this invitation to the natural history museum’s halloween event “haunted museum” brings together retro thriller movie design with vintage travel posters. see the entire profile at fpo.
furniture innovation
image: fastcodesign.com
thanks to fastcodesign.com for sharing the comfy cargo chair, which can be stuffed with anything you’d like to display while sitting in it. i only hope there’s a suggestion to add a cushion to the seat.
typography
image: H&FJ
H&FJ has just announced a new typeface, ideal sans, a clean, highly-versatile sans-serif that tinkers with space and proportion while maintaining high readability.
if you’re a designer working with a developer when it comes to web development, maybe your relationship could use some guidance. smashing magazine offers two cats in a sack: designer-developer discord.
it’s never too early to incorporate design into a development process, so why not revisit your research process and integrate it wherever you can. parse can help you get started: design-research process.
a reform school filled with avid food traders. image: gregory han
this past weekend, my friend, writer & sustainable food business strategist, emily ho organized the first LA food swap, calling for home-cooks, preservers and general diy-foodie-types to bring their artisanal wares to a small, informal food trading event. i have been wanting to do something like this for awhile, but never got to organizing, so i’m really glad she made it happen.
my offerings at the LA food swap: garlic confit, mixed citrus marmalade, dandelion vodka, blood orange / lemon verbena vodka
when i first heard about the event, i researched a few seasonal preparations and got to work on the ones that would need the most time, namely the vodka infusions. i took a long walk foraging hundreds of dandelions for a 3-week infusion that turned out quite nicely [though it was hard to tell along the way]. i had been curious about this slow-cooked marmalade, so i decided to modify it by using a mix of citrus: cara cara, navel and blood oranges, meyer lemons and pink grapefruit. finally, i made something i always have on standby, garlic confit.
emily made some deliciously deep red beet fettucini, an dried & ground mandarin zest seasoning, and foraged pink peppercorns. this is just one example of the great ideas you get at a food swap—of all the things i’ve been doing with citrus peels, drying & grinding them into powder hadn’t occurred to me [though i do stick the dried zest in a pepper mix and throw it in a mill]. wonderful!
marmalades, chocolates, lemonades, arancelli, and extracts!
just a sample of what some of the many table and benches looked like. i was lucky enough to entice 2 food traders into awarding me with a bottle of that arancello, the rosemary lemonade concentrate, and yonder at the end of the table, some lemons & grapefruit.
a group shot of all my new friends
so, here’s what it comes down to. i arrived with 11 jars of confit, 12 jars of marmalade, 2 jars of blood orange / verbena vodka & 3 jars of dandelion vodka. i traded them for [left to right] a bottle of arancello, garlic bread, a jar of pickled carrots & jalapeños, rangpur lime marmalade, pickled multicolored heirloom carrots, 2 lemons, strawberry-grapefruit marmalade, 3 avocados, peach marmalade, a grapefruit / fennel tincture, a jar of cherries, lemon curd, beet fettucini, spicy salsa, brown butter cookies, lavendar oatmeal scrub, 4 cheese & artichoke biscuits, rosemary lemonade concentrate, and 3 oro blanco grapefruits. not included in this photo are a few arugula plants, quince, lemon rosemary cupcakes and a bowl of foraged herbs, basically the leftovers of what we had that we traded in order not to take our own items home.
beyond all this food stuff, i got to meet some really nice people who value food traditions and want to connect over it, which has been wonderful. everyone repeatedly asked when we’d be doing it again, and the tweets following the event were full of excitement about using new food items. to see more photos and get the official word, visit LA food swap & sign up for emails on the next swap. let’s keep this event full of great people, energy and ideas! in the meantime, enjoy their official write-up: our first food swap, or my own recap at LAist: an old-fashioned good time: the 1st ever LA food swap.
i love these videos that animate the text being sung or spoken, but this one takes it to another level by including all the typos and having the narrator read every one of them.
sustainability
[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.
design industry
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.
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.
food
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!
something to get you rockin on the last week of the year.
packaging
[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.
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
[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
[image: thedieline.com]
you probably think you don’t need this serif bag, but face it, you probably do. profiled on thedieline.com.
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.
[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.
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
[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!
[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
[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.
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!
doyald young talks about and demonstrates drawing type.
typography
[image: seb lester]
take an in-depth look at the creation of this amazing typographic limited-edition poster, and other works by seb lester. outstanding!
remember that design your own type contest by design sponge? it’s time to vote for your favorites! right now, today!
imprint takes a look at sign painters, a new documentary from faythe levine and sam macon on the timeless art of hand-painted signs. so much hand-lettered goodness in there!
speaking of diy projects, have you ever considered making your own wrapping paper? i often use plain brown paper anyway, but this design sponge post made me think i should dress it up a bit. diy project: handmade gift wrap.
[image: thedielinewine.com]
stunning packaging for jeremy wine co. by 6 west design. not only is it dually typographic, it’s a diecut wrap label that uses the negative space to create the letterform. excellent work!
but there are other things you can do besides drink for the holidays [you can always have an apple]. you could participate in machine project’s pop up pie shop in which you may purchase a pie kit and know you’re not only getting a complete kit for baking your thanksgiving pie—you’re also funding the los angeles food bank. why? because machine is awesome!
on the more foodie end of the spectrum, i am loving this salad of fall flavors from hot knives: hot rad winter salad.
if you’ve been hitting up the farmer’s market and creating original concoctions at home, write them up and submit them to epicurious’ farm-fresh recipe contest!
and it’s not that i want to end this post on a dark, gothy note or anything, but i found this feature from los angeles magazine totally fascinating: the end. death in LA can be an odd undertaking. trust me on that one.
want answers to all your design questions from a design master? logodesignlove.com brings you an interview with sagi haviv.
if you’re inspired by these sneak peeks and want to make some of your own great ideas happen, smashing magazine wants that for you too: how to make innovative ideas happen.
have a presentation coming up? are you nervous about making sure everyone’s into it rather than bored—or worse yet, tweeting about boredom [because that doesn’t get anyone unfollowed]? run through this guide to captivating presentations on slideshare: steal this presentation
i don’t know that i’ve ever experienced the feeling of apple overwhelm, but if you have “too many” and you want to try to hide them in places like salsa, serious eats has a suggestion for you: apple salsa fruits serious heat.
[image: will staehle]
this week, everyone is nuts about typography, so i’m going with it. first up, send your friends these cool b-movie typeset cards by will staehle for a tastefully retro spook during halloween week. thanks, how magazine for the link.
typography: in print!
[image: ligatureloopandstem.com]
this stunning typographic elements poster by ligature loop and stem was featured on the FPO blog this week. it’s already so clean and stylish, but then they even ran it as letterpress. bravo!
typography: wine packaging!
[image: thedielinewine.com]
this packaging for viña siĂłs uses a simple type treatment, but it’s bold, unique and elegant in its simplicity. nice work!
speaking of pumpkins, you can use them like a terrine and bake soup right in them. neither i, nor saveur, would ever joke about something so delicious: pumpkin soup in a pumpkin.
and speaking of fall, and things like leaves, i hate leaf blowers. i guess i just thought everyone else loved them and invited them to my neighborhood every week, but i’m glad i’m wrong. the leaf blower wars, thanks utne reader.
parlato design studio 