VIRTUAL GROUPS

So I signed up for Facebook, mainly out of boredom and curiosity. I've had a myspace account for awhile now and it's fine. They are very different and I'm still trying to figure out certain things about it. The big difference is what they call "applications" which are basically games and other strange things. They just make your page look messy if you ask me. I don't really understand most of them honestly. But everything has it's purpose I guess. There's also a lot more privacy settings than on a myspace page, but to a certain extent it seems. For example, i've noticed if someone writes on my "wall," or vice-versa, my virtual friends get a notice on their home page about that note. Maybe there's a privacy setting for that too, I haven't really looked yet. But that seems a little weird to me, almost like I'm eavesdropping.

But the best part so far is a group that I joined. It's called, "You know you're a graphic designer when..." Here's a condensed list of what drew me in. I'm sure if any Graphic Designers are reading this, you'll totally relate!


You watch the superbowl just for the commercials

You can spot bad typography from 100 yds away

You can name more than 200 fonts in under five minutes

You are completely immune to subliminal advertising

You look upon a well-designed project with either:
sympathy OR extreme jealousy

Your hand is permanently stuck in the shape of a mouse

You tell stories of exacto-knife inflicted wounds with grizzled sort of pride

You have an appreciation for everything unique

"You find your pulse increase at the sight of a lovely ligature, glasses steam up when an unusually elegant arm, leg, or tail comes in view, and a well-kerned paragraph is apt to make you break into a sweat with excitement."

"You know you're a Graphic Designer when... you buy a CD or DVD for the artwork, even if you have no idea what the actual music or film is like".
(even worse, you don't actually watch or listen to it, just stare at it for hours and hug it in adoration)

"...when you know what "kerning" is and you really, really like it."

You don't wear black to look cool, you wear it to hide the gauche.

You have a thing for chairs. You don't know why.

You give your relatives a lecture about color spaces and profiles when you email them your vacation photos.

Seeing someone use Lens Flare or Comic Sans adversely affects your blood-pressure

You organize your CD collection according to the Pantone chart.

You sit at work for eight hours straight just looking at your monitor, waiting for a spark of inspiration that doesn't come.

You know Lorem Ipsum by heart.

Activating your entire font collection makes your computer crash

Looking at a menu make you go "hmmm, ITC Baskerville italic" rather than "mmmm, lunch!"

Apple+Z is the first thing that goes through your mind if you drop and break something.

Kerning and leading on your shopping list actually matters to you, and you don't see a problem with that.

You know that "bleeding" doesn't hurt.


I love it! My favorite is "Apple+Z is the first thing that goes through your mind if you drop and break something." We have a joke at work about this. I usually curse at myself when something is not fixable by this key command.

I also love the one about watching the superbowl only for the commercials. I learned my lesson when i went to class one day-the weekend after the superbowl-to find out that we all had to share what our favorite superbowl commercial was and why. I didn't remember that being an assignment, but apparently it's a given.

THE BAGGU TRAGEDY

I was so excited when my Baggus came in the mail. This was months ago. I can now probably count on my fingers how many times I've used the Baggu. It is almost a joke now. Every time Brian and I pull up to a grocery store, we both in unison say "Damn, we forgot the Baggus!"

We have tried various methods to try to make us remember. First it was storing them in one of our cars. Then we would accidentally always take the wrong car to go shopping with. Next we started hanging them on our back doorknob as a reminder every time we left the house. This worked a couple of times. Maybe it doesn't work because I also store many of my own bags there, so it turns into a cluttered mess.

I really am trying to use more environmentally-friendly bags! It's really just not working for me. Any advice?

CIRCUSES

As a child I remember going to many circuses. I remember the elephants doing their tricks and being amazed at how huge and beautiful these creatures were. I even went on an elephant ride once with a group of other kids. Parents stood around and took our pictures, smiling and waving. I looked forward to circuses, I loved them.

Now I know what these elephants go through to be in the entertainment industry. I didn't know then, my parents didn't know and most people don't even know now. So if there's something that I strongly believe should be outlawed it is this. This is something that I do believe if enough people knew about it, maybe we could make a difference.

