creative inspiration

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

Loose Leaf – Edition One from Manual on Vimeo.

publications

eureka and codex
new publications eureka & codex, images from respective sites.

more good news for the print’s not dead files, two new publications have emerged this spring worthy of note. eureka magazine, profiled on iso50 is a fresh, clean & colorful approach to scientific matter, while codex is dedicated to typography.

design industry

we’re ramping up for the creative freelancer conference in june. i talk about what a good pep talk does for me while longtime HOW magazine editor, bryn mooth, talks about joining us in her transition to freelance. dang, we’re in good company.

i spent the weekend with students at AIGA LA’s student portfolio day, and met some really nice people and promising designers. here’s one for you guys: 50 things every graphic design student should know.

and one for back to basics / back to awesome, if you’re not asking these questions, or questions like them on every design project, it’s time to start: 5 questions every designer should ask their clients.

food

fava fennel saute
garnish your fava fennel saute with lemon zest and finishing salt

this week in food, we’re all about fresh fava beans over at LAist, seasonal eats: get fava beans while they’re fresh! and look at this nasturtium love over at hot knives!

finally, in semi-food & semi-hollywood news, cahuenga alley adjacent to where the hollywood farmer’s market sets up has been approved for a makeover?! that would be incredible!

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

branding

Voices of Youth Identity from Hyperakt on Vimeo.

i’d put up the before & after intro that under consideration usually posts, but it just doesn’t do this redesign justice. this highly versatile identity system is everything a great brand can grow from and use to communicate. take a closer look at all the fantastic details at underconsideration.com.

typography

baked type
image: anna garforth / howdesign.com

what a precise endeavor, not only to cut such thin type out of dough, but then to bake it without burning anything. thanks, howdesign.com

house industries has just launched photo lettering, where you can set type using their highly stylized & versatile fonts, and download a vector file for use. check it out!

packaging

letterpress vineyard
image: fizz / thedieline.com

very cute & clever idea of pairing grape varietals with typefaces to give each even more personality. not to mention pretty amazing labels. see the whole preview at thedieline.com

design industry

some interesting things are circulating about the behavior of women as consumers, for one women dominate the global marketplace, here are 5 keys to reaching them, from fastcodesign.com, and study finds women more likely to choose eco-packaging.

HOW has 10 reasons you’ll love the creativity issue, and if you have it and read into reason #5, you can hear from myself and some greatly respected colleagues talk about transitioning to freelance, which is very fun indeed.

los angeles

after reading the profile of GOOD’s LA issue, i decided i’m going to have to go buy a hard copy to curl up with this weekend. but that’s not to say you can’t read it online. digging deeper, if you want to see how designers and writers who do amazing things all over town live, design sponge sneak peeks alissa walker & keith scharwath’s pad in silver lake.

food

loquat ginger chutney
loquat ginger chutney

i picked the first loquats of the season this weekend, made some chutney, and researched as many things as i could find on how to prepare them for seasonal eats: forage your local loquats!

with easter around the corner, you’re going to have a lot of hard boiled eggs. if you need help with them, check out happy spring: 5 deviled egg recipes. and then, really, think twice about eating too much easter candy, because sugar is really more problematic than most of us think, and that’s putting it mildly. sorry to end on that note, but i care about your health. and my chutney is sugar-free.

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

CicLAvia 04.10.11 from Nicholas Dahmann on Vimeo.

an estimated 100,000 people came out for cicLAvia this past sunday, were you there? check out LA streetsblog’s 5 cicLAvia stories you shouldn’t miss.

packaging

plural wine
plural wine packaging, image: brand session / thedieline.com

i love it when 2 worlds i adore collide. brand session assigned a different pantone chip to each varietal of wine and used it all over the packaging. see the whole profile on thedieline.com

diy

one part great sustainability idea, one part diy, why not cut the top flap of your greeting cards away from the personalized back flap and reuse them as postcards? thanks, greenlagirl!

if you find yourself in need of meditation but not sure where to start, get on this 30-minute method from utne reader.

design industry

a few tools circulating like wildfire around the web this week include what font, a droplet that will allow you to identify fonts on the web, and print magazine’s how to proofread like a pro, because everyone needs to do it, but nobody really thinks they can.

in other news, one day for design is an online open forum to discuss the future of design, and it’s happening all day TODAY!

food

asparagus_stirfry
this week from seasonal eats on LAist: asparagus scallion stir-fry!

as we move into spring, more fresh fare appears in the markets. seasonal eats: fare from the ancients with asparagus! because maybe you didn’t know, but we’ve been eating it as long as recorded history.

it’s also the season to throw all kinds of things in salads. i love this round-up from the kitchn: chicken, tuna, pasta: 15 fresh, filling lunch salads.

