René Day.

I saw a poster by René Gruau in someone's apartment on Apartment Therapy this morning a became border-line obsessed with his work. The Italian-French illustrator, who just passed away in 2004 produced a pretty impressive collection of commercial work throughout his career, for customers like Air France, Pan Am, Dior and countless others. I love how he's able to combine bold color and organic brush strokes to pull off a very graphic image. Kind of Toulouse-Lautrec-y.
I'm hoping to snag a print on Ebay— that's if I could decide which I liked best.

octopus chandeliers dahhling

Design*Sponge highlighted the work of Adam Wallacavage today. I LOVE his octopus chandeliers. Thought I'd pass it along because it is really remarkable stuff.
His work can be found at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery.

New blog: On My Mind

Photojournalist Yoon S. Byun's blog On My Mind has a great variety of portraits. Byun ran into Tyrone Ford on the red line, and crossed paths with Jan Long Collins (above) at the "Be a Villian" show at the Nave Gallery. Each person is asked to share what's on their mind. The results are really interesting.

Pick a Can-o-date

Dave Alsobrooks and Dan Carlton of the Paragraph Project in Durham, NC have launched a new product – an energy drink with a political mission. The aluminum cans each feature a presidential candidate, and are completely bipartisan. The idea is to inform young people and make them more likely to vote in November. To purchase your own or to find out more, visit https://www.can-o-date.com/

we miss you blueprint

Kohl's has started using Blueprint's typeface, which is called "Fling" in their marketing. I got a little too excited. Like they had somehow struck a deal with MSLO to have the Blueprint editors select the home goods they would carry in their stores. I have a hyperactive imagination AND I really am beginning to miss Blueprint.

shiny happy people

I fully believe that music can help raise your spirits. Boston weather's been pretty gloomy the past couple of days. I dug out a couple of albums that make me smile... REM's Out of Time is helping me shake the winter blues. Plus, it's really very hard to feel road rage when Shiny Happy People's bumpin' out your stereo.

ouch!

I totally ate it outside the building at lunch today. I slipped on wet pavement & skinned my knee. When was the last time anyone over 13 skinned their knee?
I sure wish we had some Wacky Bandaids so I could laugh at my clumsiness.

Black Tie Affair.

Kirkwood Printing, one of our favorite print vendors, won First Place in the Annual Report category for the Boston Litho & Craftsman's Club Bow Tie Awards for guess what... the 2007 Epiphany School Annual Report designed by none other than... us!
Congrats Kirkwood and thank you to Duncan MacRae for entering the piece. You look damn good in a tux.

wagamama

We went to Wagamama in Faneuil Hall last night... Fab-u-lous!
The Boston & Cambridge locations are the first in the states. The portions are huge, the atmosphere is super mod. Get down there already!

Sssnakes

Saint Patrick's Day got me thinking about snakes... I did some hunting and found some fun examples of how they are being used in design right now:
Paper Source carries these adorable snake bike locks
Domino recommends this faux snakeskin vinyl tray for your bar
W Magazine thinks serpents make edgy accessories
Violet May makes the nicest feminine looking briefcases I've seen. They're available in Black Mint and White Daffodil (pictured)

Umbrella Friends

Sweet mini umbrellas at Fred Flare!

Malabar

We went to Pops in the South End for dinner last weekend. I don't know which I liked more: the food or the decor. The entire front room is papered in Cole & Sons' Malabar pattern.
A white marble bar... Faux bamboo chairs... I was in heaven.

It's a commitment.

Clients often ask, "Do you always wear pink and green to meetings?" We admit— it has happened on occasion, but we NEVER, and I repeat, NEVER, intentionally don our two favorite hues to seal a deal. These folks however aren't shy about our shared passion.

In February the New York Times had a feature on five designers devoted to wearing a color other than black. Karim Rashid says he wears pink because his mom used to dress his him in pink as a child because she wanted a girl. Hmmm.... And Elizabeth Sweetheart, fabric designer admits to dying her underwear— she can't sleep unless she's wearing the color. So maybe it's a little obsessive, but their dedication does make me a little green with envy.

Thanks Aditi!

The Futurists' Sandbox

We just wrapped up a great project with Michele for a SXSW Interactive panel she is heading up today in Austin. The Futurists' Sandbox: Scenarios for Social Technologies in 2025 was chock-full of great visual problems to solve. It was also fun to be asked step into the minds of a couple of recognizable brands. We've added a couple of new PSD filters to our arsenal...

In the not-so-distant future (from top):
The Big Backup will be a "Google.gov" campaign to promote backing up your HD to their servers.
You'll be able to chew Data Trim to fight data gluttony.
You might purchase a pack of Crayola DNA Markers to tag your stuff. (Sort of like back in elementary school when you used to lick a cookie to claim it as your own.)
As our technolust grows and grows, the products shrink and shrink. Do you think you'll want to buy a pair of apple iCandy contacts? HDTV streaming directly to your skull.

Tap Project

The Tap Project was started last year to help UNICEF provide safe drinking water for children around the world. The idea is pretty simple. "Beginning Sunday, March 16 through Saturday, March 22, restaurants will invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days." I'll bet you didn't even know there was a World Water Day. Now you do!
Find participating restaurants here.

Honey

We love Erykah Badu's new video for her single Honey. She's placed herself in the covers of some pretty famous albums. Here's a link to the original covers.

Hey man, nice shot

Here's a great image of the Celtics Kevin Garnett from above by Al Bello.