Circuses.com is a site dedicated to the abuse that animals go through in circuses so they do things that are unnatural to them. I hope that many of you will look into this and refuse to ever go to a circus again that has animals. There are animal-free circuses. I found out yesterday that the Melha Shrine Circus is currently at the BigE, and it's one of the many circuses that uses animals for entertainment.

So, please consider looking into this. Spread the word.

I AM AN ELEPHANT

A FUN EXERCISE

I saw this on another blog and gave it a try, it's similar to a survey but better. It's a good creative exercise that helps you break out of the box a bit and find some interesting images. You get pretty unique results that make you wonder what the literal answer actually is (well in some cases).

1. Go to www.flickr.com
2. Type in your answer to the question in the "search" box
3. Use only the first page
4. Copy the html and paste for the answer.


What is your favorite food?


What High School did you go to?


What is your favorite color?


Favorite drink?


Dream vacation?


What do you want to be when you grow up?


What do you love most in life?


One word to describe you?


What do you dream about?

THE THINGS

I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes me feel the most fulfilled and happy in my life. The things that I do for myself and only for myself. These happen to be the things that I realized I deny myself. I make excuses to not do them and end up doing things that I may enjoy but in a different way. Do I not want to be happy?

This is a constant struggle. It's frustrating that I recognize that I'm this way but I still can't overcome it.

I realized these things have a lot in common. They both center my mind and body. They help me feel balanced and clear-headed.

Yesterday I went for a short run and it was completely fulfilling. This is one of the things. It doesn't necessarily have to be running but any kind of physical exercise that gives my mind a sense of peace and clarity.

Next is making some art. I really want a studio space again. I have a hard time working in a home studio. Maybe that's because it's also part computer/office room, part Brian's music room, and part Juniper & Niko hang-out room. I miss having my old studio in Easthampton. I miss the huge white walls, the high ceilings, the floors that can get paint splattered on them, and the feeling that this space is for letting my mind free. I wish I could afford it.

Is that just another excuse? hmmmm.

Well to end this with a smile (hopefully) here is another clip of Niko doing his weird clapping thing. The last video I posted of this was a bit too dark, so this one is better (just ignore the camera shake in the beginning...but you can see a small glimpse of Juniper).
:)

THE INVITES

Many of you have heard me talking about these bridal shower invites I've been designing and making for the past few weeks. Well they are finally in the mail and at their finally destination (well, hopefully for everyone). They're for my friend, Stella; I'm the maid of honor in her wedding that will be in new orleans in September.

Pretty much everything was hand-done other than the outer envelope...i made the inner envelope. I designed, trimmed, stamped, printed, hand-wrote, sewed all of these. I was going to wait to post the pics but apparently she saw (hi stella) the whole package over the weekend already so I figured why wait.

They're printed on about a 130lb. heavy cotton Strathmore paper. It gave the finish almost a worn rustic look, I'm really happy with how the colors printed. Then the envelopes are made out of a kraft paper.




The envelope address stickers vary slightly between them all, which I really like, that's why I'm showing 2 examples below.



*the lighting was off so these aren't the best photos*

NOT AS CUTE ANYMORE

I bought this mug from Anthropologie around the holiday time and it's been my favorite. As you can see, the only word on it is "alouette" with a cute blue bird.





So with my amateur language skills, I just assumed that it meant little blue bird, or something along those lines. But I decided to look up it's true meaning, and I don't think it's my favorite mug anymore. The French translation does say that it means skylark; however, the search result on wikipedia gives more information.

According to wikipedia, "Alouette" is a popular children's song about plucking a skylark. "Alouette" informs the lark that the singer will pluck its head, nose, eyes and wings and tail.

Here are the words with their English translations:

Alouette, gentille Alouette

Skylark, nice skylark

Alouette, je te plumerai

Skylark, I shall pluck you

Je te plumerai la tête

I shall pluck your head

(Je te plumerai la tête)

(I shall pluck your head)

Et la tête

And your head

(Et la tête)

(And your head)

Alouette

Skylark

(Alouette)

(Skylark)

O-o-o-oh

Alouette, gentille Alouette

Alouette, je te plumerai

Je te plumerai le bec

I shall pluck your beak

(Je te plumerai le bec)

Et le bec

(Et le bec)

Et la tête

(Et la tête)

Alouette

(Alouette)

O-o-o-oh

The song continues in this fashion, with the italicized phrase (a part of the bird) in each verse being substituted with a new one, with the previous items being recited at the end:

• Et le cou
  And your neck

• Et le dos
  And your back

• Et les ailes
  And your wings

• Et les pattes
  And your feet

This mug doesn't seem so lovely anymore.

