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HOW Top Ten SItes for Designers

Via the HOW e-newsletter I got this morning. Here they are:

American Academy in Rome
Each year, the coveted Rome Prize is awarded to thirty emerging artists and scholars in the early or middle stages of their careers who represent the highest standard of excellence in the arts and humanities. The disciplines include architecture, visual arts and design (graphic, fashion, industrial, interior, lighting, set, and sound design, engineering, urban planning, and other related design fields).

Concept Feedback
ConceptFeedback.com, designed specifically for marketers, designers and developers, provides a free and simple tool for getting third-party reviews on marketing concepts. Concepts may be posted publicly or privately and can include websites, logos, advertisements, videos and more.

EBEN
Alex Eben Meyer is a Brooklyn-based illustrator who loves woodgrain, colored tape and pilot pens, and is a regular contributor to the New York Times and Slate.com.

James Ensor
The new MoMA website for the James Ensor exhibition explores the work of the Belgian artist.

Live Now
Live Now is a growing collection of artwork, quotes, thoughts, experiences and ideas, powerfully pursuing the notion of "living now." Plus, the illustrations and hand-rendered type are inspiring by themselves.

Share Some Candy
Share Some Candy is a curated collective of inspiring design and art finds.

Society6
Society6 is a platform for emerging and established artists from every creative discipline to showcase their talent as it unfolds.

Stardust.tv
In the words of Stardust's founder and creative director Jake Banks, "The new Stardust.tv is purely a visual site. Compared with our previous version, this site focuses more on movement and functionality, and aims to give visitors a unique visual experience that will heighten the creativity in each spot we present."

The Design Cubicle
Design blog with tips, articles and resources on all subjects of design, ranging from print design and web design to branding, advertising, marketing and more.

the sope
The Sope is the online home of Sophia Zou and Peter Lim, two designers who are currently living and working in San Francisco.

Check out the whole story here.

Cool New Artist: Linda Fantuzzo

So, maybe she's not exactly new, but she's new to me. Charleston artist Linda Fantuzzo is featured in Sept 09 issue of Southern Accents.

Fantuzzo is influenced by Richard Diebenkorn, one of my favorite artists, and Wayne Thiebaud. She calls her style "painterly realism," but it seems very influenced by abstract expressionism. Her work is about light and time. When Fantuzzo thinks a painting is working, she steps away, takes a break, and comes back to look at it in a new light. She turns it upside down and sideways and looks at it in a mirror, in reverse, to help herself see it differently and clarify her sense of its composition. "At that point, no matter now representational it is, I view it abstractly. A good composition works in all positions," says the artist.

Antique Factory Cart Coffee Tables

Identity and biz card for Michael Gamotis/Antique Factory Cart Coffee Tables based here in Birmingham.

Uprising

Business card design I did for my friend Laura's cake business, Uprising Cakes. I helped with the branding and designed the identity. Working on a website now. For the biz card we did thermography for the logo so that it mimics piping, and there is a two color pattern on the back. Printed on Mohawk superfine. I love the results!































a couple of her show-stoppers

Clay + Abby Save the Date

Save the Date I did for our friends getting married in January! Printed as 4 x 6 photo prints and to be mailed in these cement-colored envelopes. Beautiful photo by Amy Williams Photography.

Design Project Throwback: Vienna Secession

With all this nostalgia I've been experiencing lately for the Vienna Secessionists' work, I started looking back at my old school project that I did on them. Part of the project was a book. I featured a lot of the work of the movement and wanted to complement it with handlettering and some other hand drawn supporting elements that fit the aesthetic. I'm posting the spreads here for reference for the project I'm currently doing for mom. It would probably be better to post the great photos that Jeff WIlliams shot, so I'll try to do that later.

Beautiful work from the Vienna Secession

So I think I'm going to go with a monogram for mom's stationery. I have been working on one that I really love... it has a similar aesthetic to these that were done by the VS, but it's a little more organic... but not flowery. I'm considering doing some kind of stylized trees/pond in a similar aesthetic. Then I want to get in touch with a friend and letterpress genius, Patrick Masterson, who is here in town, and see about getting them letterpressed on some kind of robin's egg blue paper.

UPDATE: check out the monogram I did here! We printed a pale blue Pantone on Crane Lettra fluorescent white.

I can't remember where I got all this! If you are interested, I could probably track it down.












































Here are some more monograms, not by the Secessionists.

NY City Limit

I love these clever & witty gadgets from NY City Limit (distributed by The Sarut Group, whose tagline is "Inspire | Educate | Entertain"). Even their home page is cool! I found them via Red Stamp, which is another GREAT site that I'll post more about later.

Folk Art

You know how I love folk art. Mom wants me to design her some stationery, something unique, and so today i was thinking about that and started researching folk art and embroidery. Now sure if this direction would be applicable to her stationery, but it's all so beautiful and enchanting that I had to post here for my reference. Found some wonderful things...here are a few.

a wonderful swiss folk art textile via Anonymous Works

some Swedish art via Animation Archive

Swiss folk ornaments on myfonts.com. Would love to use these in some application.

Illustration from “Gustaf Tenggren’s Tell It Again Book” courtesy of ASIFA- Hollywood Animation Archive, via How To Be A Children's Book Illustrator

so many beautiful paintings via Cupboards & Roses Swedish Antiques

and lots of wonderful things from Swedish Country!