articles

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

los angeles

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.

infographics

honey bee infographic
[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.

design industry

favorite logos
[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.

food

winter root vegetable haystack fritters
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!

creative inspiration

| heather parlato


not that you’ve forgotten how the economy got into a mess, but information is beautiful made a really clean animated infographic that drives the point home.

branding

antarctic voice
[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!

calendars

2011 calendars
[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.

design industry

wpa posters
[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!

AIGA

fellows 2010 speakeasy
[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!

los angeles

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.

creative inspiration

| heather parlato


something to get you rockin on the last week of the year.

packaging

cat cabin
[image: loyal luxe]
if you have cats, then you know that as soon as a box is around, they’re inside it. these little cat houses & cabins are so cute, i think mine would have a ball playing in them.

if you love packaging, take a look at this colorful, type-forward series from muse perfumery. so enticing!

something we don’t talk about enough in packaging, however, is waste, and i think marian bantjes’ piece for design observer explains my wrap rage really well: plastics: an apoplexy.

wine

bear flag wine
[image: thedieline.com]
sometime in september, i was up in san francisco, walking home from dinner on my cell phone, when i dropped into a liquor store to buy a bottle of wine. distracted by my call and less familiar with napa wine than most points south, i scanned the shelf forever and then decided that this fascinating label for bear flag wine had to be a sign. i bought it, i drank it, i planned to photograph it, but i didn’t, and then i took home the empty bottle, and it sat on a shelf for 2 weeks, when i finally decided i would just let it go. but then—here it is on the dieline, and it reminded me, it was an awesome piece of illustration & package planning. the bear flag site is pretty awesome as well, and i give them a pass on using flash, because they’re using it well.

typography

serif bag
[image: thedieline.com]
you probably think you don’t need this serif bag, but face it, you probably do. profiled on
thedieline.com.

design industry

it’s right around the corner, the AIGA 2010 fellows will be celebrated a touch past 2010. AIGA Fellows 2010: Speakeasy at the Palihouse on january 20! buy tickets today!

design sponge’s biz ladies will tell you how to plan effective give-aways.

inspiredology looks at how to guide your users eye in parts 1 and 2.

beyond design

winter drinks
[image: serious eats]

2 from serious eats on winter drinks and mocktails just in time for new year’s eve!

this week’s post for LAist doubly surprised me, for one because people seem to really like fennel more than i thought, and for another, i didn’t get ANY anchovy hate! seasonal eats: root-to-flower fun with fennel.

creative inspiration

| heather parlato


what a cool internet collaboration on a christmas song!

packaging

burn cottage wine packaging
[image: the dieline]
a really unique illustration on oncoated stock to showcase burn cottage, a biodynamic winery. by mash.

typography

bathe wines
[image: thedielinewine]
beautiful, simple type treatment and illustration for bathe wines by fuller. so clean and classic! check the complete profile on the dieline.

some outstanding tv quotes from mad men, the wire and battlestar galactica, in custom typeset.

los angeles

spicy winter fruit salad
i’ve been writing for LAist about eating seasonally, and the latest is about spicing up your holiday menu with fresh LA fare. last week was a good look at swiss chard, followed by my first experience with creative mornings in los angeles with alissa walker. stay tuned for more each week!

loving LA got a lot easier with this awesome tumblr: 10>110>101, an eclectic collection of all kinds of LA ephemera. thanks to @theroyalacademy for sharing it!

food

i’m not going to add to your holiday overwhelm more than i already have, but consider these cookies. they’re made with salt and pepper. if you like salty cookies that really bring out the flavor, try these out: salt n pepper sandwich cookies. yum!

creative inspiration

| heather parlato


a cute little video on how paper gets recycled. parlato design studio uses high if not 100% post consumer recycled papers whenever possible. the holiday cards currently for sale were printed on neenah environment PC100!

posters

hatch design wine country posters
[image: designworklife]
i’m loving these wine country travel posters by hatch for the sf moma wine exhibit, available for sale in the museum store. thanks designworklife for the link.

wine packaging

bottle of packaging
[image: thedieline]
beautiful typographic wine packaging for bottle of by swear words. some more nice type-driven pieces i found include adir winery and one-two punch wine.

design industry

so, what’s new this week? i’ve been writing for the creative freelancer blog, and lately i won’t shut up about year-end retreats. only 4 more days till mine starts! planning your year-end retreat, for creativefreelancerblog.com

need things to incorporate into next year’s planning while you’re sitting by the pool in desert hot springs? see, i did it again. how about 10 reasons to rethink your web site, from imprint.com [i am totally in need of an overhaul here], or these 2 from parse design your business plan, by doug powell and craft a more effective identity, by peleg top.

if you’re not into holiday cards but don’t want to miss the opportunity to connect with your clients & vendors, consider a transition to new year’s cards, alisa tells you how: do you have your new year’s cards ready?

beyond design

craft a paper star
[image: craft magazine]
the holiday how-tos are rolling in these days, i thought this paper holiday star was particularly cute, and something we could all probably do with some of the paper we’d normally throw into the recycling bin. decorate with it for a few weeks!

if you like baking cookies for the holidays, saveur compiled their 20 best holiday cookie recipes, and boy are they cute!

speaking of food [were we?] i’ve got another piece for LAist: seasonal eats: a little something about sunchokes.

article of the week

| heather parlato

take time to celebrate and dream by justin ahrens for HOW’s parse blog.

i saved this article earlier this week because it looked interesting, but i hadn’t read it until this morning. what a nice surprise to see another voice on the importance of the year-end retreat. i got to see ahrens speak with von glitschka on how africa changed everything at adobe max this year and his approach and philosophy were really inspirational. he suggests some things i hadn’t though of—bringing your design work to review and analyzing clients. good thing my getaway isn’t for another week, i can add these steps into my own process as well.