A UNIFIED LOOK

Being a Graphic Designer, you always think about the whole package. When asked to design something, whether it be a simple ad or an elaborate branding campaign, you want all pieces to look like they are part of a whole. Sometimes this can be pretty troublesome because our vision isn't always feasible and we have to learn how to let go. This letting go process is not easy and is hard to understand for people outside of our field. I'm constantly hearing "you're doing what?" when taking on a small project of my own and describing the task ahead. "Why can't you just buy that or why do you care so much?" Well, it's our name and it's our brand in a sense. I have to do it my way. In the end, it means more work, but it also means that I'll have something that I feel proud of and hopefully will be worth all of the energy put into it.

I found this site for a bakery, called Eugene and Louise and I immediately thought how wonderful it was to see their whole look pulled through all aspects of their brand. I also love love the design.

Here's their site header:



Some chocolate bars:


And these are made out of marzipan!! These may be the coolest things I've ever seen.

WITH A MISSION

Etsy shop Maidenlove makes these adorable stuffed elephants and as the seller says they are "elephants on a mission." Partial proceeds from an elephant purchase goes to The Circuses Fund. So not only can you put your money towards something totally lovable you're supporting a wonderful cause.

CANNED FLOWERS

Tin love and flower love what is a girl to do?



These popped out at me on the Fred Flare site. You can watch the specified flowers sprout right out of these tins with just some added water.

TO BE INSPIRED

I'm the kind of person who needs to surround myself with things that I like looking at. This inspires me and helps me be creative. I'm always shifting little trinkets around in our apartment to see how they look next to other items. I also love capturing something that was randomly composed.

I took some pictures last night of what I find to be beautiful.

CAPTURED

Last night we hosted a smallish vegan dinner party at our apartment.



It was the first ever in our place and I'm looking forward to having more. I can be really neglectful when it comes to taking pictures but then i always regret it afterwards. So i snapped a few while people ate and chatted, none of the actual food though unfortunately. I also missed out on some of the guests.









I'm always trying to play around with the settings on my camera and sometimes I really like the blurry effect. The abstraction is kind of intriguing.





I tend to hate using the flash, but when you're trying to take snapshots, it's hard in a dark room when people are moving around. So as you'll notice all of these pictures vary a bit with lighting/contrasts because of setting changes.





The food was all so delicious. I made the same Mac and Cheez recipe that I posted about before, plus a salad, some crostini with a bean dip and olive tapenade. There was also a coconut lentil soup, peanut noodles and a lemon 'cheese'cake with raspberry sauce. You can see a small glimpse of it in the pic below.

MORBID FOR SOME

But it's inspiration for me. I find old cemeteries to be very inspiring. I know it can be creepy and morbid for some people, but there's something about the ancient cobblestones that intrigues me. I walked around one on the Cape around Harwich, this past weekend with most stones dating back to the mid 1800s. There's one like this behind Orchard Street in Northampton that I used to wander around frequently.

This particular one was very small and had about 4 or 5 main family names and everyone was buried together. I mean families of 20 or so. Sitting and wondering about these people and what their lives were like so long ago moves me in some way.

These recent ones were so ornate and so beautiful to me with moss creeping on most in amber tones.

DID SOMEONE SAY RECYCLE?

I was kindly asked to design the logo and labels for a product line of hand-made recycled items. I finished the labels about 2 weeks ago and am very pleased with the outcome.



The products are:

re•wax- Votive candles made from scrap/recycled wax



re•mail- Envelopes made from recycled paper or pages from used coffee table books (set of 6)



re•note- Envelope and card sets made from recycled paper or pages from used coffee table books (set of 6 envelopes and 6 cards)



re•wrap- Wrapping paper ink stamped (by hand!) with incredible retro/mod stamps, made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper (6 sheets)



You can purchase these products directly through Mike or contact him if you have coffee table books, wax, or clean paper bags to donate.

OWL LOVE

Look at my new gift from Brian. I was admiring it the other day at essentials in northampton, and yesterday it was sitting on my desk when I got home from work. I absolutely love it.