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

Blödes Orchester from white tube on Vimeo.

this appliance orchestra is cracking me up!

typography

letter lamp
image: design sponge

how’s this for an awesome diy project, combining custom typography with [hopefully] a love of salvaged signs. hey, if you can’t find any, make them! check the whole how-to at design sponge.

packaging

broken trail
image: imaginaria creative / thedieline.com

what a cool, fun, retro, stampy, hand-made looking label for broken trail sauces. check the whole profile at the dieline and be sure to read all the great copy in the details.

design industry

it may be a bit too late for this year, but if you found yourself battling your past of disorganized paperwork when preparing taxes [or you’re about to], take that frustration and do something about it for next year: biz ladies: taxes made easy

a wave of design award submission deadlines just passed, but the under consideration people just announced a new one the FPO awards, calling for entries now!

for the ladies everywhere who are looking for the women in this industry, women of design was reviewed in the designer’s review of books and it looks like an awesome collection of who’s ever been who on the fairer sided of design.

if you’re looking for great LA design events this week & next, look no further than my round-up for LAist: LA design events, april 2011 preview!

los angeles

cicLAvia route
image: cicLAvia

cicLAvia is this weekend! make sure your bikes are tuned up & ready to go, and hit the streets this sunday!

food

marinated grilled artichokes

it’s the season of flowers, including those that eat like a meal. if you’re looking for endless great artichoke ideas, i’ve collected the best i could find for LAist: seasonal eats: have flowers for dinner with artichokes!

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

branding

social traders identity
image: fabio ongarato design / identitydesigned.com

i’m loving this clean, simple, 2-color identity for social traders. the folded ribbon motif going through the main logotype, carrying through to the art is bold and elegant without being overstated. see the entire package on identitydesigned.com

packaging

tilly devine wine
image: thedieline.com

another from the dieline, outstanding student work on coffee packaging, with lovely custom type logo: coffee bag!

always a sucker for typographic design elements, this packaging for tilly devine nearly becomes illegible, though the desire to read it wins out as you spin the lable. see the more photos at thedieline.com

design industry

vintage orange crate design
image: latimes.com

i could look at vintage citrus crates for hours. if you want to read more about this history of citrus branding and marketing in california, latimes.com has a great piece about how it all came to be.

continuing with sustainability, justin ahrens contributes to the parse blog, start somewhere: green is a must, while design sponge’s biz ladies outlines a how-to: simple ways to green your business.

the art of the letter

| heather parlato

the art of the letter doyald young
[the art of the letter, doyald young]

it’s been nearly a month since doyald young passed away. i’ve found myself thinking about him, about the amazing work he did, and what a nice guy he was. earlier this month, mohawk paper offered to ship a book they did with him awhile back, the art of the letter, for free, so for the cost of shipping i didn’t hesitate. you may still be able to order one following the link in this post.

hotel east 21 tokyo logo
[hotel east 21 logo study]

i met doyald at my first design job, working in a service bureau on the studio city / hollywood border. i hadn’t started there with a design career in mind, but after a few years of seeing so much work from all over LA, i was compelled to make it my own. doyald was a regular customer, but i had no real concept of his legacy. he was just this really nice guy who always seemed to be tweaking the prudential stationery, ordering one sheet of paper or film with each visit, which seemed like a relatively small project compared to the 4-color ads and full book layouts that came through the shop. i remember thinking it was cool that he was still working past retirement age.

as i learned more and moved up, i landed a design position at a company with an employee education budget, so i joined AIGA and started going to events and conferences. at one of the early Y-design conferences with the san diego chapter, doyald gave a presentation of his hand-drawn logotypes and letterforms, and it utterly blew my mind. all those years i had known him as a nice, grandfatherly gentleman, but had no idea i was talking to one of the most amazing talents in graphic design. i bought all his books from the shop and asked him to sign them. i remember gushing somewhat apologetically that i hadn’t realized who he was. but this was bound to happen, after all, he was a modest guy and i was 19 & not formally educated in design just yet.

imagine the possibilities

9 horizons in death valley, march 2011

| heather parlato

rainbow canyon from father crowley point
[rainbow canyon from father crowley point]

we took a trip to death valley with some friends this past weekend. as it happens, last week, my longtime camera [an ancient nikon coolpix 4300] moved into its last gasping breaths, so i shot what i could with my iphone, in anticipation of shopping for a much-needed upgrade the following week.

mesquite dunes in death valley
[walking along the mesquite dunes]

death valley is hard to do in a day, but we managed to make it through just as night fell. we started off with an obligatory beer at the stovepipe wells saloon, then on to walk among the mesquite sand dunes.

devil's golfcourse
[devil’s golfcourse]

death valley has quite a range of vast open spaces, textures and colors. i have liked devil’s golf course since i was a child, though back then i’d imagine tiny people living in salt castles. now i just marvel at how big it is.

artist's palette
[artist’s palette]

minerals in the rocks create lots of colors in the mountain ranges. when i was little, my sister and i got souvenir mineral samples, a box with small colorful rocks glued down and labeled, which we kept for years.

panamint mountains
[the panamint mountains from artist’s drive]

artist's drive
[colorful cliffs on artist’s drive]

amargosa mountains
[amargosa mountains to the east]

badwater basin
[salt flats at badwater basin]

looking north from badwater basin
[looking north from the small accumulation of rainwater at badwater basin]

all my pictures ended up to be horizons.

