Amanda Makes Things

Overheard During the Great Office Cleaning

2012-02-17T16:38:00.000-08:00

I already adored both of my colleagues before they participated in this conversation, but this clearly must elevate them to hero-status. :) Also, I really wanted to draw a wind-up snail when I heard this.

Funtimes in the City!

2012-02-13T04:59:00.000-08:00

I've been plugging away at a rather large project, and finally have some color to show for it! This is the first piece {actually pages 5—6} of an illustrated psalm for the pre-school set.

Page 5:

{The text is going to sit in that big empty space at the top}

Page 6:

{The talk of the town—the poofy white cloud on the left eating a cooke—is God.}

and here's the whole spread:

you can see a larger version by clicking here.

Thank Goodness for Magical Rainbow Kittens

2012-02-08T17:12:00.000-08:00

Amazing office conversation {a summary}:

A: "Hooray, we've got it! But I don't know where the file came from. It just mysteriously appeared on the server. It must have been the magical rainbow kittens."

B: "Magical rainbow kittens?"

A: "Yes; when things are mysteriously fixed, it's them."

B: "I could totally use some of those magical rainbow kittens right about now."

C: "Me too. Lemme have a bunch of 'em, crawling all over my desk. I'll be the magical rainbow cat lady."

If I Got to Pick a Uniform for the Human Race...

2012-01-25T16:36:00.000-08:00

Birthday, yay.

2012-01-08T08:44:00.001-08:00

Starting the new year off with a bang...

2012-01-06T05:44:00.000-08:00

{In hindsight, I find this extremely funny. At the time, though, not so funny.}

T!

2012-01-05T06:32:00.001-08:00

V!

2011-12-28T06:27:00.001-08:00

Christmastimes

2011-12-27T09:10:00.000-08:00

I was super excited that our intern brought me a poinsettia.

PB cup cookies FTW

Snowmen, candy canes, christmas trees, Cyclops...

...and my personal favorite, octopus-cookie

my brother's shop—and his delightfully arranged sawblades

I like this blurry light picture better than the not-blurry light picutres

Herbie is pooped.

mmm...mom-mom's cherry cream cheese loaf thing

Pop-pop's floor moose gets in on the action

Holiday Card 2011

2011-12-27T06:42:00.001-08:00

M!

2011-12-15T04:48:00.000-08:00

J!

2011-12-07T06:37:00.000-08:00

Amanda Meets Milton Glaser!

2011-12-02T04:32:00.000-08:00

AIGA NY hosted a talk by the legendary Milton Glaser, and I was pretty excited to go, and meet him briefly afterwords.
Milton is probably most well known for the "I love NY" logo; his other more recognizable work includes iconic posters from the 60's & 70's {like this Dylan one}, and the Brooklyn Brewery identity. In 1954, he and Seymour Chwast established the internationally influential Pushpin Studio; he also co-founded the New Yorker Magazine.

He's had a single-man show at the MOMA, and was awarded the lifetime achievement award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

{Perhaps his highest honor: I named my cat after him:}

I think what I actually admire most about him is that he uses language brilliantly—there are no wasted words. He is startlingly precise, smart, and witty. His talk, called "One thing leads to Another," led us through a series of his recent work. Through it he traced how things he was thinking about in one piece influenced the next, and then that the next, and so on.

My favorite part was a section he called, "The client didn't buy it." He showed us some of his favorite {and I think best} work that clients didn't like and therefore never made it off the drawing board. Midway through, he displayed a series of clever posters for Coney Island, and cracked, "Couldn't sell those if my life depended on it."

Some highlights from the talk and Q&A:

Right now Milton is very interested in color. He's done a ton of personal studies, which have influenced his professional work.

"There's no such thing as getting stuck if you don't think there is such a thing as getting stuck. SO GET WORKING!!!"

Q: "Have you read any good books lately?"

A: "NO."

