creative inspiration

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

The Alphabet from n9ve on Vimeo.

branding

hp branding
hp branding, image: underconsideration.com

a fascinating recap of moving brands efforts to transform hewlett packard from a global technology company into a revered brand. this is a staggering project both in concept and scope, and the write-up really tells the story of how much work, thinking and shaping goes into a branding project of this scale. the logo is sleek and elegant, and is shown to play out in the larger brand as a guiding force of human progress, the new sister-meaning of “hp.” the brand strategy has a lot of muscle, but it seems it’s up to hp to decide if / when / how to implement it, and that remains to be seen. in the meantime, read the write-up and check out the linked videos and case-studies at underconsideration.com.

infographic

media consolidation infographic
media consolidation infographic, image: fastcodesign.com

this infographic showing how all our seemingly-varied media outlets have consolidated to 6 major owners to bring us homogenized, packaged info-culture is, well, frightening. maybe that’s why i like bloggers so much, you can actually hear their individual voices. see the whole graphic in its fascinating & beautifully-designed glory at fastcodesign.com.

thank you cards!

parlato design studio thank you cards for 2011
parlato design studio thank you cards for 2011

now that [hopefully] you’ve gotten your holiday mailings out the door, it might be a good time to get ready to express and share gratitude for all they do. we all love a little thoughtful, heartfelt, hand-written note to cut through the clutter and speak to each other. if you’re in need of a vehicle, i’ve got three for you, available in the parlato design studio store, printed sustainably on neenah environment 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper.

friday fun

| heather parlato

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

such a beautiful video flying over the earth from space. i especially like the lightning storms. thanks to 365colorproject.com for the link. enjoy!

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

holidays

design work life gift guide 2011
design work life gift guide 2011, image: designworklife.com

designworklife.com is one of my favorite blogs, collecting all kinds of great type, layout and illustration samples. they also do a holiday gift guide, usually done in blog posts, but this year it’s an interactive guide and really stunning. check it out!

publications

slanted magazine
slanted magazine, image: underconsideration.com

slanted is a german design and typography magazine, issue 15 of which deals with experimental type, as pictured above. see the whole profile at underconsideration.com

printing

if you’re anything like me, you’ve been thinking about using white ink for years, and just haven’t had the right project or client who will go for it. well, technology has heard about our white ink desires and improved digital printing technology to make it possible at affordable prices. my friend nick carranza wrote it all up for print magazine, complete with setup and paper stock suggestions: c-m-y-stop there? time to think about white ink

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

Salon of Beauty from Mark & Angela Walley on Vimeo.
alissa walker also wrote about this piece for fastcodesign.com.

speaking of things los angeles, there’s a walk from hollywood to the beach on november 19!

and if you’re in echo park, echoparknow.com has a run-down of thanksgiving volunteer opportunities coming your way.

unrelatedly, did you know david lynch has a new nightclub? he does! meet the designer behind david lynch’s new nightclub [yes nightclub].

printing

letterpress thanksgiving cards
letterpress thanksgiving cards, image: craftzine.com

with thanksgiving around the corner, you might want to start giving thanks to family, friends and clients. craft magazine has a nice write-up on these letterpress fill-in thanksgiving cards.

calendars

heather lin calendar
heather lin calendar, image: feltandwire.com

looking further into the future, if you’re a calendar-o-phile, you might like this 2012 calendar preview from feltandwire.com.

food

savory pumpkin slice
savory pumpkin slice

for now, though, we’re talking pumpkins, as part of the seasonal eats guide and over on LAist: seasonal eats: get pumped about pumpkins. get yourself a delicious cinderella pumpkin and get to work!

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

branding

mohawk bend brand & identity

this week we’re looking at branding from the home team: the whole story behind building a brand & identity for mohawk bend!

typography

FF tundra characteristics
FF tundra characteristics, image: ilovetypography.com

take a look into one type designer’s process on the making of a new serif face from i love typography: FF tundra

letterpress printing

iron beasts make great beauty cover
iron beasts make great beauty cover, image: beastpieces.com

some sneak peaks on the new book from studio on fire, the cover printing of their new book iron beasts make great beauty. how cool to be able to print the cover of a book on your work!

los angeles

dosa truck sketch, shiho nakaza
the dosa truck, image: shiho nakaza

my friend, illustrator shiho nakaza, is doing a cool sketch series on LA food trucks. check out her food trucks blog tag to see the series.

thanks to echo park now for culling all the echo park listings from LA weekly’s best of LA issue. echo park rocks!

