The designer behind the awesomeness

A while back, I posted about these clothbound classics from Penguin (seriously, how much do you love them??).



This time, let's talk about the designer behind the awesomeness: Coralie Bickford-Smith.

The inspiration blog the 99% interviewed her, talking about a typical workday, inspirations, and the like. First of all, I totally want to hang with this woman. She sounds awesome!

The best days are when final books come in. If it's one that I've put my heart into I can't wait for them to reach our floor so I rush up to production to get my hands on them and make sure everything is as it should be. It can be a bit scary, opening those boxes of books, but when it has all worked, it's ace.

And totally want her job!

Working in central London, I can go to some wonderful places to get ideas – museums, galleries, shops. And right at my desk of course – sometimes I just get sucked into the Internet and binge visually for hours. If this is the way my day has gone I go running for half an hour at lunchtime to escape and reset my brain.

Read the entire interview at the 99%, gush over Coralie's work on her website, and--as an added bonus--check out these adorable T(ea) towels. Want.

Friday LOLs

For those not in the design industry, Lorem Ipsum is dummy text that designers use as placeholder copy. It's Latin; however, it's also gibberish, so it doesn't exactly translate to anything that makes any sense.

However.

If you're into things not making sense--but making them, say, a hair more fun to read--I highly suggest Gangsta Lorem Ipsum. Fo' shizzle.

Lorem ipsum dolor go to hizzle own yo', go to hizzle adipiscing elit. That's the shizzle sapizzle velizzle, nizzle volutpizzle, suscipizzle shizznit, bizzle vizzle, bling bling. Pellentesque bow wow wow tortor. Sizzle erizzle. Mah nizzle izzle dolizzle dapibizzle turpizzle tempizzle shizznit. Maurizzle pellentesque nibh pizzle turpizzle. Its fo rizzle izzle for sure. Get down get down mofo rhoncus uhuh ... yih!. In hac check out this black dictumst. Donec dapibizzle. Curabitizzle tellus urna, pretium , mattizzle ma nizzle, eleifend vitae, nunc. Funky fresh suscipit. Owned sempizzle velizzle shiz my shizz.

Shiz my shizz is right, yo. Word.

The solution for when it smells fishy

Confession: I am not a scented candle person.

I tried, at one point in my life, to be the kind of person who keeps lit scented candles around the house, but it just wasn't for me. So I'm pretty sure we don't have very many--if any--candles in the house.

Fast forward to Monday night, when we had deeeee-lish crab cakes for dinner. The price we paid for all that deeee-liciousness was that the house smelled like fish. Insert wishing for scented candles.

So today, on the obligatory post-preschool trip to Target (You guys, it's like right around the corner from the intern's preschool. Every week, it taunts me), I went in search of a candle. Lucky for me, I didn't have to search far: picking up some of my new favorite hand soap (Mrs. Meyers Lemon Verbena), I noticed a display of Mrs. Meyers soy candles. Perfect.



You guys, I love this candle. The scent isn't overpowering at all, but it was enough to get rid of the lingering fish smell (yes, days later it still smells like fish. I think that crab cake type of deeee-liciousness needs to be strictly restaurant-only). I kept it lit for a few hours this afternoon, alternating between the kitchen and the dining/living room, and now my house smells faintly of orange-clove. If you were to walk in my door right now, it certainly wouldn't smack you upside the head. Which is exactly what I was looking for in a scented candle.

Plus, you know, the whole soy-all-natural thing it's got going on. Says the Mrs. Meyers website:

Our products combine hardworking, naturally occurring ingredients and essential oils that are tough on dirt, yet gentle on your home and the earth. Biodegradable and packaged in recyclable bottles, our products are ammonia-, chlorine bleach-, paraben- and phosphate-free; they are never tested on animals.

It's a win/win.

Fall into color

A few weeks ago, my pal Marcy and I took a day off to shop. No kids, no soccer, no crazy Saturday chores and activities, just her and I, and Woodbury Commons (Oh, and our credit cards).

It was a great day. We filled up her car with lots and lots of fun goodies (and found a ton of great deals). Since I'm a sucker for a good fall color palette, I thought I'd share some cool color inspiration that I found.

First up, a fun dress from Banana Republic (that did not come home with me):





I love everything about this; from how the everything pops against the charcoal gray background, to the bright, almost unexpected fall color palette. Nice, especially with the chartruese.