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

Thanks Getting: how to ask for a testimonial from Dyana Valentine on Vimeo. one of the great things that can happen during co-working: one person asks a question, another person has a great idea for an answer, and a third person [me] is there to hold the camera! read dyana’s entire post, thanks-getting, for creativefreelancerblog.com!

typography

designworklife gift guide
[image: designworklife.com]
this is a little bit typography & a little bit holiday. designworklife.com is working out gift guides for 2010, and i really loved this typography-themed selection, including yarn-wrapped letters, the OMFG journal, a very affordable letterpress print, and even a letterpress t-shirt.

diy

book wreath
[image: living with lindsay]
a little bit holiday & a little bit diy. despite a lack of religion, i do like the hanging of decorative wreaths during the holidays. i’ve tried like the dickens [well, not the dickens] to get this succulent wreath to work, but it doesn’t look anything like the ones you can buy. i might try making something interesting out of the eucalyptus & peruvian pepper in the park, but if you’ve got crafting on the brain for unexpected holiday ornaments with a handmade touch, re-nest.com offers: craft with what you already have: 10 diy wreaths.

design industry

emigre no. 70
[image: designersreviewofbooks.com]
a little bit design industry & a little bit typography, and a LOT of good old émigré! i don’t know about you, but i’ve still got a collection of the free quarterlies they sent out in the 90s that i treasured from the moment of arrival, so cool & so fun. i’m interested to take an hour or a week looking through this one. take a nice preview here: emigre 70: the look back issue.

i really liked this one from logodesignlove.com: building your design business: promotion, and not because i’ve done almost everything on their suggested actions list, either. the giving aspect is what i see in my favorite companies, partners & colleagues, and it’s what i look for in collaborators. promotion isn’t about banging people over the head [i’ll try to remember this in my daily tweets & facebook bombardments], it’s about being cool.

another greatly supportive piece from designspongeonline.com: biz ladies: establishing relationships with advisors. it’s so important to have mentors and trusted confidants you can bounce ideas off and get advice. if you haven’t cultivated a circle for yourself, they’ll show you how to get started.

let’s get realistic here, it’s the holiday season, and i’ve already started hearing about the difficulties with work-life balance, and it only gets harder this time of year. freelancefolder.com wants to help: six dilemmas that freelancers face over the holidays.

beyond design

wine: is this design or wine or beyond design & wine? sf moma has this amazing show through april, and fastco design wrote up a preview: how wine became a billion dollar high-brow hobby. i’m definitely going to have to make a beeline for it on my next trip up north.

food: anchovy haters, step aside! when i saw this recipe i fell in love. i can picture what it tastes like, and i’m going to make it with my last slice of puff pastry in the freezer: pissaladières [onion & anchovy tarts].

los angeles: it’s a little bit food, a little bit los angeles, and mostly the first in a series about seasonal eating for laist.com: seasonal eats: persimmons.

fashion: do i write about fashion? no! but i aspire to some of it, and when i read some good, applicable stuff, i want to share it. nubby twiglet just fine-tuned her closet in this extremely virgo way i totally get on an astrological level. it’s sensible, utilitarian, and she has amazing shoes!

creative inspiration

| heather parlato


a rube goldberg machine video for your day-before-holiday fun!

packaging

wine label
[image: thedieline.com]
lovely wine packaging by fanakalo in 1-color illustration paired with chunky embossing.

design industry

i have one thing to share about my industry this week, and it’s these 28 talking points on spec work, design contests & crowdsourcing and how pretty much every presentation of value they tout is false! [thanks dave waite!]

food & holiday fun

foraging for thanksgiving
[image: T. Susan Chang for NPR]
whether you actually do this or not, i found it totally fascinating to see a much more interesting list of foods to forage for thanksgiving: try foraging for your thanksgiving meal, which then led me to weed it and eat it, because why fight weeds with poisons or aggression when you could just eat many of them? both from npr.org! [thanks tricia okin!]

i always knew to listen for a resonant hollow sound when picking a watermelon, but i never knew about the sugar spot: the art of reading watermelons, from utne.com

if you’re staying local for thanksgiving and want to help out the community, check out echo park’s gobble gobble give.

looking for alternatives to malls & black friday and all that stuff? check out renegade craft fair, los angeles!

if you got this far and you’re looking for some pure fun before you take off for the day, check out this google map of all the oldest things in the world. awesome! [thanks michele yu!]

article of the week

| heather parlato

beet paper in the window at machine project
[image: alissa walker]

hands on by alissa walker

if you’re in the business of design, or art, or culture, or urban living, or just generally going outside, you should really be reading alissa walker, which is getting increasingly harder to do, since she’s writing for so many amazing publications these days. but hey, you can start by simply reading her blog. she just wrote up a workshop she attended at machine project, a fantastically experiential art space in echo park. i often take it for granted because they’re so close and always doing so many great things, i’ve become spoiled. walker points out a feeling i share about why they’re so great: you get to experience the making of art, play and explore, and get involved in the art experience, which is a stark contrast to a view-only gallery experience.