And the beat goes on...

One of the little things in life that I love is the rain. I love the smell of wet grass and hearing the beat of the rain while I fall asleep. The mist when it stops creates beautiful images, which inspired some of my recent photo series’. But when the New England weather gives you an influx of rain for two weeks straight and little breaks of sunshine in between, that's when little characters like this come in to bring that smile back to your face.

I found this at Etsy, where people can buy and sell handmade goods. And not just tea cozies and scarves either. It's a breath of originality in a world of cookie cutter clones.

For so long I have harbored all of this

I'm absolutely infatuated by the illustrations by Kurt Halsey. He has amazing use of space — negative and positive — and adorable stylized characters. I wasn't even sure which piece I wanted to showcase because there were so many great ones.

Halsey's work doesn't really have that commercial feel as most illustrators do, but I like that. On my first day in Illustration I we were told that the big difference between Illustration and Fine Art was that Illustration was made for print and advertising, basically replicated commercial work where the original is hardly ever seen. But it's disappointing in that sense, where illustrative and design work always goes unnoticed simply because it's not hanging up in a museum. They all convey emotion, feeling, and opinions through art.

Letterpress Chic

I'm a huge fan of letterpress designs, in fact I hope to be getting my own business cards letterpressed at some point. But I thought I'd get the word out about a couple of my favorite letterpress companies Hello! Lucky and Elum Designs. They're both very exquisite and definitely brings out the potential of the medium. They both primarily work in cards, but also offer custom designs for baby announcements and wedding invitations.

Almost There

A lot of updates and changes made today. For one, I updated the design page so there's actually some content there now. Although it's not quite finished, the work itself is available for viewing. I have yet to write descriptions for all of them, and yes, I do realize that you can still see the watermarks for iStockphoto. I will get to all of those problems when I get the chance. I just wanted to have the design content up as soon as possible like I promised.

Secondly, I made changes to the footers of each page. It's very subtle, but I noticed in some browsers the footers kept messing up. Hopefully the changes I have made has rectified the problem.

---

In other news, I have started making a swatch journal. With it, I plan to keep records of color schemes that appeal to me, so I can save them for future design works. I recently attended a ballet performance of Don Quixote (at my internship, we update and maintain The Festival Ballet's website) and was absolutely blown away by the colorful costumes. I purchased a Moleskine Notebook this weekend and went to Home Depot for some paint swatches. Then this morning I cut a few shapes out and spray mounted a few color schemes into my journal.

It was pretty messy, I'll tell you that. I was on the roof avoiding getting my work clothes dirty, and keeping my swatches from blowing away. Spray mount isn't exactly the best combination with paint swatch paper, when it comes in contact with the colors they sort of just bleed. But you get what you pay for — which was basically nothing. It's a lot more cost effective than using color aids and it stays on better than glue sticks. It was fun coming up with different color combinations. I've been doing it since I had my first box of crayons.

Style in the Workplace

If you've never heard of Russell + Hazel, you should. They're my favorite line of organizational and office supplies. The colors are bright and fun, and best of all the products are multi-functional. Such as the binders with a dry erase board inside. I loves it.

Amusement

I don't know who this is or what the website even is for (I'm assuming an illustrator's page). It's an amazing design and it just explodes with creativity: Bio-Bak.nl

A Fresh New Start

So another new year and another new layout. I apologize if any of you were desperately awaiting the new content, but I doubt it. I spent all weekend working on the layout in dreamweaver, and all morning adding in the new blogger. I had it in WordPress, but to be honest I don't know a thing about PHP. I promise the design section will be up within the next few days, as I actually have content to add to it.

As for this little blog section, I'll try to update this as often as possible as well. I do have my own personal blog, but that's a secret ;) I'll keep this one strictly design related.

So feel free to explore and give me some more networking exposure please?