creative inspiration

design industry

lentil vegetable stew print
[image: claudia g. pearson]
not only do i love this style of illustration, but you really can’t go wrong when food is the subject. thanks to design sponge, i now know about this outstanding artist, claudia g. pearson and her fantastic etsy shop where you can find prints and tea towels adorned with these lovely illustrations.

if you’re looking for green greeting cards, greenlagirl.com has a profile on 100% junk mail greeting cards, printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper using vegetable-based biodegradable inks.

meetings! we’ve all been in them enough to know that some are well-organized, while most tend to stray off topic and waste time. todd henry’s accidental creative blog addresses meeting creep and how to avoid it, so if it’s happening to you, read the article.

color

colors in cultures
[image: informationisbeautiful.net]
in a global design culture, it’s important to choose colors that cross cultural lines in a friendly way. this infographic is an awesome color wheel cross-referencing world cultures with their emotional associations & meanings of colors. aside from being immensely useful, it’s quite a nice thing to look at. next time you have a project, or even dress for a meeting, consider some of the messages you can create and avoid with color.

logos

it’s that time again, logo lounge has released their 2010 logo trends article. i’ve heard a lot of buzz from my design community about getting their work into the annual book. congratulations to all those included! this annual trend report is a really interesting look at new trends in logo design.

typography

type soap
[image: how design blog]
thanks to the how design blog, i’m just happy to know this typography soap exists. i don’t think i could bring myself to use it if i bought it, though.

i’m a huge fan of hoefler & frere-jones knockout typeface, and i’m really enjoying the humor with which grip limited chose to use it, as shown on the h&fj blog.

help save the hamilton wood type museum! Dear friends of wood type: Hamilton has an unprecedented opportunity to qualify for a dollar-for-dollar matching grant from the “Save America’s Treasures” program which has a deadline of May 20th, 2010. This gives Hamilton 30 days to raise enough money to apply for a $25,000 matching grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. We’re excited to have already raised over $5000 for this vital program that will help us archive, preserve and digitally document our collection of over 2000 vintage advertising plates and our 1.5 million-piece type collection. <a href="interested parties click here for 3 ways to help.

curiosities

clui: through the grapevine
[image: clui.org]
the center for land use interpretation is at it again with a new exhibit through the grapevine currently on display. i have driven this road many times, but the center has a great way of showing us things we’ve never seen in our travels. from clui.org: The mountainous passage that separates the great population of Southern California from the rest of the state is a zone of transit, from one epic region to another. Located at the collision of the San Gabriel and Tehachapi Mountain Ranges, this steep and convoluted terrain lies between Castaic, the northern edge of the Los Angeles megalopolis, and the depopulated place known as Grapevine, at the southern end of the Central Valley. Layers of traffic, water, and energy move like a braided stream through the mountainous terrain, connecting here to there.

make your own 100 year pinhole camera, from good.is. it will take a long time, and you may not get to see the end result yourself, but you can construct your own pinhole camera using inkjet ink as the emulsion, allowing it to expose a photo-quality image from 100 years of sun exposure. curious, indeed!

beyond design

neighborhood

a friend and fellow designer recently mentioned that her landlord was turning their front yard into a CSA farm, and that they’d be growing produce for sale right at home. when i inquired how they were going to go about it, she pointed me to LA farm hands where interested parties can sign up to buy fresh CSA produce from local LA growers. fantastic!

thanks to eric garcetti’s help, the food & flowers freedom act is set to become law according to laist.com. this is a revision to an outdated law that disallowed selling homegrown fruit and flowers. garcetti claimed to have grown 80% of his own produce last year–i can add that to the list of reasons why i love that he is LA city council president. well, that AND my facebook friend. ha.

greenlagirl.com offers this list of neighborhood tidbits: eric garcetti has a new iphone app “garcetti 311” to help clean up the city, and may is bike every saturday month!

diy projects


[image: bestgreenhometips.com]
winter detox: 12 easy diy air fresheners. as the weather warms up, sometimes i find i’ve had the windows closed and the heat on long enough that my house needs a breath of fresh air. these are some great ideas on how to add natural scents to your home, from ohdeeoh.com.

food & drinks


[photo: brian leatart]
i decided to try out some yams this week from one of my farmer’s market vendors, and since citrus rinds are one of my favorite seasoning agents, i think this recipe is how i’ll prepare them: roasted yams with citrus and coriander butter from epicurious.com

jose & joel’s mexican sangria looks like a classy cocktail version of my usual slice-and-throw sangria system. thanks, designsponge.com!

beyond design


everyone has played one of these games, and seeing them in live action is totally hilarious! from mfeedia.com

diy projects


[photo: thehipsterhome.com]
the craft zine blog posted a how-to on these little mini terrariums in upcycled lightbulbs and jars. what a great use of cute containers!


