Friday LOL: Baseball Edition

As we head into the weekend that traditionally begins summer, I thought more Alec Baldwin/John Krasinski baseball laughs were in order:



"You have the hands of a plumber!"

Poster love:

I am really digging on these Sasha Blair-designed posters for the Washington Lottery:





Great typography, whimsical illustrations... all in all, these posters are definitely winners (see what I did there?).

Themes:

I don't look back on the old Mac OS (pre OS X) design fondly, but you have to admit, it does make a quirky Wordpress theme:

Friday LOL: Hipster edition

Dads are the original hipsters: high-larious.

Your dad wore Chuck Taylors before you did. Those were his “Just do it” shoes. He could ran faster, jump higher and ride your mom longer because of them. The only training you hipsters have done in those shoes are Natural Spirit chain smoking marathons and smug bike rides to dive bars. I wish time travel was real, just so your dad could kick your own ass for wearing the shoes that he made a legend.

Love it.

Exciting:

A Marimekko online shop, via Crate + Barrel? Sign me up, please!

Surprise, surprise: I love Marimekko prints! The bold, colorful designs always make me feel so happy. In fact, if I didn't already love my comforter, I would totally spring for this bedding set:



Adorbs, right?

Revised work:

trishareger.com



The interior design firm Reger has been my client for years. They started with a snazzy flash website that showcased their beautiful work (go ahead, flip through their portfolio section, I'll wait). Unfortunately, we all know about the iPhone, iPad, and the subsequent demise of flash.

Recently they wanted to update their website, and wanted to be more visible on mobile devices. I think we all know where this is headed... no more flash-based website!

The design of the site is basically the same as when it was programed with flash, and what they lost in fluidity going from page to page, they more than made up for in the time the site loads. The entire team at Reger is thrilled they made the switch, as am I.

Yay, revised work!

Want:

Holy hell, I need to get me a letterpress necklace, pronto:



Gorgeousness.

(via Joanna Goddard)

Monday LOL: silly edition

Sometimes, a girl's just gotta to ask herself: am I wearing pants?



With the onset of leggings, jeggings, and other questionable -eggings, sometimes a girl's gotta consult a high power to determine if her legs are covered in proper attire.

Not sure if you're wearing pants? Check out this flowchart in it's entirety here.

Like:

I was in a Starbucks recently, and this CD was at the counter:



(Starbucks sidebar: new coconut mocha frappuccino. Try it. Seriously, you can thank me later)

So, I'm all waiting in line, and this kd lang CD catches my eye. I love the layout--I would totally buy this based on the cover art alone.; nice photo, gorgeous type. Well, of course it's gorgeous because the next day, my type-design crush Ale Paul tweeted:

Photo: k.d.lang new album using Mrs Sheppards! Sing it loud…

Love it.

Wednesday LOL (interior design edition):

What if you lived at Ikea? Come on, you know you've walked around an Ikea store wanting to do this!

Tuesday LOL:

Sometimes you need to laugh on a Tuesday, too.

Last week, I was watching Parks and Recreation--which is becoming more and more a favorite, the more and more I watch it--and this happened:



I'm pretty sure Ron Swanson might be Mattio's hero.

Want:

I pity the fool that doesn't have this Mr. T teapot + mug set. Now quit yo jibba jabba and go out and get one. And don't give me no back talk, either.

First name mister, middle name period, last name, T. (I just added that one because it's my favorite. Did you know it's from Silver Spoons??)

(link found via swissmiss)

Friday LOL (interwebs edition):

I think we all have some of these Facebook "friends" in our lives:

Altoids "Curiously Strong Awards" from Marc Ritzema on Vimeo.

(via swissmiss)

Cooking with color:

I've been sort-of vegetarian for the past 15 years--actually, I was a straight veggie for the first 7, and when I found out I was pregnant, I added poultry to my diet in an effort to get more protein (well, that and I was so nauseous the first trimester that *when* I could eat, it didn't really matter what it was. But let's go with the whole protein thing).

One of the reasons I went veggie was that I'm not crazy for the taste and texture of meat--so when I added chicken and turkey to my diet, I wasn't out eating turkey burgers left and right, because, well, the texture of a burger--no matter what it's made with--is gross to me.

That is, until I found this recipe. The thing I love most about it is that it breaks up all the meatiness with loads of veggies. You can use as many or as few veggies as you like--although, if you go overboard with the veggies, the burgers fall apart on the grill. Trust me--I know this from experience. Veggie turkey burgers are a staple in my house come grilling season--they are so yum!



You'll need:
1+ lb of ground turkey
Veggies! I like to use 1 pepper, and 1 onion, but I always try and mix it up. Sometimes I'll do half of a red pepper, and half of a green pepper; a lot of times I like to throw in some jalapenos, or another type of hot pepper to spice things up a bit.
1/3 cup shredded cheese
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 tablespoon soy sauce
a smidge of black pepper
a generous smidge of garlic salt

Dice all your veggies in a bowl. Add the ground turkey, cheese, ketchup, soy sauce, pepper and garlic salt and mix it up good. Form into patties, and grill!