Next, a bag from Coach (that just happened to sneak in with all my stuff. "Oh, look at that, Mattio! A stray bag! Well we have to take it in and give it a good home--it's getting cold outside, and we just can't LEAVE it."):





Love, love, love pretty much everything about this. The colors are great: orange! Teal! Plum! Chartruese! Fabulous.

So, in the name of color research... Marcy, when's our next trip??

Do you smell like a monster?

Grover was always one of my faves:

Friday LOLs

If you had a website, and it was called Good Design Advice, it'd probably be... well, a website with some good design advice. But drop an F-bomb between Good and Advice, and you've got something pretty f**king funny.

goodf**kingdesignadvice.com

Including such gems as:

Learn from other f**king disciplines.

Remove your f**king widows.

Use a f**king color scheme.

Good advice? Absolutely. Funny? You f**king bet.

Smorgasbord

The internet is a lovely place, no? Without it, I wouldn't have seen:

Jason Santa Maria's Candygrams: specifically, the fancy candy-type by Jessi Arrington. With special behind the scenes coverage here.

Jim's Pancakes: Dude seriously needs to come over and make me breakfast. My kids might like it, too. Although, that's setting the pancake bar kind of high. Maybe he should just come over and make pancakes for me.

Kate. Spade. Bedding: WANT.

27b/6: I don't know who this guy is, but his ridiculous emails crack me up. Lucky for all of us, there's plenty of stupid people willing to banter with him.

Thank you internet. Thank you.

friday LOLs

I can't think of a better title for an embarrassing celebrity photo website than "The Internet Never Forgets" (except for the url: fire your agent. Brills).

Because it doesn't. Right, Jared Leto (EDIT 8/28/13: there used to be an embarrassing photo of Jared Leto here, but, instead of firing his agent he just got someone from his team to annoy me enough to take the photo down. 3 years later. There. It's down. Are you happy?)?

Go on with your bad self. No really, go on. You're bad.

So, a few weeks ago, iTunes 10 was released, along with a new icon. If you follow my twitter stream, the new icon may as well have been tarred and feathered. Actually, it was so reviled, that someone started an @itunes10icon twitter account defending the new design; and in the beginning, it was hilarious.



Then, last week, a new minor league hockey team was announced: the Connecticut Whale, which hinted at a throwback to the old Hartford Whalers team. Could the logo possibly be as cool? Me thinks not.



Finally, today. I get a fancy email saying I get an additional 30% off at the Gap, so I'm so there. But the logo is different--weird, even. There's this weird blue box... ? This can't be right. Can it? It is?? What???



What is going on here, people??? What is this logo badness that is going on??? The iTunes icon, to be honest, I'm kind of ambivalent about. It's not great, but eh. But that CT Whale logo--and now the Gap??? What is happening? And worse, who is letting this happen???

Eat it (or not)

Except for the whole bacon part, agreed:



(seen on Buzzfeed via Jezebel)

I know it's too early to be blogging about penguin plates

Alright, I know. I KNOW. It's October 4th. Barely October, for the love. But I am sorry, friends; it is so fa-reezing out, that I actually had to put on the heat. After I put on a long sleeve tee shirt AND heavy sweater. And drank hot tea like we're going to run out. Today is the first real chilly day of fall, and in honor of the cold, I am sharing these adorable penguin plates from West Elm:



I know it is too early. I complain about people like me. But my heat is on, therefore I can totally identify with the little guys. So today, October 4th, you guys get penguin plates.

I KNOW.

Friday LOLs

The only thing this Oatmeal comic about working from home vs. working in an office is missing, is the kids.

Happy Friday, and weekend everybody!

UPDATE:

I prematurely posted today. I just came across this gem: Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon rap... well, rap history. Awesome.

Notes from another intern

My oldest, the teenager, has really gotten into photography this past year. Last night I saw this photo that she took, and I thought it's a good indication of her style and sense of humor (not that she likes to trap animals in glass bottles, but...)



I think she's got a pretty good eye, especially considering that she just picked up a camera less than 6 months ago. If she lets me, I'll have to post more of her work. In the meantime, enjoy "Silly elephant got himself stuck."

Notes from the intern

What up traciedesigns readers???! It's the intern here, reporting for duty.

I'm hanging in the office all week--with the exception of when I'm in SCHOOL (Holla! Who's a big girl now??). The boss thought it'd be a good idea for me to write this week, seeing as how she's juggling work and me (what-EVER, bosslady. Whatever).

