los angeles

creative inspiration

| heather parlato


check it out, fallen fruit has a video about mapping public fruit. they’re walking all over my neighborhood!

identity

de vine vineyards label
[image: de vine vineyards / thedielinewine.com]
this identity system for de vine vineyards by hired guns creative is absolutely beautiful. you can see a full photo shoot of all the pieces involved at thedielinewine.com.

another outstanding sample that caught my eye was arido by estudio amaya pulenta, also featured on the dieline wine.

typography & maps

axis type maps
[image: axis maps]
more map love, this time with typographic interpretation, from axis maps. check out the profile on fastcodesign.com. i love how the type is so well chosen for each area it represents.

speaking of maps, the cartography of bigotry, from utne reader has some interesting, humorous & un-pc maps according to different cultures & groups.

design industry

sayl chairs
[image: herman miller / fastcodesign.com]
WANT! want want want. this chair is so fantastic, and knowing it’s herman miller, i’m sure it’s supportive and comfortable too. love the white frame with red seat. it’s okay to surprise me with this as a gift, anytime you like.

in the spirit of insinuating myself everywhere, i am back on the creative freelancer blog again this week: one designer’s marketing mix, where i talk about what new things i’ve added to shake up my promotional funtimes.

beyond design

i’ll take a break from recipes this week to bring instead: the food lab’s top 6 food myths, from serious eats. bust those myths already!

seeing green: visions of LA’s new cleantech corridor, from fastcodesign.com. woah, wait–we have a cleantech corridor?! just outside downtown!?

cicLAvia 10-10-10

| heather parlato

this past sunday a lot of my friends came out for cicLAvia, a day where the city blocked off several streets in a 7-mile route for bikes, pedestrians, skateboards, rollerblades, and anyone wanting to create alternative uses for streets. we joined in around noon, breaking in at city hall and heading east. there was a lot going on at city hall, eric garcetti was just taking the stage to speak when we arrived.

city hall during cicLAvia

it was a beautiful, clear day, but also a santa ana day of dry hot wind. the difference between sun and shade was pretty outstanding. as we headed back into downtown though, you couldn’t help but notice and enjoy the quiet. no motors, no horns, no background echoing of urban harmonics through the buildings. just some clicking of bike wheels, an occasional bell, and the chatter of people enjoying the ride and encouraging each other.

downtown during cicLAvia

it was a great day to be on a bike. i heard all kinds of praise for the event and hopes that we’ll be doing it again and more frequently. los angeles desperately needs more bike awareness, and this is just one way for people to get involved, but it’s the most fun in my opinion!

here’s another time-lapsed video if you want to see the route east-to-west.

creative inspiration

| heather parlato

A Letterpress Legacy with Lucky Duck Press from Etsy on Vimeo.

identity

botanical bakery identity design
[image: david brier]
i am loving this fun identity and packaging for botanical bakery by dbd international. so colorful with a homemade twist. see more at identity designed.

packaging

killibinbin wine packaging
[image: thedielinewine.com]
this wine packaging for killibinbin wines is an amazing combination of wine and noir horror flicks done in a nostalgically tasteful way. see more at thedielinewine.com

for more from the dieline in wine packaging, check out: the dieline wine’s latest top 10 wine designs, or for a great selection of packaging of all types: the dieline’s latest top 10 packaging designs.

design industry

oh, hey, look who’s writing for the creative freelancer blog these days. more on creative co-working from yours truly!

beyond design

LACMA The Linda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion
[image: fastcodesign.com]
LA welcomes one of the world’s largest naturally-lit spaces, The Linda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion, profiled on fastcodesign.com.

i just got my fall garden planted, but in other places, cool-weather items like swiss chard are already ripe for picking. serious eats profiles some great recipes here: in season: swiss chard, and cucina italiana offers some delicious stuffed pasta: swiss chard and ricotta tortelli.

there’s all kinds of exciting wine news. this winery isn’t exactly new, but it’s new to me, we have a local winery right here in echo park: d’augustine vinyard! serious eats brings us what are your wine discoveries which includes a list of 100 wines to drink now. and if you’ve ever wondered what the definition of meritage is, goosecross is happy to explain it for you: what is a meritage wine?

aia/la awards exhibition at a+d museum

| heather parlato

aia awards exhibition at a+d museum

i stopped in at the a+d museum on friday to catch some of the aia/la awards and view the exhibition during the opening. the show is absolutely stunning, grids of artful photography of truly outstanding work in architecture by los angeles-based firms as well as renderings of future project plans. much of the work resides in los angeles as well, which is always fun to see.

the aia/la awards exhibition runs september 10 – october 27, 2010 at the a+d museum. if you love amazing architecture, stop in and enjoy!