*Hint: the colder your meat is, the better the patties hold their shape on the grill. Sometimes I'll make these in the afternoon and refrigerate the uncooked patties so they're easier to handle on the grill.

Want:

This Shoes Appreciation Society Poster (and, well, duh, membership into said society):



(via gariphic)

Listen:

OK. I know there have been rumors, and you guys, I'm finally admitting it. For all the world (or, at the very least, the internets) to read:

I kindofsortofmaybe like the new Britney Spears song.

So much so, that I kindofsortofmaybe downloaded it. From iTunes--like, I paid for it and everything.

You guys, don't judge! I can't help it--it's so damn catchy! And my Friday spin teacher--who's all kinds of fun, and makes class fly by awesomely fast because she has pretty decent taste in music (hello? LL Cool J spin? Hells yeah!)--has been playing it for WEEKS, and it wasn't until I shazammed it that I realized it was Britney.

And then I was all, well, NOW WHAT? Next thing you know, I'll be listening to boy bands, putting money in their pockets. And then it would be like I didn't even know me anymore.

Fortunately, there is a happy ending. And this happy ending features none other than my other fave female singer at the moment (the one who doesn't need all kinds of digital manipulation to sound good): Adele. Ladies and gentlemen, the best of both worlds--here's Adele's Rolling in the Deep, mashed up with Britney's Dancing Till the World ends.

Friday LOL (baseball edition):

I've always loved Alec Baldwin, but I especially love him in full Jack Donaghy (as a Yankee fan!) mode. He definitely doesn't disappoint debating with John Krasinski (uh, I hope he's really not a Sox fan!) in this New Era commercial:



"Go ahead, celebrate in April, we'll dance in October." Made me love him just a little bit more...

Cool:

When your friends who make music announce they are getting married, of course you are going to want to make them a wedding invitation that doubles as a paper record player:

Paper Record Player from kellianderson on Vimeo.

There is WAY too much to love here; starting with the fact that it would have been really easy for this designer to burn the song onto a CD, and package it with the invitation. Instead, she did a TON of research, and made a record. And since few people have turntables these days, she also made a paper record player to play said record on.

So much thought, so much care (so much science! And math!) went into this, it's awesome, adorable, and, well, awesome, all rolled into one. Plus, imagine the bragging rights the bride and groom have: "Oh, your wedding invitations were made out of paper, too? Yeah, but could they PLAY RECORDS???"

(via twitter)

New work:

You know what's a really fun project for me? Anything that has to do with a wedding.

I LOVE weddings! They are such happy occasions--plus it usually gives me an excuse to buy a new pair of shoes :)

But seriously, anything wedding-based is alright by me; I'm actually working on some invitation designs for my brother in law and his fiancée, and just last night I found out that a good friend got engaged, and he asked if I would do their invitations, too. SQUEAL!!

But back to the project at hand. Lydia Ross Taplett hired me this winter for a new logo, and internet friends, I got excited. Lydia is a wedding planner, who just happens to have incredible taste. In our initial meeting, when I asked her about other logos that she liked, it was pretty much like talking to myself. How awesome is that?

First, I played around with her initials. But I didn't want to go the traditional monogram route, because I feel like for weddings, that's done a lot:




I love the font Fling so much that I want to marry it. I thought it would be the perfect fancy-but-fun script:




One of the things Lydia noted in our initial meeting was a love of Greek key patterns. I found inspiration there, while designing something that would also make for a nice icon:




A tiara! No wedding would be complete without a tiara!




These next 2 logos incorporate the very technical design term "swirlies." I love playing with swirlies, and thought that this was a good way to incorporate some "wedding" into the logo, without going full on church script:






I know owls are the big thing right now, but man, I think hummingbrids rock. Plus, if you think about it, a wedding planner is like a hummingbird, all moving so fast behind the scenes you can't even see her:




Finally, incorporating a little Martha into it. I love the icon, and the script was placement for something a little more custom-y handwriting:




And, the winner is...



Hummingbird!

I'm so glad Lydia chose this logo, as there is SO. MUCH. we can do with the swirlies (there's that very technical design term again). I've already done an ad for her for Westport Magazine, incorporating those swirlies into it, and it was so. much. fun! Plus, I not-so-secretly love the subtle gradation at the bottom of the swirlies. Next up: I'm working on a blog redesign for her--can we say swirlies on the web?!

April showers:

Well, if April is going to insist on being all rainy and chilly (weren't we JUST talking about peeptoes?? Come on, Mother Nature!), the least we could all do is look cute out in such dreary weather. I'm all for this impossibly adorable rain coat (or Rainyday Duffle, as theiy're calling it) from Boden:



Oh, look at that: they have it in my size. Let's pair it up with some classic Hunter boots (in a fun color, natch):



Now let's go play in the puddles.