love-la

Beautiful, stunning water colorist from England I found while...

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 10:34:20 -0800

Beautiful, stunning water colorist from England I found while researching illustrators for a fashion website I’m designing.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Oriental-Poppies-Botanical-Portrait/4777965

Love this line of products by Play Clan from India. I found them...

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:30:56 -0800

Love this line of products by Play Clan from India. I found them quite by chance on a fashion website. They’ve created rich colorful illustrations/ pieces of embroidery etc that are very tastefully applied to a series of products. Wonderfully evocative of the bizarre, poetic, madness that we come to expect of all things Indian, and yet have the right design sensibility.

Cool video from Pentagram- commemorating 40 years in business...

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:05:49 -0800

Cool video from Pentagram- commemorating 40 years in business while showcasing some of their best visual design projects.

Crazy, gorgeous, weird art/sculptures by Jason Hackerwerth. Am...

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:59:55 -0700

Crazy, gorgeous, weird art/sculptures by Jason Hackerwerth. Am watching for more! It had to be on the cover of New York Times, right!?

More amazing stuff on his site.

http://www.jasonhackenwerth.com

From his website:

‘My work is part of a growing dialogue of artists exploring the possibilities of experiential art. Experiments with latex balloons as an alternative medium has evolved into massive forms akin to painting in the spontaneity with which they manifest yet rooted in the language of sculpture.

I continue to explore other materials and processes as a means of artistic expression. My approach is a traditional studio practice of exploring the potency of a material in a state which it can be perceived as both extraordinary yet simple.

Inspired by the iconic sculptures and mobiles of past masters and fueled by curiosity, each of my works is an expression in the evolving language of sculpture.’

http://www.stitchbystitch.eu Just found this team/ website that...

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:05:00 -0700

http://www.stitchbystitch.eu

Just found this team/ website that creates lovely textile products for the European market. Working with Indian artisans they create a more understated aesthetic. I love it! I guess projects like this show me how much of a ‘desi’ I still am but living in New York and LA has changed my taste… I like the quiet tone. Usually these women would over-embroider the hell out of a piece! Not that I don’t like that too! But in a different way!

(Source: design sponge)

AIGA/ LA Presents Emerge. May 12th to June 30th 2012. (I’m...

Tue, 15 May 2012 11:56:22 -0700

AIGA/ LA Presents Emerge. May 12th to June 30th 2012.

(I’m looking forward to the exhibition)

Posted from:

http://aplusd.org/exhibitions-future/aiga-emerge

A+D Museum is pleased to host in our Stephen Kanner Education Center for Architecture and Design, an exhibition of student graphic design work from colleges and universities in Southern California. Be inspired by the tremendous talent of our next generation of Designers. EMERGE is organized and sponsored by AIGA Los Angeles.

Art Center College of Design
Cal Poly Pomona
Cerritos College
California State University, Northridge
California State University, Los Angeles
Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising
Loyola Marymount University
Otis College of Art and Design
UCLA Extension
University of Southern California
Woodbury University
Westwood College, Los Angeles

A+D Museum will be closed to the public Wednesday, May 16th through Tuesday, June 5th for exhibit installation.

Mad Men vs. The Pitch

Tue, 08 May 2012 13:18:05 -0700

‘The Pitch’ premiered on AMC last week and I’ve been curious enough to watch both episodes. There have been some insights, some voyueristic moments of peeking into the inner workings of an ad agency…. but overall dispappointing. Disappointing becuase the agancies are all unknowns, the brands (to me) all blah and therefore its not been very satisfying.

I would much rather go back to the scripted television of an advertising era that Mad Men recreates on another time slot on AMC that takes us back to a much juicier time 60 years back. I can’t believe 60 years later advertising is being presented in such a dull and dry manner. Let’s watch and wait.

Gestalten is the new Taschen? I picked up a bunch of lovely...

Mon, 07 May 2012 10:38:00 -0700

Gestalten is the new Taschen?

I picked up a bunch of lovely design books at my favorite Hollywood book store this weekend /hennesseyingalls.com/ and found several of the books were published by Gestalten. (The book Echoes of the future was originally reviewed on the Cool Hunting app that I get my regular design fix from.)

http://www.gestalten.com

Found them again brousing through the New York Times Style magazine this morning. So they are a book publisher founded in Berlin who also publish fonts and videos/interviews on visual artists: www.gestalten.tv. Can’t wait to explore all their offerings!

Google Play, was lurking on my Gmail page when I logged in this...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:35:00 -0700

Google Play, was lurking on my Gmail page when I logged in this afternoon. I have to say I haven’t been too keen on any of their products in the recent past, Google +, Google Wave or Google Buzz. Lets see how this shapes up. I like the transitions of the images. Can’t say I was too impressed with the rest of the interface. I do like the mark, not so much the logotype. Although it does have a generic technology product-with-gradients kind of feel.

The 2012 London Olympics are almost here. From my Archives: I...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:42:00 -0700

The 2012 London Olympics are almost here. From my Archives: I had worked on the logo for the NBC broadcast of the Olympics for Troika when I had just moved to LA. Here’s a peek at some of those concepts.

I came across this wonderful illustration that was commissioned...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:51:02 -0700

I came across this wonderful illustration that was commissioned by the MTA. by Sophie Blackall, a Brooklyn based artist. It reminded me so much of the conversations I often have about the difference between life in New York and Los Angeles. In NY, if you’re a daily subway commuter, like many of us are/ were, New York’s kaleidoscopic diversity intersects with your day all the time. On the street, on the subway… you don’t go look for art, culture, design. The subway musicians, street art, window displays, are all a part of your daily commute, your walk to the corner to pick up lunch and more. In LA on the other hand, I always feel like I have to get into my car and go look for inspiration!