Milton's definitions of art and design:

Artist: someone who is free to pursue their own obsessions

Designer: someone who is subservient to the desires of the client

"The problem with this field is that it wants to find out what you can do well, and then force you to do it over and over and over and over..." but what obviously excites Milton is learning. He wants to figure out what he doesn't know, and he walks into the office driven by, "What can I learn today?"

"I hate advertising. Persuasion makes me nervous." {He thinks it's destructively manipulative to the consumer.}

"I hate identity. It's boring."

"I hate marketing. I hate things that numb the mind."

Q: "What are you working on now?"

A: "Like any studio, we have a mix of things that are interesting, and things that are not."

"The computer is the instrument of the devil."

He says that all young designers are now producing work that looks identical, because they have been overpowered by their tool. It does certain things well, so that is what everyone does with it. "It makes you do what it wants you to do. Approach it with suspicion."

"I can draw. Anything that I can see in my mind, I can put on paper." Milton thinks this is a more important and versatile tool than the computer.

He sees the fundamental struggle of design as creativity vs. clarity—he sees the two as opposed, and the principle challenge of the field is bringing them together.

Assorted Fall Photos

2011-11-19T09:40:00.001-08:00

Taxi-colored leaves

Milton is watching you

This leaf-filled hole in the sidewalk is pretty excellent

For most of us, looking at Midtown is preferable to actually being in Midtown.

The location of this traffic cone renders it pretty useless. Fortunately this has no bearing on its adorableness.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles clearly live in the sewers because manhole covers make extremely attractive front doors.

Seymour sleeps between sunbeams because she no longer feels compelled to work on her tan.

S!

2011-11-17T06:57:00.000-08:00

Why Hello, Sunset.

2011-11-12T09:37:00.000-08:00

The silver lining in the earlier nightfall during fall and winter is that we're at work when the sun goes down. Since our office {with floor to ceiling windows} is on the 33rd floor in midtown Manhattan, we've got the ideal sunset watching situation. Last night's was a good one!

My colleague and I taking pictures out of our window

Dusk on the Hudson/midtown west

W!

2011-11-10T06:29:00.001-08:00

U!

2011-11-09T08:19:00.001-08:00

If You're Going the way of an Anthropomorphized Cupcake...

2011-11-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

...you've got to go all out. This somehow looked a little less ridiculous while it was still only in my head, but I suppose a drawing of a flying cupcake can hardly help but end up a bit flamboyant. I've been itching to draw a cupcake literally for months now, and I just couldn't hold back any longer. Cupcake, Cookie, and I took to the skies in this illustration for a children's jump rope song; the line depicted here goes "The kite away flew, and I did too!" Because if I'm going to fly, it's definitely going to be in the company of baked goods.

Click HERE to see a larger version of our adventure!

Some detail shots:

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T05:43:00.000-07:00

I'm into octopuses lately—their potential for cuteness is pretty monumental. Also, you can't tell from this abomination of a photo, but this little octopumpkin is really excited because, in real life, his green, blue, and magenta happen to be the exact same value AND saturation as the bright orange pumpkin itself—it's a glorious combo that is quite worthy of the gleeful expression he's got going on there. You'll just have to trust him on this one though.

N!

2011-10-25T08:33:00.001-07:00

Sea Monster!

2011-10-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

YAY, sea monster! With his soy sauce and chopsticks, he's ready for some sailor sushi!

CLICK HERE to see a larger version!

A Fashionable Birthday

2011-10-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

My design director, Maureen, is very stylish. I made this birthday card for her because she loves these colors and fancy shoes. {I, on the other hand, had to research pictures of high heels to know how to draw them.} :)

F!

2011-10-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

C!

2011-10-12T06:06:00.001-07:00

A!

2011-10-10T06:34:00.000-07:00

Elephant Fun!

