In order to improve my letters, I try to practice calligraphy every single day on several surfaces with different
nibs and inks. Below is today’s scribble, an interesting quote by Oscar Wilde. My calligraphy is still rough but
I definitely see an improvement from few weeks ago.
I recently joined the Minted community and entered my first design challenge: Minibook Birth Announcements Challenge. I submitted two designs in this competition, and am happy to announce that one of them was a winner. Sweet Pauline is available for purchase through www.minted.com!
P.S. A Minibook is a unique piece of stationery featuring chic grommets and seven pages that can be personalized with photos and text.
Today, our family is being featured over on the great blog Let the Kids Dress Themselves – an inspiration blog that loves authentic family and lifestyle photography. Lovely and talented Buffy Dekmar, an Atlanta photographer visiting Seattle for the weekend, somehow managed to capture our busy family and the fun we had chasing seagulls, blowing bubbles, running around and just being us. We absolutely love the pictures and hope you’ll enjoy looking at them too. Please visit Letthekids.com to see the feature.
As you know I’m in the process of rebranding and redesigning my website and blog. This means that it’s absolutely necessary to reshoot my portfolio pieces. This time around I’m going for a modern yet sophisticated style, with clean, simple and direct shots. I’ve been looking for inspirations on how to style my portfolio and as always
Pinterest doesn’t disappoint. Below are just a few of my faves.
And, now on to choosing which projects to include… I’ll share more about the project as I go further into the rebranding process.
Credits: From left to right: 1. Pinned from Donhkoland / 2. Ashton Ridge Lodge – Kristen West Design / 3. lg2 boutique’s branding for the 2011 edition ofLa Vittoria / 4. 150 CHARLES STREET – JesseReedFromOhio / 5. Maison Orphée branding by lg2boutique.com / 6. Dylan Culhane Collateral by Ben Johnston. / 7. Branding and packaging for Tarry Market by Memo via The Dieline. / 8. Pinned from DesignInspiration.net
Hooray! I finally get to share Rachel’s new business cards! Rachel has been my best friend and client and just recently she came to me wanting to totally rebrand her event design and floral business, Finch And Thistle. I talked about her Her new business cards are modern yet sophisticated and classic. I couldn’t be happier with the way they turned out!
Hooray! I finally get to share this project with you. I don’t often take on identity projects as my life is just too busy at the moment, but I had to make an exception. Those fabulous business cards were designed and printed for the talented Rachel Bowes. Rachel has been my best friend and client and just recently she came to me wanting to totally rebrand her event design and floral business, Finch And Thistle Events. I introduced you to her new branding here. Her new business cards are modern and sophisticated yet timeless. I couldn’t be happier with the way they turned out!
And I must say this, getting them printed was quite the challenge. This was a demanding letterpress printing job (in terms of registration) and I had a hard time finding the print shop that would take this job. The vintage illustration knocks out, requiring very tight registration. In the end, I was able to find a very skilled letterpress shop that kept a critical eye on the registration while on press and I’m thrilled with how tight the cards came out. The floral foil design and letterpressed type align perfectly!
The business cards were foil stamped in pearl and letterpress printed in grey ink on Reich Savoy 100% Pure Cotton Brilliant White 236# Cover. This sumptuous, elegant paper is made from 100% pure cotton, is tree free, archival, acid free, recyclable, biodegradable and elemental chlorine free.
I have always admired calligraphy and I have been wanting to try it for a while now but I wasn’t sure what types of calligraphy pens or nibs to purchase. And then yesterday, while walking around the Anthropologie store, I found this delightful calligraphy kit by Linea Carta’s Diva Pyari! I bought it since it has everything I need to get started and now I can’t wait to play with it. Kit includes one lettering chart (with Diva Pyari’s signature calligraphy), practice sheets, one jar of natural oak gall ink, and wooden dip pen with metal nib.
Stay tuned to see my calligraphy experiments.
Learning proper calligraphy is definitely on my agenda and I would like to learn from a professional calligrapher. If you know of one in the Seattle area, please let me know.
You can buy this kit from Anthropologie or directly from Diva Pyari’s Etsy Shop.
Over the past few months (ok, a year!) I’ve been working on a rebranding project for one of my favorite people – the uber talented Rachel Bowes of Finch & Thistle Event Design. Finch & Thistle Event Design provides event design, floral and event planning services for weddings and events throughout Washington State and across the country. With a strong portfolio of exquisitely designed and impeccably executed events, Rachel was seeking a brand re-haul and wanted a sophisticated, charming new identity that would grab the attention of brides-to-be and help her stand out in the crowd of wedding planners in the city. I had a wonderful time working with Rachel as we went in several different directions trying to create a brand that would represent her best. I’m very happy how it ended up. I took her already established logo (that I designed few years back), modified it a notch and then added new design details, both vintage and modern. The result is new identity and branding that is just as unique as she is – sophisticated and refined and true to Rachel’s own aesthetic.
Working with Rachel is a blast! Cheers to her new look!! Please come back to see her new business cards. I’ll be posting pictures as soon as we get them back from the print shop. Think letterpress, foil, luxurious paper stock… In the meantime, take some time exploring her site and blog, there is so much beauty to see…
Back in January, we had our family photos taken by Buffy Dekmar, an amazing photographer from Atlanta, who was in town for the weekend. I received the prints today and they just blew me away! They are so gorgeous, I have fallen in love with nearly every photo Buffy took. She managed to effortlessly capture the most priceless moments and the essence of our children’s spirit. We had such a fun time at Alki Beach despite the weather being on the gloomy side. Jakob and Izzy dressed themselves for the occasion and brought extra hats, their favorite toy – pedal tractor, bubbles and balloons. Buffy was sweet and kind, kids adored her and we had a remarkable experience.
The pictures turned out more than amazing. The light and the colors are so dreamy that it almost makes me love the rain and the Seattle’s winter weather…. We love, love, love them! Buffy captured in pictures a magical memory that we will treasure forever.
Buffy Dekmar is a fine art photographer, specializing in wedding and lifestyle photography. She’s a pleasure to work with and I can’t recommend her enough. You can enjoy her work here.
There is a new font on the block and I cannot tell you enough how much I love it. It’s called Trend and it’s from the prolific Latinotype foundry in Chile! It is a layered font family in both sans and slab styles (has dingbats, swirly scribbles and ornaments too) and is extremely versatile and fun. It is perfect for headlines, posters, quirky invitations and signs.
And the best part is that it is ridiculously affordable – at least for a limited time! Be sure to scoop this one up! The whole family of 21 fonts for only $19!!! (as opposed to a combined price of $159.) Available on MyFonts.com
