2010 - a year in a graphic list - discoveries

During these final hours of 2010 I will, for the first time enter the world of the best-of-list. I'm sorry for the quite ecclectic mix of things to feature in this list, but these are a few of my favourite discoveries of last year. Also the ones that made it on the want-it-and-actually-also-got-it-list! So all the things  you're about to see are as good in real life as they are on these pictures!

PIETARI POSTI

finnish graphic designer and artist who lives in thrilling Barcelona.

His work, approached by hand and coloured in candytones, with humour or luxurious grandeur.

CLAIRE HARTIGAN

UK graphic artist who bedazzeld me completely with her naive-childrenbook-like drawings of forest creatures like bears, owls, foxes...one of them is watching over me as I sleep at night.

HANIBOI

For sure a POP-culture-ART addict, this also Britain-based artist bursts out in bright and screaming colours and object so basic and recognisable but ever so cleverly-funny! His old-skool cassette-wallet convinced me completely and its jingling-sound resides in my pocket nowadays!

The SERIF tote bag by Little Factory

Started as a design website focusing on pixel graphics and after sharing with other creators and designers free downloads such as icons, wallpapers and screensavers, their work has now been published in books and magazines and won several awards.  

Little Factory is a brand under Item Limited. Every item they’ve created is based on interesting observations in their daily lives. 

oh Honey! Brought to you by the Ballard Bee!

Thanks to Lovely Package I bring to you the excellent and tasty remedy against cold & flu...a nice drop of honey in your tea or hot milk. 

As my attention -like a bee to a blossoming knob- is drawn to the apothecary-chemical-styled layout for the Ballard Bee Company (Seattle). Away from the more classical -put-a-bee-on-the-jar- honey design we see in supermarkets everywhere, here the golden nectar has all the assets to become a very fashionable addition to every kitchen-laboratory!

And as a big plus, the Ballard Bee honey is unfiltered and raw so you can taste and appreciate all of the hard work the  girls have done throughout the season. It's unique flavour comes from the bees areal visits to local gardens and parcs in the Ballard neighborhood.

The Ballard Bee Company can even help you to set up your own beehive...for more info on that and their bees...check here.

And to buy them online, just visit the BLACKBIRD online-shop

YELLOW OWL WORKSHOP - graphic/design - ho-hooo

While looking for some nice christmas-cards this year, because as always by the end of the year you run around like hell to get that-very-special gift for all your loved ones, you go for coffee or heat yourself with a hot wine...just to find out, well if I had the time I would make them myself...so no home-designed reindeer-card for my family and friends. this year..but I found some great designs while surfing!

And so I discovered ( after I rewatched the entire Twin Peaks-oeuvre, that created some kind of  owl obsession)...

YELLOW OWL WORKSHOP

This husband-and-wife design workshop, located near the blustery Bernal hill in San Francisco drew my attention first with their new collection of pendants. Crest-like golden shields with cloisonné enamel-decoration on them.

After a closer look into their other designs  I got attracted by lheir charming collection of  stationary and cards (holiday and draw-your-own-message ones) , natural rubber on maplewood stamps and even everyday objects dipped in porcelain, like a camera or a neo-classical trophy cup.

Christine Schmidt (who received her BFA from the Corcoran School of Art) and Evan Gross, have created a very wood/forest-like atmosphere working with a lot of natural fabrics, bright but soothing colours and an almost playful-naive aproach that makes love their designs instantly. 

Their style feels to me like organic retro-modernism (sorry for my made-up words, but hey! That's how a Deer thinks), their is warmth, recognisable visual references and a space in between that makes you, as an observer, fantasize about  and continue the story that was once started on the drawingboard of the Yellow Owl Workshop.

Not to forget that everything is made by hand at the studio and that all products and prints are made by using non-toxic water-based inks on 100% PCW recycled paper. Not only for their own projects but also for the beautiful customized stationary and other graphic work.

So think Twin Peaks (here I go again), big lushous trees and their feathery inhabitants but out there in the San Francisco sun and brisky breeze...and you will love what you see!

Check out their workshop and follow their findings and ideas on their blog!

HAPPY BIRHTDAY!

Happy me!

thanks to Vintage Mint!

a Japanese Christmas! - meeeeeirry Christmas!

creeeezie from Japan!

Mary & Matt - tasty design in chocolate - CHCLT II

Oh Yes, still in a chocolate mood? 

Aren't you? 

For the last 3 days we're eating here a enormous chocolate-truffle gâteau, homemade for the family on Christmas...and right now the leftover #1. (see Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2)

Therefore, on my search for some more expertise in the (kinda) dark world of chocolate (as I'm in Belgium, on of the chocolate empires of the world I already do a lot of tasting) I came across graphic/food/advertising designers Mary & Matt from Brooklyn, who create tablets of the brown gold in a more minimalistic way and even custom-designed chocolate with a delicious pureness in dark, white, milk, salted, caramel, strawberry and tangerine flavor!

What once started as gourmet-gifts made in their home kitchen for friends and family became a high-quality must-have for every arty sweet-tooth. Mary & Matt (who became friends while studying painting) look for their inspiration in all sort of areas, like rugby shirts, works by Sol LeWitt and David Hockney and even the Neapolitan icecream-bar.

They -to quote their web-bio- believe in modernism with a smile. 

And to convince you completely, heres a sneak peak in their homemade collection of delicious-ables...

PRIMARY

milk bar I dark bar  I strawberry bar I white bar

SPECIAL FLAVOURS

strawberry stripes bar I  tangerine stripes bar I black & white bar I milk to white bar

  

FLAVOUR EDITION

neapolitan bar (dark/white/strawberry)

and for those among us who like to divide and conquer 

order these new friends-in-taste online (if you live in the USA)

H E R E

kvadrat - bringing the bright back!

As everything outside keeps on glooming monochromy, I would like to brighten up you day with these nice pictures for next seasons colors for textile company KVADRAT from Denmark. With collaborations from such designers as Patricia Urquiola, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec,...and inspiration from Charles & Ray Eames they bring us a new perspective to the use and care for contemporary textiles and fabrics!

You might also know them from the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion of 2007 in London where their fabrics completed the design by Olafur Eliasson and  Kjetil  Thorsen.

A FRUITCAKE for CHRISTMAS - the YACHT remix -

Y▲CHT  I  The Superions

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S

see you all snowy and well very soon!

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FEIST - look what the light did now - documentary

 Look at What the Light Did Now documents the journey of Feist’s Grammy nominated album “The Reminder”. 

This poetic film pulls back the curtain to reveal intimate partnerships with the people Feist calls her ‘amplifiers’: The photographer who helped her hide within the frame, shadow puppeteers in hockey arenas, an artist who built a thread-radiating mural, the video director who conducted fireworks, the pianist who guided the recording of the album, and other musical and visual collaborators. 

The film follows Feist and her supporting cast through an impressionistic array of flickering scenery, echoing stadiums, puppet workshops, the red carpet, a crumbling French mansion, definitive concert performances and uncommonly candid interviews. 

Itself a part of the creative mosaic it portrays, Look At What The Light Did Now illuminates the synergy of collaboration, art as magnifying glass, and the power of trust.