

First seen in the French Paper sample room.