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

branding

burlingham woodland walks
[image: the click design consultants / identitydesigned.com]
as a person who frequents state and national parks, i really love it when branding for public spaces is done well, with reverence to the landscape. this makeover for burlingham woodland walks gives an elegant and instinctive feel to our connection to nature. see the whole package at identitydesigned.com.

infographic

beer infographic
[image: fastcodesign.com]
for a bit of fun, fastcodesign.com presents 14 surprising facts about beer in a super-cute poster-sized infographic. check their post for the full graphic.

design industry

if you’re looking for inspiration of the reading variety, fastcodesign.com profiled pentagram’s interactive site where you can click on your favorite designer and get their favorite reading suggestion.

mike montiero delivers his expert mix of humor with the straight truth in how to pick the right clients, my favorite quote from which is: Beware of clients that wait to call you until they have a perfect diagram of what they need. If they’re not coming to you for strategy and problem-solving, they’re not coming to you for design, they’re coming to you for production. And if you take on production work, you don’t get to call yourself a designer. (Yes, there’s a union. And we’re vicious.)

if you’re looking for ways to meet these clients and that same old elevator pitch doesn’t seem to be connecting with anyone, try rethinking what you’re saying with marcia hoeck’s ditch your elevator speech for parse blog.

finally, part 2 of my sustainability series for neenah paper is up on the against the grain blog: green with envy? put green ideas to action!

los angeles

some fun things floating around LA recently include this hike through the silver lake hills, a new electronics recycling center right here in echo park, and the oddly-comforting, instantly-beloved you are listening to los angeles.

food

nasturtium vinegar

some fun things going on food-wise include the fact that it’s springtime and flowers are everywhere. i’ve been foraging it up with dandelions, and finding all kinds of fun things to do with nasturtiums. before that, we celebrated the coming of spring with green garlic. get to picking and get down with your bad self!

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

Moving Beyond the Automobile: Biking from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

LA streetsblog started this great series, moving beyond automobiles, the first of which was about transit oriented development, and this week’s installment is about biking, above.

branding

ifc rebrand
[image: underconsideration.com]
i’m loving this new simple & quirky rebrand for the ifc channel, going from a film sprocket detail to celebrating the offbeat art that is independent film. there are all kinds of details to appreciate over at underconsideration.com.

car design

mini rocketman
[image: miniforum.com]
i’ve had my mini long enough that i no longer look at the next iterations off the assembly line with them, but when someone posted this, i found it really cute. look at those doors! i really hope they use william shatner’s version of rocket man for the ads, ha! a slew of illustrations await at miniforums.com.

packaging design

wine stash packaging
[image: thedieline.com]
this packaging for wine stash has lots of elements i love in packaging: throwbacks to retro labeling systems, a stampy logo in the lower left corner, and a simple 2-color system with a palette that sings. see more at thedieline.com.

design industry

the case for the case study talks about rethinking how you present your work to clients, so instead of bombarding them with all your best looking stuff, you target one project that’s highly relevant to them, and go more in-depth about process.

listen to mule design’s mike montiero talk about running his firm and selling design ideas on the pipeline podcast.

i’ve been working to debunk the mysteries of transitioning from full-time, in-house work to self-employment with ilise benun of creative freelancer blog and alisa bonsignore of clarifying complex ideas:
freelance 101: how to begin getting clients
freelance 102: balancing two jobs
freelancing 103: when to make the leap to f/t freelancing
and finally, a podcast on my own experience for marketing mentor: interview with heather parlato on freelancing

freelance switch offers 110 ideas to get more freelance work and generate new client leads. hot dang, there’s got to be some new possibilities in there we haven’t thought of before.

los angeles

one of my favorite new clients, mohawk bend, talks to echo park online about the new restaurant they’re bringing to the neighborhood. can’t wait to unveil more of this brand, but for now, the main logo is up. check it out!

if you’re looking for new, hidden treasures around LA, los angeles magazine offers “hidden LA” with a great run-down of places to visit.

food

spicy avocado butter
we’re in the crossover from winter to spring in the LA area, so this week’s seasonal eats talks about the various avocado cultivars you can enjoy at different times of year. last week’s spotlight was on all the great things to do with cauliflower!

in my blog travels this week, i noticed emily ho’s suggestion to grill citrus for use in a vinaigrette dressing, what a fantastic idea!