[the overnight snowfall on aileen’s picnic table]
the epic storm was predicted, and we got to tahoe just ahead of the tell-tale winds. it was a sunny drive up and the streets were clear last night, so i was surprised to wake up to this. we’re going to marvel, and shovel, and make comfort food today.
Erik Spiekermann – Putting Back the Face into Typeface from Gestalten on Vimeo.
[image: pop chart lab]
this infographic of sorted & illustrated culinary tools is a virgo, graphic designer, diy kitchen person’s dream! see the whole profile at fastcodesign.com.
[image: thedieline.com]
i love this shopping bag commissioned by lee, intended to be cut down and reused as a board game, calendar, ruler, mask, door hanger, and so many more things. see the full post at the dieline.com.
inc magazine has a great article, survival tips for solopreneurs to help you stay afloat when times get tough.
also, in web design, when you feel the tug-of-war between business objectives vs. user experience pulling you into indecision, here’s how to solve it.
i found myself the lucky recipient of a few pounds of foraged chanterelles this week, so i wrote about them in seasonal eats: when live gives you wild chanterelles.
i was just marveling last week about how jam-packed january has been on all fronts: between work and social events, and just the sheer variety of it all. somewhere between realizing i hadn’t cataloged my ever-growing list of guest-blog posts and this lingering feeling after recapping my retreat about how you can never really remember all the great things you did, i got to this point where i realized i needed somewhere to keep track of the smaller steps that lead to the bigger ones. i got the idea of making a book like this as a gift, because it can’t just be me who would like a cheering section in the form of a diary of gold star moments, but i figured i’d try it out first.
enter these fantastic scout books people have been making. luke mysse gave me one of the promotional ones he made back when we spent the day coworking. i’ve gotten a few from friends in the meantime, so rather than archive these as keepsakes [as i do with way too many things] i counted the pages and figured there’s a front & back for each month with room for extra. great! i got out a pen and re-learned once again that, without practice, my handwriting will always be terrible.
i wrote out everything i felt noteworthy and proud of for january, and a couple that got started for february this week. these are usually cool, new things i wasn’t doing before, or opportunities i feel lucky about, milestones with clients, or milestones on my own goals. getting it all down on paper made me happy about this idea all over again, so i’m going to keep the book at my desk and update it whenever i’m feeling good about something i did, or circumstances that go my way, or any time i realize hey, progress has happened!
oh, and see that “updated web content” item on the february list? i did finally catalog the guest-blogging, and never would have imagined this would have happened in 6 months, most of it in the last 3!
how about you, anyone else do something like this? i think it’s going to really help, come year-end assessment time. and before that, it will help anytime i’m having an off day of business pms.
[image: matt lehman]
i don’t have a bunch to say about design today, but what i will say is that this illustrated state motto project 50 and 50 is super cool! i can’t wait till they get to california! thanks designworklife.com for the link.
our very own AIGA LA 2010 fellow, jeri heiden, gets her own spotlight on imprint: influence and inspiration, part 2: jeri heiden.
[image: twig & thistle]
these have been all over the internet this week, and i think they’re brilliant: naturally sweet diy valentines! pick a fruit, pair it with a fruity pun sticker and share a naturally sweet treat with your valentine!
it seems like a preponderance of news items involving sustainability came out this week. first of all, these services have been around for awhile, but if you didn’t jump on them before, reduce your junk mail with a selection of mail reduction services. second, if you wondered what it’s like to live as close to zero waste as possible, the zero waste home answers your questions about it. third, i’m astounded to find out that ben & jerry’s has figured out a way to run their ice cream factory on ice cream!
greenlagirl.com offers a round-up of cool LA sites to follow.
this week’s seasonal eats is about kale, health benefits, deliciousness and all!
last week i was watching an interview my friend colleen wainwright did, talking about her year-long hiatus and what she’s been doing in the interim, when got to the part where she said she did a ton of writing. in no small part, 2-3 times the amount of writing than any year previous, but people just didn’t see it. then she had animated it thusly:
do people even realize, for every good thing you see on someone’s site, [this] (small hand gesture) is what you see, and then [TTHHHIIIISSSSSS] is what they’ve done—and my arms go out to infinity!
this SO hit home for me, because i do a ton of stuff, and i try to work it into something here or there, but there are already so many things i want to share that haven’t made it into even a mention in a blog post. you have to do so much in order to get good stuff up anywhere, sometimes it’s a wonder we have time to get the good stuff up at all.
so, thanks colleen! hearing and seeing the concept illustrated was a huge relief to my constant feeling of overwhelm from all the stuff-doing i’ve been up to.