aia awards exhibition at a+d museum

beyond design

| heather parlato

food

alice waters' gazpacho
[image: blake royer]
tomatoes are everywhere this time of summer, and everyone knows i won’t shut up about gazpacho until they’re all gone! 2 great summer recipes from serious eats: dinner tonight: alice waters’ gazpacho and weekend cook and tell round up: squash invasion.

a great collection from thekitchn.com this week: 5 cool melon soups for the last days of summer, recipe: lima beans with cumin-mint dressing, 5 quick and delicious lunches under 400 calories, thick and creamy: how to make greek-style yogurt. yum!

this article about the secret life of trader joes has been going around, and i’ve found it pretty fascinating! inside trader joes, full version, from fortune magazine.

wine

municipal winemakers refill bottle
[image: municipal winemakers]
i absolutely love this idea from municipal winemakers, it’s a reusable bottle designed for taking home young table wine, enjoying & bringing back the bottle for more. i have to try this next time i’m in santa barbara!

neighborhood

the LA times turns it’s eye to our neighborhood this week as well, with a piece on edendale, the oldest part of the echo park / silver lake area, right at the heart of the two: LA’s edendale, alive and thriving.

culture

an interesting look at public workspaces and the popularity of coffee shops in an increasingly solopreneurial marketplace: coffee shop office hybrids: the workplace of the future? from fastcodesign.com

i’ve heard of a few really outstanding programs designed for correctional facilities that all focus on self-expression as a means of therapy. introspective podcasts created by youth in utah jevenile corrections facility, from utne reader showcases the sending messages program in salt lake city.

breakthroughs in science! from sight to synesthesia: what happens when senses can be rewired, from hplusmagazine.com explains the vOICe device and how it helps the blind to see “using aural information in their ears.”

how has the changing economy affected consumerist habits? take a look: understanding the consumer of the future, from inc.com.

assembling california by john mcphee

| heather parlato

assembling california by john mcphee, front cover

my mom and i decided to see what was happening on the boulevard for atwater summer nights, and part of our stroll included a visit to alias books, a relatively new addition to the neighborhood that all my bibliophile friends are talking about [we even ran into one of them there that very night].

i am always confronted with a challenge in any book store, because 1 of a few things take over. either i shut down because i have already owned [and systematically let go of] so many books, or i want to buy everything that appeals to me because some kind of voracious collect all inspiring print matter book designer’s panic kicks in.

i have a complicated system for dealing with this, which has largely been to focus on a few things i’m allowed to collect. one of those is books on los angeles and california, of which i never tire. we have a whole shelf dedicated to books about california: travel, photos, history, hikes, national parks, essays and critical writing. so i found the california shelf and sure enough there were books on caves and wild plants and mining towns, all of which could not exactly come home with me.

assembling california by john mcphee, title

BUT! look at this one i settled on. thanks to my dad, i’ve already been reading some john mcphee, so i was able to doubly justify the purchase by an author of interest. his writing is intensely narrative while largely being non-fiction, and lots of it is about my homeland. the cover design is striking though, and not just because i love maps [don’t get me started on the copious map collection]. the design sits in this sweet spot between historic document, municipal information device, and frontier settler’s hand-kept ledger. it’s downright endearing.

assembling california by john mcphee, inside front cover

the design credit goes to cynthia krupat, about whom i can find relatively little information, despite much lauding of her setting the precedent for certain styles in book design. though there is this: how harry ford and cynthia krupat defined poetry book design for an era, from poetryfoundation.org and she is credited in some of the publisher’s archives for whom she did design work. i wish she had a web site!

for the record, i’m really looking forward to actually reading this book as well, but i must admit, the first thing it got was a photo shoot.

assembling california by john mcphee, spine

beyond design

| heather parlato


words by everynone

speaking of words, if you’re really tired of hearing buzzwords or jargon of the day that are making your day suck, you can now unsuck them at muledesign’s unsuckit.com

food

i can’t tell if it’s the grilling aspect, or the hot weather going with spicy food thing, but these 2 from saveur caught my eye: grilled thai chicken with lemongrass and coconut milk and tandoori salmon.

on the sweeter side of things, i didn’t know either of these desserts were possible, but they’ve both got me curious, and i have both of the main ingredients in the house… rose geranium ice cream with pistachios, from thekitchn.com and sweet lemon and black oliver wafers, from seriouseats.com. yes, you read that right, a cookies with oil-cured olives in them.

drinks

my friend emily does it again with some delicious twists on iced tea: beyond mint & lemon: 5 ways to punch up iced tea, from thekitchn.com.