2011-10-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

Illustration inspired by the Indian spring festival of Holi. Part of the festivities include decorating elephants with beautiful elaborate paintings; here I imagine that the elephant has grown a bit tired of sitting through the tedious process and has created some fun by spraying his attendants with their own paint. I attempted something similar in college, but it was pretty bad—I was happy for the opportunity to revisit the theme this time with a bit more success.

CLICK HERE to see the larger version!

Detail shots:

B!

2011-10-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

Matryoshka

2011-09-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

I think Russian nesting dolls have such an adorable shape—so I decided to make one of them the subject of my most recent papercut. I cut my design out of 18 x 24 white watercolor paper, and mounted it against a lovely textured teal drawing paper.

P!

2011-09-27T06:51:00.001-07:00

GOOD RIDDANCE—the musical

2011-09-23T05:58:00.000-07:00

A few Sweden Pics

2011-09-13T06:21:00.000-07:00

There was not much salvageable from my Swedish photo efforts—I think my lack of interest in this being a primary documentation method and a poorer than usual performance from my camera itself combined in the perfect storm to create a just a huge pile of crud. Here are a couple I pulled from the wreckage...

Uppsala Cathedral

Uppsala Graveyard

A lake somewhere in northern Sweden

Caitlin and the swan

train station

swedish meatballs

pretty picnic!

smorgastorta (fish sandwich cake)

Old Stockholm

Old Sotckholm

Old Sockholm

Stockholm Waterfront

Umlaut! {I love umlauts.}

Movie Theater

Uppsala

A very typical Swedish house {they're all adorable}

Viking burial grounds

Swedish wilderness

Anders Zorn estate

Amanda Goes to Sweden!

2011-09-12T07:11:00.001-07:00

This 58 page adventure documented my recent trip to Sweden in real time—I dew each page as the trip unfolded. It was a vacation, so I made one rule to keep this from becoming a burden—no digital editing! The whole thing was done entirely in marker and colored pencil. Click here to check it out!

What a Great Addition to a Busy City Intersection

2011-09-09T06:24:00.000-07:00

Just a Thought

2011-08-29T06:28:00.000-07:00

Gettin' Fancy

2011-08-26T06:11:00.000-07:00

The plan:

My friend Jason and I wanted to treat our friends for their birthdays with a gift certificate to a fancy restaurant and an evening of us babysitting their kid so they could go to said restaurant. The problem:

Unfortunately, the restaurant was so fancy that they sniffed at the mention of gift certificates.

The solution:

So we decided to make our own.

My style doesn't lend itself to frequent opportunities to write in script, so I was particularly interested in the lettering. After a bunch of tries, I got some half-decent letterforms that met my standard of cuteness, but the whole land of cursive is obviously one I'm gonna need to spend more time getting my head around. I learned a lot from this exercise, so I think it was a reasonably successful first exploration.

Mattias Gets a Present

2011-08-25T06:04:00.000-07:00

A little drawing for friends;

colored pencil on cardboard

An Amateur's Guide to Roach Killing

2011-08-22T06:11:00.000-07:00

Click to see full size:

Nusnäs, Sweden

2011-08-11T06:30:00.001-07:00

One of my recent adventures in Sweden was a trip to the little town of Nusnäs {population 724}, the center of the traditional Swedish craft of dala horses. The hand carved and hand painted wooden creatures are in every gift shop in the land, and it was pretty neat to see where they came from.

{old style}

{contemporary style; the most popular kinds are red and blue}

My friend Katie with an awesome giant Dala rooster :)

My favorite items in the shop were these amazing {and large!} carved wood flowers—so cool!

Paint Color: One of the Most Important Life Decisions

2011-08-01T04:57:00.000-07:00

On Board the Comics Express!

2011-07-26T05:12:00.000-07:00

{cut-out sign intended to be placed on a refrigerator door}

Comics Express is an independently-published free comic book created for the kids in Joplin, Missouri whose town was recently devastated by tornadoes. Spearheaded by the amazing Carmen Morias, and created by a team of former Nickelodeon Magazine staffers and professional cartoonists, this venture was a treat to get to be involved with. I created my three pieces, part of a series of cut-out signs, by hand.