[image: thedieline.com]
the design museum made this awesome young designers kit—but they took it further than simply inspiring young people to get into design, arming them with tools—they did it sustainably with recycled and low-impact materials. bravo! see the whole profile on the dieline.
got a minute to take the first in a multi-part series of steps in learning to go sustainable beyond ink and paper? i’m writing a piece on revisiting all the milestones in a print production process and encouraging we make more sustainable choices over on neenah’s against the grain blog. Eco-Friendly 2011: Think Forward…Then Backwards.
i’m loving this LemonAid project on good.is: a german company mixed up the perfect batch of lemon aid [to their taste, anyway], then figured out how to produce it using all fair trade resources, and then they donate a portion of their profits to fund grass-roots organizations in the countries where they source the ingredients. now that’s cooking with lemons!
one of the unexpected turnouts of the katrina disaster is that some areas are being rebuilt using much more sustainable materials, read up on utne.com: thanks katrina for greener building materials.
the first of the reviews are in from AIGA LA: Speakeasy, our fellows celebration for the 2010 AIGA fellows. check out michael dooley’s 2-part follow up interviewing john coy: influence and inspiration, part 1: john coy.
smashing magazine has a great round-up: time-saving tips and educational resources for web designers.
with all the talk of annual planning, i think it’s important to remember not to plan so hard you miss unexpected opportunities. justin ahrens shares his perspective on the parse blog: rain or shine: embrace the unplanned.
i’m on a bender about using more of the food we buy, and this week i get on everyone’s case about wasting orange peels [among other things] over at LAist. because i’m a curmudgeon who thinks you should dry them and eat them. but look—this other girl at serious eats is also nutty for citrus seasoning with her deliciously italian lemon salt with fennel and chili!
and speaking of going grassroots on the food industry, what about an old-fashioned food swap!? i joined my friend emily’s LAX swappers group here in LA, you should too!
if you’re spending time in the garden and want to attract monarch butterflies [while helping restore their dwindling populations of late], re-nest shows you how to get your milkweed going to attract butterflies to your garden!
[image: howdesign.com]
couldn’t have said it better myself, from howdesign.com: Yesterday, Macy’s flagship store unveiled seven new window displays on Broadway in Manhattan featuring stunning paper works by fashion design, fine arts, industrial design, and interior design students from Pratt Institute’s School of Art and Design between 34th and 35th streets. The display showcases sophisticated and beautiful paper looks that compliment Ralph Pucci’s Spring 2011 “GIRL 2″ mannequins as well as inventive paper sculptures and will be on view through January 26, 2011. The work is part of an exhibition titled “Pratt + Paper & Ralph Pucci” that was on view at Pucci’s Gallery Nine Showroom in December 2010.
back in june, i went to the creative freelancer conference, where we met great people, learned a ton, and put a bunch of great ideas on our to-do lists and gave them to ilise benun to mail back to us in 6 months. i just got mine in the mail last week: my creative freelancer “progress report.”
if one of your resolutions involved getting new clients, smashing magazine heard you and wrote up this early identification field guide: how to identify good clients and avoid bad ones.
there are suddenly a bunch of design contest and award deadlines rapidly approaching! print’s regional design annual submissions are due february ! how design’s promotion awards closes march 5, and their in-howse awards are due april 1, no joke. the creative review has extended their deadline to february 9, but they mean it! launching mid-february will be the brand new awards, details forthcoming.
i wish i weren’t superlatively under so many deadlines this week, or i’d round up more fun food ideas for you. but HEY—this article on kohlrabi i wrote for LAist should more than cover you, precluding of course, that you promise to buy some kohlrabi. seasonal eats: say yes to kohlrabi!
http://service.twistage.com/plugins/player.swf?p=fastcodesign_episode&v=c8163eca83931&autoplay=false
first look: LA scores a bold new museum by diller scofidio renfro, from fastcodesign.com.
i love this story from greenlagirl.com about not having access to a green barrel or composting bin, rogue composting, and making a friend who will trade compostables for backyard fruit. this is community when it works: how i started composting and got free grapefruit too.