(Illustration, courtesy Sophie’s blog. Click on the illustration to go to the link and see the illustration in a larger size to experience its rich details)

The poster is also on sale on the MTA website:http://www.mta.info/mta/aft/posters/artcards.html?itemnum=30390

Sophie’s blog, called Missed Connections is also worth a look. Her write up describing the blog, makes me oh-so nostalgic for the subway and its anonymity again!

‘Messages in bottles, smoke signals, letters written in the sand; the modern equivalents are the funny, sad, beautiful, hopeful, hopeless, poetic posts on Missed Connections websites. Every day hundreds of strangers reach out to other strangers on the strength of a glance, a smile or a blue hat. Their messages have the lifespan of a butterfly. I’m trying to pin a few of them down.’

Patrick Hruby had been on my radar for a while since the first...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:56:10 -0700

Patrick Hruby had been on my radar for a while since the first time I saw his work on Blik. How excited was I when my little daughter got a gift of one of his children’s books from her aunt?! (Images from his website and blik)

Its ironic that as illustration styles off late has become more...

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:22:00 -0700

Its ironic that as illustration styles off late has become more modern and ‘vectorized’ there’s also been a resurgence of the ‘materiality’ in illustrations. Taste-makers like Uppercase magazine have definitely helped influence this new aesthetic. Here’s a wonderful hand letterist/ illustrator Mary Kate Mcdevitt who does gorgeous work. I found her while leafing through my new issue of Fast Company. Oh, I love Fast Company! I’ll leave that for another post!

It all started when I went to the Los Angeles Renegade Craft...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:20:00 -0800

It all started when I went to the Los Angeles Renegade Craft Fair- I picked up a pile of UPPERCASE magazines there. I love it when my world’s collide! I found Lorena Siminovich mentioned on their blog today: Turns out Lorena owns Petit Collage which I loooove. It has fabulous products for kids based on her illustrations that I’ve loooved. And she started the company some time back. I did not know that. And then discovered on their site- that the dolls that fab.com offered last week that I bookmarked are also hers! Also turns out, our little daughter a also has some of Lorena’s books that chronicle books publishes.

FABULOUS LORENA! http://www.lorenasiminovich.com

I am still a New Yorker at heart, my six years there were a...

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:57:32 -0800

I am still a New Yorker at heart, my six years there were a wonderful experience. And as I resign myself to life as an Angeleno (!) I can’t help occasionally getting nostalgic about all things New York. Here is an ongoing series I’m going to start- New York things I miss… sigh!

#1 The New York Weekend Style Magazine, in print

This is a fabulous T by Sachiko Akinaga from this week’s magazine.

Love this guy’s work: I came across Todd McLellan’s...

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:38:24 -0700

Love this guy’s work:

I came across Todd McLellan’s work on the site: http://www.20x200.com/art/2011/04/old-typewriter.html

He says: ‘In my series Disassembly, I photographed old items that are no longer used by the masses and often found on the street curbs heading for disposal. All of the pieces I photographed were in working order. I found it very interesting that they were all so well built and put together with screws, not glue. These pieces were all most likely put together by hand. I envisioned all the enjoyment these pieces had given many people for many years, all to be replaced by new technology that will itself be rapidly replaced with half the use.’

An Indian Summer made me very nostalgic for all things Indian....

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:10:05 -0700

An Indian Summer made me very nostalgic for all things Indian. The colors, art, embroidery, seasons, fabIndia, Anokhi, NID…This blogger (Bhavna) posts some very classy images of India-inspired interiors that she gathers from all over the place. With the right balance of color and texture, the ‘desi-ness’ of the design elements actually works! Lovely eye candy! The desi equivalent of Brooklyn based Grace Bonney’s blog, which I love.

http://anindiansummer-design.blogspot.com/

http://www.designsponge.com/

New York (Brooklyn) based photographer Anna Williams has created...

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:52:00 -0700

New York (Brooklyn) based photographer Anna Williams has created a site to post material that she shoots without the constraints of client demands. She calls it The Voracity. ‘The Voracity is a personal project by photographer Anna Williams exploring hunger, consumption, and beauty.’ These are stills from the first issue called Miss Scarlet. Gorgeous, rich pictures, with incredible detail. The typography is nice too. The other three issues: Contropastasciutta, Princely Feast, and Full of love.

(Had to be New York!)

http://www.thevoracity.com

Her food and environments photography is superb too!

http://www.annawilliamsphotography.com

Nicole and Petra Kapitza: I read about these London based...

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:48:19 -0700

Nicole and Petra Kapitza: I read about these London based sisters in the magazine Upper Case a couple of months back. They run their own design studio and create picture fonts and vector illustrations that are unusual and cool. ‘Our objective for the shop is to create a source of inspiration for people as well as building up a continuously growing resource of high resolution picture fonts and illustrations for designers to use in their work.’ Nicole. http://kapitza.com

Food Photography- Andrea Bricco

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:56:38 -0700

I’ve been consulting with Herbalife in Downtown LA for some time and helping them migrate some of their global packaging systems to the new brand initiative. Of late I’ve stopped whining about not being able to find good food/ prop stylists and food photographers here in LA! Reason, I found Andrea Bricco! She’s done some wonderful photo shoots for me in the last few months and is worth checking out. Her site: http://www.andreabricco.com