{cut-out sign for a bathroom door}

{another cut-out sign for a fridge door}

Just an FYI

2011-07-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

If $2.50 per load was not traumatic enough...

2011-07-22T06:13:00.000-07:00

The Pelachick Triptych

2011-07-19T16:14:00.000-07:00

This was my first adventure into the world of fabric printing, a result of operation wedding present for my buddies Darbie & Jon. Darbie somehow in my visual system has become commonly represented by a bird, Jon's nickname is cloud, and one of the prominent themes of their wedding was the ampersand. I thought these visual elements would work well together in a series of three drawings; they had decorative pillows on their wedding registry—bam! Pillow triptych. It had to be done.

The original art was inked by hand and digitally colored, and I used CafePress to print the actual pillows, which are about 18" each. The second and third came out lovely, but the green one was fail. {Reproducing semi-subtle variations in green is apparently not CafePress' forte.} The other hitch was that the pillows come with a horrendous white border around the art. I black-fabric-painted that business up, and all is now as it should be.

Here are the originals:

Fishies

2011-06-19T04:05:00.001-07:00

The Buddy Logo Project

2011-06-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

As a team-building exercise at work, we were paired with one of our colleagues and instructed to design a mark that represents them. My partner is an amazing designer at Nick Jr., Jasmine Wilson. If there is one word that captures Jasmine, it's beauty. But not only is she a beautiful person—she also wears beautiful clothes, does beautiful work, has a beautiful taste in design, and runs a beautiful blog. So it was this multifaceted beauty that I wanted to convey, and I thought a peacock was a great symbol of that. Jasmine is really into tactile illustration and paper manipulation, so it only made sense to cut it out of paper. Above is what it looked like with light shining through it—one of my favorite elements of cut-paper pieces.

Here's the finished piece; I really love this beautiful blue-green paper {Jasmine's favorite color}:

She took a cool little picture of it with her phone:

Heartbreakers

2011-06-06T04:09:00.000-07:00

{click to see full size}

Midtown Charm: Not Always an Oxymoron.

2011-06-04T05:15:00.000-07:00

#18

2011-06-03T17:39:00.000-07:00

Clearly my apartment door number needed some love.
Above: Before
Below: After

I Love Old-School Mail

2011-05-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

Not as Helpful as Everyone Seems to Think...

2011-05-26T05:18:00.000-07:00

Dumplings = Love

2011-05-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

Merry Errands

2011-05-25T05:26:00.000-07:00

By Land, By Sea, and Even by NJ Transit...

2011-05-25T04:35:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Not Nice is Necessary

2011-05-24T05:39:00.000-07:00

Walking With Friends = Yay. Dog Walking With Friends = Double the Yay.

2011-05-24T04:25:00.000-07:00

Friend-Life Integration

2011-05-23T18:38:00.000-07:00

Mercy for the Conversationally Challenged

2011-05-23T17:32:00.000-07:00

Even if Your Dress is Ugly...

2011-05-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

{In this case, our dresses happened to be quite cute.}

Sharing: Not Just for Preschoolers

2011-05-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

Notes: Soggy Cupcakes

2011-05-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

We just had the most adorable little cupcakes at our department meeting. Also, is it ever going to stop raining?

You Love Em Dashes Too?!?

2011-05-17T17:37:00.000-07:00

Patiently Talking With Someone Who Stinks at Talking

2011-05-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

To Make Me Un-Sad

2011-05-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

My Kind of Conversation

2011-05-17T15:51:00.000-07:00

Particularly in Manhattan...

2011-05-17T05:14:00.000-07:00

Part one of a new investigative series!