[photo: designspongeonline.com]
sewing 101: how to make a shower curtain from designspongeonline.com. i think this project is a really cool way to make a washable, colorful shower curtain from fabric you really like.

food


[image: kana76]
try this: sweet and smoky broiled grapefruit from thekitchn.com. i love grapefruits and i think this sounds delicious. maybe a good way to prep fruit for savory sauces as well. great idea!

sharing a great standby recipe that i love from epicurious.com, these szechuan sesame noodles are spicy, nutty and tangy. i’ve been making them for years with buckwheat soba noodles.

drinks


[photo: rockscissorpaper.com]
pour mom a drink from rockscissorpaper.com is an interesting sounding cocktail recipe using elderflower liquor. i love the flower garnish, perhaps my mom will have hers with nasturtiums.

in honor of tax day, this cocktail for tax night: the tax night relief is a fun idea, from thekitchn.com.

it’s helpful to become familiar with wine lingo by heather stober fleming for southcoasttoday.com is a good reference for defining all the common terms in wine tasting and character. always good to refresh your knowledge, which helps you pick out more nuance next time you taste.

music

my sister has been nominated for singer of the year by the jazz journalists association! additionally, my client gerald clayton has been nominated for up & coming artist of the year. very exciting, and they’re in excellent company. can’t wait to find out how they place on june 14!

beyond design

technology


[photo: gregory han]
this weekend was off the charts with tweets and posts about everyone trying out their new ipads. i don’t have one and i’m probably not getting one anytime soon, but i thought i’d shout out to my friends gregory han and emily ho over at apartmenttherapy.com who “>reviewed the epicurious app for the ipad for thekitchn.com and it sounds like a winner! i also use my laptop in the kitchen and i love the epicurious site, so i’m glad they’re adapting to new technology.

for my music clients, i thought i’d point to this quick review of forscore for the ipad on unpluggd.com

food


[photo: lisa hubbard]
with spring foods coming into season, i’ve been trying some different cauliflower recipes out. one on the list to try this week are these cauliflower steaks with cauliflower puree, which are a whole new way to prepare cauliflower, for me anyway. i think this cross-section cut is gorgeous!

wine


[image: epicurious.com]
while browsing the wine articles at epicurious.com i found this cute profile of top 5 critter wines, meaning that they all have animals featured on the label. a funny idea on first look, but this is a fun look at 5 affordable table wines that all have pretty nice labels too [the little penguin is my favorite] along with suggested food pairings for each. i love a one-stop resource like this, especially when trying new wine is involved!

if you’re not into making cork boards or trivets or stamps or birdhouses with your old wine corks, whole foods is now recycling wine corks. for those of you who want to recycle, collect them & drop them off!

books

i thought i’d add this in, since so many of us have thought about work in various ways from different perspectives, here’s dan pink’s 6 favorite books about work. i have to admit, he had me at studs terkel, i can’t wait to read that one!

beyond design

food


[photo: greenpeace]
after much pressure from greenpeace, trader joes has adopted sustainable seafood policies. this is great news considering how widespread trader joes is and the fact that it’s a go-to for so many people. i caught this story from greenlagirl.com and laist.com.

with the change of the seasons has come new & exciting things to eat for those of us on a seasonal diet. this fennel, beet and orange salad from emily ho at thekitchn.com are flavors that go together so well because they’re ripe at the same time. these savory allium recipes from faith durand [also at thekitchn.com] are a delicious showcase of tasty ways to use leeks, shallots and onions.

wine


[photo: thekitchn.com]
get to know what the reserve label means with reserva, riserva, reserve wine: what do these terms on a wine label mean by mary gorman for thekitchn.com.

