Saturday, January 30, 2010

Saturday Musings

The designer who created the above image wrote, "Every time I have a meeting with a bad client I wish I were still a barista. Life was much less stressful back then." I love it. found at Dear Coffee, I love you.

So, Anthony Bourdain is going to Praha on Monday's "No Reservations," which got me remembering about my own adventures in Prague back in 2004, when beer was cheaper than water, and $1 was 30 Czech Korunas. In the spirit of the Czech Republic, and my months of traveling afterward, I've been looking at travel inspired designs, including the work of Ketchup Mustard aka Jaime Van Wart. She's very young, and among the wave of young designers who are excelling at customized typography.

I also recently stumbled upon the design of the Italian company Undesign who does a lot of identity work out of Turino. I appreciate the amount of detail they put online to show the extent of their branding campaigns.


I also came across the work of the young designer beau monroe who has an array of nicely put together brand books. And a sweet little indexhibit website.

And just for a sweet little upcoming Valentine's exercise - Martha has some cute crafty ideas.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The Kraken


I know that this has been around for a while now - but when I was at the liquor store the other day, I actually saw this bottle and my love for the kitschy, stylized and beautifully-designed packaging just came back - so I wanted to share.

I'd been looking for a good sea monster for a while - I always joke that if I were to get tattoos, they would all be nautical themed (ships, mermaids and sea creatures) and I've always been fond of my dover clip art books and taschen images. When I saw The Kraken, designed by Stranger&Stranger in the UK, I just knew that it would be love:




via NotCot and theDieline