{I would also like to note that "not as organized as they would like it to be" is a truer description of the occasional state of said apartment, but I went with messy 'cause it's a much cuter word.}

Wedding Type Adventure

2011-05-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

Recently my pals Darbie and Jon tied the knot. I took a stab at some fun hand done type for their invites. Above is the whole pile together {you can click to enlarge}, below are the detail shots:

They didn't want to go quite so informal, so Darbie picked a few elements and designed a classy version:

They also used my hugging ampersands as their cake topper:

Little Red Wagon

2011-05-08T03:12:00.000-07:00

Lovely Textures

2011-05-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

Above: West End & 70th, Below: 11th and 38th

Rooster!

2011-04-14T04:24:00.000-07:00

Fuzzy Pictures

2011-04-11T18:18:00.000-07:00

I will never get tired of taking pictures of kitties. Some recent photos of my many furry friends:

My childhood pal, Tony

Oscar, my mom's fat cat

Herbie, also my mom's kitty

My moo-kitty, Milton

And my lovely Seymour, enjoying the Saturday sun

Behind the Scenes at MOMA

2011-04-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

Last night I was super excited to get to go on a tour of the conservation department at MOMA. This was the first time that common-folk have been allowed inside, a special treat a-la AIGA's current "Unique New York" event series. Their lab, on the 15th floor above MOMA's galleries, is bright, open, and evocative of a pristine hospital operating room. Our guide, a sculpture conservator, explained that they consider themselves more like doctors and scientists than anything else.

{a portable set of microscopes}

He had a ton of fun stories to tell us about the challenges of working in the preservation and repair of modern art, which is particularly difficult because, unlike traditional art, there is no common technique, medium, or substrate. They can spend years examining and treating a piece, learn a ton about how it was made and how to fix it, and then likely will never encounter anything made like it again. Conservators are trained both in science {mostly chemistry} and fine art, and have a ton of cool equipment hanging around. We got to see a crazy-super high powered x-ray, an assortment of microscopes, images of microscopic cross-sections, and their high tech photo lab.

{a little packing crate that I though was really cute}

They have a nerve-wracking job—often working on pieces that are worth millions and millions of dollars, and where a tiny slip or unexpected chemical reaction could cause what they call irreversible "catastrophic damage," but there are lots of perks too. They get to travel abroad with the collection when the museum lends it out, and they get to do artist interviews when they're working on a piece of someone who is still living.

{our host Roger, explaining why Jeff Koons' piece Three Ball 50/50 Tank is a conservator's worst nightmare}

A few fun tidbits from the talk:

• A long time ago, when a piece got damaged, they'd contact the artist to see if the artist was interested in fixing it. They stopped doing that because often the artist would go back and change things about the piece they had never been happy with—like completely redoing the composition.

• When they ship stuff in convoys of trucks, there's a $125 million dollar value limit per truck. So sometimes there will be a gigantic truck cruising along with only one painting in it.

• Charles and Ray Eames went through 16 coats of paint before they finally settled on white for their prototype of La Chaise. {We got to see the digitally enlarged microscopic cross-section—nifty technology-times.}

• Even the building's maintenance people have extremely limited access to the lab. If they're needed—say a light bulb burns out—a work order is submitted and an appointment is set up. Everything in the studio is moved out, and then, under supervision of a conservator, they can come at the appointed time and change the light bulb. And after they've left, the whole studio can be reassembled. The space is also constantly monitored by video surveillance, and patrolled by guard once an hour.

Amanda Makes the BEST THING EVER.

2011-03-07T18:24:00.001-08:00

The best thing ever?
Yes. THE. BEST. THING. EVER.

OK, Let me explain.

I LOVE these things:
LOOOOVE. LOVE, I tell you.
They're steam stacks—you see them all over Manhattan. When water seeps down into a manhole and comes in contact with hot pipes under the street, it causes a steam leak. This is a visibility hazard to drivers, so the orange and white striped chimneys are placed over the offending manhole to funnel the steam up above traffic.

And I think the are the most ADORABLE thing ever.
I want one.
Unfortunately, they are quite large. And not for sale.