read up on the health benefits of tea & coffee: reduce risk of heart disease with tea & coffee by wellness writer, alisa bonsignore, one of a great collection on health & fitness at her blog whatwouldbettydo.com.

housewares

soft map quilt
[image: re-nest.com]
i don’t write about housewares much, but this quilt compelled me to. if i had a million extra hours in my own life, i think few things would make me more happy than creating a quilt of los angeles, but since that’s likely not going to happen, go appreciate haptic labs for doing what they do: softmap quilts from haptic labs, from re-nest.com.

los angeles

it’s the very LA reading list for august 2010 from los angeles magazine: the reading list: LA authors. LA topics. august ’10 books.

remember those devastating fires we had last year in angeles crest forest? you know how there’s that fantastic place, treepeople, that helps spread trees of all kinds all over los angeles? you know imogen heap? she’s donating the proceeds from a specially-created song to fund replanting of the national forest to the north, and i think it’s really cool: donate $1 to treepeople for a unique improv track from imogen heap, from greenlagirl.com.

the grind

i liked this piece by penelope trunk on how she’s pushed through difficult situations by continuing to write and put herself out into the world: when you’re feeling lost, don’t hide.

beyond design

| heather parlato

technology

tv on the ipad
[image: fastcodesign.com]
there was a time when we thought set-top boxes the likes of tivo would be integrating information with programming. it seems, though, that people got happy enough with dvrs just recording things that this never really happened, but it’s interesting to see how things are taking shape with the ipad: how ipad could transform the tv watching experience, from fastcodesign.com

food

gelato
[image: flickr member avlxyz]
if you’re looking for some summer funtimes, i have a couple seasonal eats and cool treats to share, first of which are tips on making gelato: best homemade gelato: 3 tips from mario batali, from the kitchn.com. if you’re looking for spicy twists on fruit pops, how about tamarind chile flavor: tamarind chile ice pops, from saveur [this is more sugar than i usually ever put in a recipe, but i’m posting it anyway]. if you’re into canning and preserving, it’s time to put up your tomatoes: preserved tomatoes with basil, from lacucinaitalianamagazine.com.

we have super-local honey in silver lake: the feral bees of silver lake is not a band, from the la times tells the story of a bee-keeping couple who adopted local bees and gave them a home.

cows eat grass
[image: utne reader]
on the “about food” side of things, controversy brews when you talk about a bovine grass diet in corn country: cows eat grass and other inflammatory statements, from utne reader.

another from utne, michael pollan contributes to their feature, food fight, where he continues his dialog about food systems in america.

diy

i once had to deal with a wasp infiltration [they hadn’t infested yet, but they were working on it], and wish i’d known of this simple do-it-yourself contraption: how to make a homemade bee trap, from re-nest.com.

neighborhood

i really enjoyed anne taylor fleming’s piece foot soldier, for los angeles magazine, dealing with the changes of aging relatives and the therapy of walking.

beyond design

| heather parlato


kitties! & puppies! eating melon fruit pops!

los angeles

looking for a good beach day or 5 before the summer is over? let los angeles magazine help you, they love that stuff: a day at the beach.

another feature i hadn’t noticed before, los angeles magazine has a monthly run-down on area-specific reading. i’m a sucker for books about my city, this is definitely something to consult when i need my LA fix: LA reading list: LA authors. LA topics. august ’10 list

food

roasted red pepper gazpacho
[image: luna cafe]
as someone who loves both roasted peppers and gazpacho, i wanted to share this recipe from cafe luna roasted red pepper gazpacho linked from saveur. check the links in the article, she describes some other pretty outstanding gazpacho ideas!

i’ve seen eggplants popping up here & there at the farmer’s market, which means we’re ready for fantastic eggplant recipes. caponata with capers, from la cucina italiana sounds amazing!

it never occurred to me to throw tomato leaves into my tomato dishes for more intense flavor, but the kitchn links to some articles that say the chemical in the leaves enhance the tomato flavor, and they’re safe to eat: fresh tip: use tomato leaves to boost flavor.

i liked to a great recipe for fennel liqueur awhile back, and i’ve been seeing the blooming flowers all over LA lately. here’s some more encouragement from the kitchn to go out and harvest some of your own: summer foraging: fennel pollen.

michelle obama is still working hard to get her child nutrition bill past, i’m glad she’s been relentless about this! & thanks to serious eats for the link: michelle obama urges congress to pass child nutrition bill.

drinks

herbal sun teas
[image: design sponge]
this is such an awesome idea from design sponge: small measures with ashley: herbal sun teas & simple syrups! if you’re growing herbs outside or pick them up periodically for cooking, consider making some of these unique teas.