in the same vein of diy wine education, become your own wine expert by merideth sumner for corkd.com is a good primer for everyone out there who thinks learning about wine requires some kind of class or expert. jump in & enjoy!

beyond design

places


watch the LA marathon in time-lapse photography from a point on the route in silver lake, edited down to one minute!

obscura day: preservation by exhibition. alyssa walker participates in atlas obscura‘s obscura day expedition to explore california city, an unfinished urban plan that sits in the mojave desert.

food


[photo: yummy supper]

if you have access to a field of dandelions and haven’t figured out how to use them, this dandelion jelly recipe from yummy supper looks like a really special treat. i don’t usually make sugar-based preserves, but perhaps there’s some way to use this recipe as a base for a dandelion sauce or bread or addition to a refreshing drink?

passover is around the corner, and i found this south of the border seder article really interesting. maybe an exciting new twist for your passover dinner?

wine


[photo: mary gorman]

how do you like to learn about wine from thekitchn.com. everyone has their own method for how they research an interest. personally i like to jump right into the action, visit wineries, talk to people, ask questions, write notes, quiz myself while tasting, run information from one source by another and get their take on it, and of course taste whatever i can. i think the best advice i’ve heard is taste as much as you can and drink what you like, and i follow it.

continue getting to know your grapes with bonarda and bourboulenc from drinksareonme.net

beyond design


[photo by mattel]

not that i would buy specialty barbies or anything, but these dolls based on the characters of the tv show mad men are far more appealing to me than my 70s revisionist barbies & kens i grew up with. additionally, these dolls are at least in my same industry.

food & wine


[photo: 365daysofkale.com]

i know i’ve been on a crazy kale kick. i just planted 2 varieties in the garden after watching my mom’s kale plants last right through the entire year. then, a friend posted this link to 365daysofkale.com dedicated to kale recipes, so i have an endless supply to try. [thanks @zoetica].

can-free cooking made easy: avoid BPA and save money at the same time. i have been buying dried and sprouted beans from some farmer’s market sellers [and sprouting my own] mostly just to support local food, but greenlagirl.com has a point, BPA is found in many canned foods, and a great way to avoid them is to eat fresh and make your own preserved foods in glass jars.

dale cruse continues his get to know a grape series with bluebell and bobal. he also suggests this super-cute moleskine wine journal as a helpful way to keep notes on what you’re tasting.

beyond design

rsvp to view an advance screening of DIRT! [thanks greenlagirl.com].

diy


[photo: gregory han]
how to clean and deodorize with tea from <a href="apartmenttherapy.com

green your dental hygene from re-nest.com. i’m always looking for workarounds, and dental implements are one of the harder things to do yourself.

food

if you’re in california and have lemons [or eating seasonally and want to keep them through to the next season] here’s a great way to put them up: how to make preserved lemons from thekitchn.com.

i’m doing a lot of cookbook cooking this week, so copyright prevents me from sharing those recipies, but i did pull out this old favorite from a few years ago fish with curried cucumber & tomato salad from epicurious.com.

drinks!


[photo: missginsu.com]
make your own citrus bitters from missginsu.com. i make a lot of extracts and infused vodkas, so i think this bitters prep will be a nice addition to my pantry & eventually my cocktails!

i bought blood oranges this week specifically to make this! spicy blood orange jalapeño margaritas from thekitchn.com

dale cruse continues his get to know a grape series this week with blanc du bois.

beyond design

los angeles


i love ok go, and this amazing video was filmed in echo park!

i have to admit, i’m totally fascinated by this documentary about kayaking the LA river.

diy


[photo: made from scratch]

diy cat table made from scratch from re-nest.com. i love this idea for a cat lounge area, using salvaged materials & giving cats a safe outdoor retreat to visit.

how to make scented linen powders from apartment therapy. i’m a total sucker for old-fashioned touches like this, and custom scented linens sound divine.

food


[photo by: gail albert halaban]

if you’re eating seasonally, don’t pass up this caramelized cumin roasted carrots recipe from epicurious.com. delicious to eat, and scents up the kitchen nicely!

wine

more from the get to know a grape series from drinksareonme.net. this week’s grapes are bastardo, black malvasia, and black muscat. happy varietal drinking!