It’s not a surprise that it is much easier for me to design succinctly than to speak succinctly. What would communication—and relationships—be like if we were all a little more to the point in our approach?
all occasions cards from You and Me, The Royal We
Heath’s latest project, 1,000 Little Hammers, reads:
We are a traveling info-shop that shifts its content to correspond to the space we table. We try and insert ourselves into spaces that typically are without radical political content at their fingertips. The goal is not only to make political art, but to make art politically. We want to do both.
He wanted a mark that could be placed on the table, flyers, and the blog in order to help identify these zines as a part of the same library. In our approach, we thought about the inherent DIY aesthetic of zines, the nature of tools + dismantling, and the idea of information distribution as a weapon. Here are a few of the sketches:
And here’s a shot of the next stage…
The one with the writing in the hammer was too fussy and felt a bit flimsy. The handdrawn, more ornate ones were too hip (as Heath said “too Juno-esque”), though we liked the juxtaposition between the strong content within the zines and the ultra-amiable tone of these little guys. But the other one with the little multiplied books felt solid—approachable, like a library, yet had good weight. That was the winner. And Heath was able to paint it on this tablecloth rather easily, which was a bonus! Check it out if you get a chance.
I’ve been admiring a lot of illustration work the past week. I spent a couple days peeking at Hand Job: A Catalog of Type by Michael Perry and New Vintage Type: Classic Fonts for the Digital Age by Steven Heller and Gail Anderson (thanks Iowa City Public Library!). And then just the other day, via Design Observer, I came across these lovely book covers by Jim Tierney:
Aaaand the boy had just gotten me this pretty little (big) book of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Other Stories, complete with gold-edged pages.
Yay! Ever since I heard Tim Burton was doing another Alice in Wonderland, I’ve been pretty excited (it comes out in March!). But my all time favorite version of AiW has been the 1985 version (watch the clip when Alice shows the court what’s what) I saw on television years and years and years ago. We taped it off the tv which meant we got to watch Teddy Ruxpin commercials for many years to come. We’ll see if Burton’s beats that. And until then… where have I put my drawin’ pens?
Recently worked with Robert at the Metropolitan Tenants Organization in Chicago to produce a poster + fliers for their upcoming fundraising event. Mark it in your cally and head over to Simone’s if you’re in the area!
click thumbnail to view full poster
Mercurio Brothers in Berkeley, California offers extremely competitive prices for letterpress printing. They have a super handy quote form on their website that will give you the number immediately—which is great for us non-patient people. I ordered some samples last week (for $5) and received them yesterday. Really nice work. They offer a handy FAQ page which is helpful info even if you don’t use them. MB also got great reviews on Yelp, where a reviewer advises to accompany your online requests with a phone call in order to receive the best service (which is good advice for anywhere). I for one am looking forward to some new business cards in my future…
I’ve been going through all of my bookmarks the past few days and doing a much needed process of organizing, categorizing, tagging and trashing. I forgot I had so many good resources of inspiration in here! Thought I’d share some of the lovely stuff I’ve rediscovered.
Daily Poetics (featuring Misako Inaoka)
Grain Edit (featuring Andrio Abero)
Mint Design Blog (featuring More.)
Personism (featuring Joseph O. Holmes)
Form Fifty Five (featuring The Pencil Factory)
the portfolio of Jasmine Raznahan
the portfolio of Keetra Dean Dixon
Sound and Vision project
The new issue of Ninth Letter has arrived! Heath and I worked together on the design of a wonderful piece written by April Freely called Garden Valley. We were also privileged to work with Chicago printer Dexterity who provided the letterpress work while Swift Impressions did the cover. Because of the unique structure of her writing, it actually works as one of the supplemental pieces outside the mag. Using an accordion format, it can be read by flipping through like a normal book, or folded out completely and read as a long scroll. Our cover (front + back) was greatly inspired by Guy Debord’s psychogeographic maps.
We moved in to our new place a little over a week ago, and we even have our real bed set up and internet and photos on the wall. It’s like we live here now.
It’s been a crazy couple weeks of packing and cleaning and moving and unpacking and cleaning some more. I generally get nostalgic about places pretty easily… and the couple years spent in Chicago and in our Chicago apartment are no exception. I love the feeling of home. But with that said, I’m sure this is another home I can get sentimental about leaving. However, there is one thing I promise not to shed a tear over. It’s the anticipated removal of the giant cabinets in our shower. You read right—giant. cabinets. in. shower.
Something large peeks out from above the shower curtain…
… and upon sitting in the “shower,” you realize the 53″ high luxurious cabinets are too deep (at 13″) for you to stand up.
We’ve taken to calling it the hobbit shower. There is actually a hand shower connected, but there would be no feasible way to mount it on the wall with all that cabinet in the way. As seen in the second photo, someone had put a handful of hooks underneath the cabinet, no doubt to hang the showerhead from… though we are unsure of what the most strategic way to do that would be. Basically, the capabilities include a) taking a bath. and b) taking a sitting shower. The good news is that our landlord chuckled and agreed it was super strange when we questioned the arrangement. He said he wanted to take them out, but just ran out of time before we moved in. Whew.
The question(s) remains… how did this come about? I assume the cabinets were first, then the bath came second? Did the former tenants actually prefer to only take baths? How do you take a bath in a hurry (is it possible)? Who installed the hand shower? And how in the world are they hanging it on those hooks under the cabinet?
I tried to open up my mind to what a shower is generally designed as and what it could be. And I thought, “maybe this will be a really great new way for me to bathe.” And after a week of squatty showers, nope, it’s incredibly inefficient and I can’t wait to stand up and have it be just like the old days.
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