a girl named fred

neenah paper has released think ink, a pretty swell app for yer iphone that helps you:

• create custom color palettes based on your favorite picture colors you take on your iPhone’s built in camera
• use the scientifically validated Dewey Color System®* to explore the psychological meanings of hundreds of color combinations
• Choose from four different palette types: subdue, pop, classic and blend
• view your palettes with alternate views and type samples
• upload your color palettes for use or share them with friends, vendors, or clients via e-mail
• oh, and of course, match these colors palettes to coordinate with neenah papers and order these samples directly from your iphone

so a week or so ago i posted about these totally gorgeous love stamps and then, look! they came in the mail!  with my simplesong designs letterpress delivery (my last one, sadly). and they are just as beautiful in real life as they are in their computer artwork format. oh, i’m so excited to have them in my possession!

these letterpress coasters from albertine press are pretty darn sweet!

i’ve been working with an absolutely delightful client, jennifer dunham starr, a photographer based in California (but available for travel!) who has been re-working the visual identity of her company. she has a wonderful story to tell about her own life journey (and that of her team), and delights in helping her clients tell their own stories through photography… thus her company name: the memory journalists.

she has recently unveiled her new logo… so i’m going to share it with you, too. we had a lot of fun working on this one together. we needed to express her joie de vivre, her energy (this woman has a lot of energy), her sense of humour, her passion for connecting with her clients.

first, let me show you her “old” logo… 

and now, here’s the memory journalists’ new look… 

the hummingbird has a lot of symbolism for jen, which i know she wants to share with her clients, so i’ll let her tell the story over on her blog. from a design perspective, we made the decision early on to use a typeface that featured ligatures, so that we could use typography to express connection. and that blue? well, does the phrase “true blue” mean anything? or the blue of forget me nots? of the idea of something borrowed, something blue? and it was great to carry something familiar from her old look to her new look.

jen has a lot more in store to share when it comes to her new look. i’ll keep you updated here, too.

i’m totally loving this t-shirt promoting the 2009 london design festival. i don’t really wear t-shirts. i might frame this one and put it up on my office wall instead.

designed by the good folks at pentagram. get the whole scoop here.

i don’t really have a garden, per se, in that i have deliberately planted things and tend to them on a regular basis. it’s more like the house in which i live has various plants that were here long before i arrived, and i do my best not to kill them. you know, by mistaking them for weeds and pulling them out of the ground. which i may or may not have been known to do.

i have a lilac tree in my backyard that i most definitely  have never mistaken for a weed. it’s in full bloom right now. and it’s so gorgeous i just had to share!

look at this gorgeous wallpaper, featuring restraint, designed by marian bantjes…. available for download over at typenuts. 

have you had a chance to visit we love you so? it’s the blog that’s been (is still being, actually) compiled to talk about all the influences on and inspiration behind the upcoming spike jonze flick where the wild things are. art, design, fashion, film, literature, photography, cake (?), music… it’s all there.

it’s really interesting to see how things as seemingly disparate as vancouver’s (yay! vancouver) coco cake boutique

and skateboarding wolves

are playing a role in the production of this film.

see for yourself here.

pentagram is previewing the elements of a new cooper-hewitt exhibit, design for a living world, that opens this week in NYC.

Design for a Living World is a landmark exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York that opens an important conversation between conservationists and designers about the potential and legacy of natural materials. Presented by The Nature Conservancy and co-curated by Abbott Miller and Ellen Lupton, the exhibition has commissioned 10 designers from the worlds of fashion, industrial and furniture design to develop new uses for sustainably grown and harvested materials from a specific place where the Conservancy works. The participating designers include Yves Béhar, Stephen Burks, Hella Jongerius, Maya Lin, Christien Meindertsma, Isaac Mizrahi, Ted Muehling, Kate Spade, Ezri Tarazi and Miller himself. The locations include endangered ecosystems in Australia, Micronesia, China, Mexico, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Alaska, Idaho and Maine. The resulting designs demonstrate that by choosing sustainable materials, designers can actively contribute to the advancement of a global conservation ethic.

just feast your eyes on some of the content. i’m drooling!

[that brown stuff? it's chicle. as in natural gum. the stuff we used to chew, as opposed to the petroleum-based gums we chew now.]

turns out you can buy the exhibit book here. not quite like being there. but almost.

here’s a great idea from ogilvy. recession-sized business cards. not just friendly on the wallet, they’re also a great medium to deliver a powerful little message.

seen on behance.