[image: fastcodesign.com]
in my travels this week, it seems like it’s an infographic time of year. design-wise, everything cool i found was a display of information, starting with this one above who cares if honey bees are dying, which is quite extensive and can only be excerpted here. another one worth every dead end [and a few green pastures] it leads to is jessica hische’s “should i work for free” flowchart, telling the all-too-true tales of why the answer is almost always NO. and then informationisbeautiful.com shares their own round-up this week 8 great infographics which includes a stunning radiant moon phase calendar.
[image: creativereview.co.uk]
creative review is asking you to vote on your favorite logos. i haven’t made my picks yet, but it’s all over the design blogosphere. weigh in on your favorites!
this freelancer workout is close to my heart, as i quit the gym last year, citing lovely LA weather and abhorrence of commuting for why i wouldn’t return again unless i return to a regular work-related commute.
since you haven’t heard enough about my retreat yet, i wrote about it for the creative freelancer blog: what a difference a retreat makes, and then i updated my own retreat recap with specifics about last year’s milestones and this year’s goals.
get the story on celeriac and a recipe for veggie haystack fritters in my weekly seasonal eats for LAist. then, if you’re really into this whole seasonal thing, but you’re not in LA and aren’t sure how to do it where you live, epicurious has an interactive seasonal map of winter seasonal foods just for you! and hey, if you’re more curious about how different food systems work and can affect you [especially the yous in the colder areas who rely on a delivery system] there’s this really interesting piece: mapping food access on the ecocentric blog. and with that, i’m out!
[image: astronautdesign.com]
truly stunning branding system created by astronaut design [the whole portfolio is well-worth a spin], described simply: Antarctic Voice is a project that aims to express the voice, the silence and the magic of the unattainable continent, Antarctica. view the complete project profile at identitydesigned.com.
check out honey & mackie’s ice cream shop packaging on thedieline.com, a great pairing of typography and silhouette!
[image: re-nest.com]
i don’t use traditional calendars for date tracking so much anymore [because i’m so dependent on ical], but i still think they’re a thing of beauty and can be some great rotational art for your home. re-nest.com has a great round-up of cute 2011 calendars.
[image: inspiredology.com]
i love looking at these old posters that came out of WPA arts projects. inspiredology takes a look at how design and typography have helped communicate civic messages in years past.
need a job? béhance is now hosting how design’s job list!
it’s a new year, and everyone’s talking about how to start it off right. let me put down my breakfast pizza to suggest maybe we learn to give better design feedback. thanks, mule design, for bringing humorous honesty to this admittedly difficult process. here’s an excerpt in case you haven’t clicked yet: First rule of design feedback: what you’re looking at is not art. It’s not even close. It’s a business tool in the making and should be looked at objectively like any other business tool you work with. The right question is not, “Do I like it?” but “Does this meet our goals?” If it’s blue, don’t ask yourself whether you like blue. Ask yourself if blue is going to help you sell sprockets. Better yet: ask your design team. You just wrote your first feedback question. bam!
[image: AIGA LA]
the time has come to celebrate designers who have made outstanding contributions to the legacy of los angeles. this year, AIGA LA honors 2010 fellows john coy and jeri heiden, and invites you to meet, mix & mingle with past AIGA fellows and AIGA medalists in a truly wonderful evening january 20 at the palihouse in west hollywood. i should know, i’m producing it, and we’re planning a fantastic speakeasy event. the tickets are a steal, register today before they go up the day of the event!
so what’s new in my hood? i’ve been wondering what to do with the preponderance of elderly towels i’ve accumulated. like, they’re not falling apart, but they’re not pretty and they don’t match. i got a nice set of matching towels, but since i’m not into wasting things, i kept the old towels too. maybe for cat baths or spills or making into rags? thanks blue collar dog supplies for solving this for me! i can give them to dogs in need! so can you!
kelly over at echoparknow.com has a great list of echo parky things to do in 2011. come to think of it, i should probably read the madonnas of echo park, and i love climbing stairs, and i am sure going to miss the lake on its 2-year hiatus.
this week for LAist: seasonal eats: bringin’ mad beets! oh yeah, i went there. it’s okay to hit the “like” button if you like it.
parlato design studio 