Anywho, we got a fab new sofa last week--it rocks! The best thing, though, is that instead of a coffee table, the bosses opted for an ottoman. Which is by far my favoritest piece of furniture. Like, ever. I'm constantly coming up with new ways to sit on it. See?









Man! I'm so glad they didn't get a coffee table!

K, it's almost dinner time--and you guys KNOW how I get when I'm hungry. It's enough to make the bosslady want to hide under... well, the new ottoman.

Yummy type

Whilst standing in line at Starbucks this AM, I noticed this fine specimen of type:



I've never heard of the Zac Brown band, but I think I'm going to give a listen. Because, yes, dear readers, I do judge a CD by it's cover.

Sidenote: While in line, I thought to myself, do people really buy CDs anymore? They can't possibly, right? I mean, I haven't bought a CD in... well, I can't even remember, so naturally it was eons ago. But really--are people buying CDs?

Then the chick in line in front of me bought a CD.

Question answered.

...But does it look expensive?

Yesterday I got a phone call from a company that had interviewed me a few weeks back. The conversation went something like this:

Them: "We had talked to some other designers, and the last one we hired to do the logo--for $300--didn't work out. So now we'd like to hire you!"

Me: "..."

I'm a big believer in you get what you pay for. Don't get me wrong, I love me some bargains (hello, my whole office is furnished by Ikea, thankyouverymuch), but at the end of the day, a $300 logo is going to look like, well, a $300 logo (just like my desk is just some fancy particle board my husband put together).

I charge more than $300 for logos, because I invest a lot of time into creating them. I research, I sketch, I play with fonts, I purchase fonts. I research some more.

I like to take a page in Illustrator--the program I use for creating logos--and just digitally vomit every idea I have. It usually ends up looking something like this (designed for a totally different client):



This is just one of two pages for this client, actually.

I type out the company name over, and over, and over. And then again. I play with the shapes of letters, the space in between letters, icons, artwork. Sometimes the ideas flow out, and it's like the dam wall broke, and there they are, all over the paper/my screen. Sometimes the ideas take longer. While I wait for the ideas, I sketch. And I type. And I play. And I research some more.

Because of this--all of this--I charge more than $300 for logos. And maybe I'm biased, but I think it's worth it.

Tuesday smiles

Dogs. Ikea furniture. And a catchy tune from OK Go. What's not to love?

New work!

Just launched: objectsblog.com. You guys remember the logo from a few weeks back, right?

Client, friend, and world traveler Pamela Peterson lets you in on her journeys; whether it's multitasking in Italy, or a Paris flea market. Truth be told, Pam has been sending me "sample" blog entries--stuff she intended on writing about--throughout the entire design process, and let me tell you. If the blog continues in the same tradition of the samples she sent, it will quickly be one of my faves. Check out Objects, and be sure to say hi to Pam while you're there.

Also, many, many, many thanks to friend and Wordpress genius Dave Cushman, of Form: Substance for the development. Dave came through in an eleventh hour emergency, and came through he did. Lots of gold stars for that one.

Enjoy Objects, you guys--I'm so psyched that it's launched!

You win, type

Normally I'm not one to celebrate anything Microsoft. So when IE9 was launched this week, my reaction was probably something along the lines of, whoop-de-doo. I mean, really.

However.

This version of Internet Explorer supports the Web Open Font Format. Basically, it supports pretty fonts on the web. Like, not just Times and Arial, but cool stuff like, Hellenic Wide (drool). And Chunk (yum). And Coquette (swoon).

So to showcase that support, Brooklyn-based designer Jason Santa Maria was asked to help.

Ladies, and gentlemen, meet the Lost World's Fairs.

Designed with fun and typography in mind, these sites are not only awesome, but the text is... well, text. Not imagery. Friends, that is effing cool.

Read more about the story behind the Lost World's Fairs here.

Type Monday

Looking for new fonts is my second favorite thing to do, ever (second only to buying new shoes, DUH). So new logo projects mean that I'm scouring the font shops, looking for the perfect, shiny new font.

So guess who has a new logo project?

And guess who found the prettiest, shiniest, newest font EVER? Ladies and gentlemen, meet Brownstone:



After immediately falling in love, I looked to see who was the brilliant designer behind this gorgeousness. Surprise, surprise, it's Alejandro Paul--one of my favorites.

Yummy, yummy, yummy.