3rd annual LA printer’s fair

| heather parlato
modern-themed card sets
modern-themed card sets

this past weekend, i headed down to the LA printer’s fair at the international print museum in carson to get my annual dose of awesome letterpress projects and enjoy the demos of the old linotype machine. i feel like i’m inching my way ever-closer to doing more printing after attending last year and then doing a workshop with the night shift [a group that meets at the museum and makes prints using the wood and metal type in the archives].

fugu fugu press booth
fugu fugu press booth

this year was another great selection of design and print, hand-bound books, and specialty printing tools. one of my favorites, fugu fugu press, was back again this year with a really cute selection of cards and prints.

make ready scraps
make-ready scraps

another printer had this really cute idea of giving away make-ready scraps in little bags. some of the shapes make great book marks, but mostly i chose some nice, deeply-impressed pieces to stave off my letterpress lust until i can make my own.

making paper
making paper

what’s this? it’s a paper pulper! what i couldn’t capture all in one frame is that this pulp mechanism was hooked up to a stationary bike [maybe we can finally call it a ‘stationery bike’] where riders could power the whole contraption by simply pedaling their feet.

paper made from fatigues
paper made from fatigues

…but this paper isn’t made from wood. this demo showed how to make paper from army fatigues! it looked pretty cool, and takes the pounding from a typewriter like a pro.

wooden books
wooden books

these books were some of the more unique hand-made crafts i saw, with beautifully sanded wood and intricate bindings. in addition to the sales tables, there were printing demos where attendees could run off their own pre-set posters, and typesetting, where guests could typeset their names, hand it to a printer who would lock it into a frame, and print you a personalized souvenir as a visitor to the museum. fantastic!

to help keep hot metal type alive, the museum has started the ludlow project, with the goal of rescuing a collection of typefaces and antique ludlow typecasting equipment to share with letterpress printers, museum visitors and use in teaching classes. watch the video below, and give what you can to this awesome project!

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

branding

yes taco menu
yes taco menu, image: art of the menu

i love this 2-color, natural paper, downright stampy look for yes taco, profiled recently on art of the menu.

typography

theo inglis, the new york postcard project
theo inglis / the new york postcard project, image: designworklife.com

i’ve said this before, but it bears repeating, especially since people keep doing it: i love maps, and i love typography, and i REALLY love it when designers make typographic maps. thanks to designworklife.com for profiling theo inglis’ new york postcard project.

food

ripe feijoas
ripe feijoas

you may not recognize these right away if you don’t already have a tree growing in your yard, but feijoas are a delicious late summer guava that can add a lovely balance of sweetness and tartness to your life. check out seasonal eats: feijoas are falling from the trees!

if you’re not reading this right now today, maybe you didn’t know it’s raining. only today. very soon it will be back to sunny weather. but if you want to have some rainy day funtimes, pick one of these soups to warm your kitchen tonight: 10 simple soups for the start of the fall season

veer’s educational video about fonts

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this video is super-cute, but let’s get one thing straight here … FONT just describes the electronic file that activates any one TYPEFACE. most of this video should be talking about using typefaces for their different styles—all you do is install & activate fonts on your computer to use each typeface. think of it like music and then every different format on which music is sold. sure you can say you’re listening to records, cds or mp3s, but essentially those are just delivery devices, what you’re listening to is the music they hold.

got it? now enjoy & have a lovely first weekend of fall!

barlow respiratory hospital cat

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barlow hospital cat
resident cat at the barlow respiratory hospital

this is a cat that lives on the barlow respiratory hospital grounds in elysian park. i see her around when i’m walking through the park to chinatown. she is super-friendly, very healthy, talkative, and has 7 toes on her front paws just like my cat, motor. i’ve never been able to ask about her name, so i nicknamed her thumby. i was told that some of motor’s siblings had this coloring, so i think of her as a distant cousin. for awhile i didn’t see her around and feared the worst, but i was really happy to have a little thumby visit last week.