a girl named fred » nice work!

from a to z

a girl named fred — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:56:02 +0000

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!

let’s go Dutch

a girl named fred — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:00:14 +0000

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

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.

judging books by their covers

a girl named fred — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:27:39 +0000

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.

Design 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.

nice work: they got the beat

a girl named fred — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:00:39 +0000

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

[o how I love The Swell Season ]

[ 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.

new American propaganda

a girl named fred — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:02:42 +0000

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.

bicycle babies

a girl named fred — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:46:47 +0000

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

First seen in the French Paper sample room.

great idea – brilliant execution!

a girl named fred — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:49:18 +0000

This identity for NYC optician Silver Lining is just gorgeous. Elegant, sophisticated and the B&W is just so classic. And look how well it translates into a little icon for eyewear. I would love to execute a script-based, hand-lettered kind of logo… just need the right client! Any takers?

First seen on Graphic ExchanGE. If anyone knows the designer, I’m happy to credit!

hip type

a girl named fred — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:03:27 +0000

Do you love the Hipstamatic app? I do. And I also love typography. So it’s no coincidence that I’m completely smitten with Jason Hill’s hipstamatic-shot type poster.

The 16×24 prints are available through Jason’s Etsy shop.

an apple a day

a girl named fred — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:08:16 +0000

Today I’m loving this sweet illustration by Joyce Hessebelberth. First llamas; now giraffes. Clearly I have a thing for animals with long necks!

This print is available at Spur Store.

um, my eyes are up here!

a girl named fred — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:50:03 +0000

I don’t do much advertising design, so I don’t comment on it much here. But this ad totally spoke to me. I love a strong concept. And I love the fact that the concept in this ad is so strong that no product shot is needed; no copy is needed… just the company name and you know exactly what the folks are staring at.

Ad by Publicis France. Via David Airey.