Soooo...I proceeded to make one.
An almost life-size one.
Are you ready for this?

OK, here's the before shot. I have this white floor lamp with a rice paper shade that was just begging {oh, you should have heard it begging} to be transformed:
And I happened to have some orange tissue paper that was the perfect shade. And some giant sheets of corrugated plastic left over from a college project. And some white paint left over from my loft bed.

Clearly this was meant to be.

In all of its glory:

:)
times a million.

Also, I would like to thank my fuzzy assistants who contributed to this project by not eating the orange stripes or walking in the clouds while the paint was wet.

Initiation Rites

2011-03-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

{click to see full-size}Congrats, Chris. You're one step closer to being able to call yourself a New Yorker. :)

I Also Love the Walk to Work

2011-03-03T06:38:00.001-08:00

Snapped this shot on the way into the office today—the paper sheep currently chilling out downstairs {an installation by Kyu Seok Oh} make me very happy.

I Love the View from my Cube.

2011-03-02T14:45:00.001-08:00

The sunset today was just a tad bit marvelous. :)

Snuggle with Street Cred

2011-03-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

Impending Baby

2011-02-28T03:27:00.000-08:00

Colored pencil on cardboard.

Post-it: Buy Kitty Food

2011-02-23T09:29:00.000-08:00

I love post-it notes.
Since I doodle my to-do's, the medium affords many interesting exercises in quick-draw iconography. I was pleased with this morning's reminder to bring home food for the kitties—I may just keep it around after the task has been completed. :)

This is Not Going to End Well...

2011-02-23T03:33:00.001-08:00

Hello, 911? I need a new sketchbook.

2011-02-22T03:01:00.000-08:00

Meeting Notes: I love toasters

2011-02-15T10:03:00.000-08:00

Comprehensive Notes from the Production Meeting

2011-02-14T08:10:00.000-08:00

:)
Happy Valentine's Day!

Amanda Learns to Cut Paper!

2011-01-29T10:27:00.001-08:00

Since my trusty old magnifying glass, colored pencils, and I have been a well-oiled but uninspired team as of late, I thought we'd venture out and welcome my friend x-acto knife to the party. I've never cut paper before, but it turns out my hunch was right: if you can work a colored pencil, the learning curve for a pencil-shaped knife is not that steep.

This was the first one I did. It was an experiment with weaving & layering both positive and negative shapes to make a ribbon themed card for my friend Jason. The red layer is actually really beautiful red ribbon that I had left over from something:

I learned from that one that I was more interested in making holes than layers. This one was for my mom and dad. Here it goes on the cutting board:
And here it goes with some nice lighting—I think part of the interestingness of these will be to see how the recipients choose to display them:

For this one I used the initials of my pals Daniel, Diney, their son Mattias, and their dogs Camo & curly to make a pseudo-family tree, Christmas-style:

And this one was my favorite—for my friends Craig & Lisa, their names cavorting with little Christmas balls inside a giant Christmas ball:

Going Wireless

2011-01-17T13:37:00.000-08:00

{click to see full size}

Birthday Pie

2011-01-08T05:46:00.000-08:00

Happening Upon Some Fall in Central Park

2010-12-12T16:48:00.000-08:00

My stroll across town was splendidly colorful the weekend before Thanksgiving:

HEY! NO! DON'T DO THAT...Oh man.

2010-11-18T15:15:00.000-08:00

This should not have happened. We should not have had to stoop to this level, people. I should not have to bust out photoshop to get folks browsing a book table to read signs.

It's an embarrassing day for humanity.

The situation:
Every fourth Sunday, Tom and I man the book table during muffin hour at church.

The problem:
People get their muffin and coffee, and then proceed to meander over to the table and set their coffee on it. And then it spills. Every time.

Tom and I are miffed.

So in an attempt to prevent their embarrassment and protect our books, someone kindly made a few signs—respectable-get-the-job-done-thank-goodness-this-isn't-word-art 72 pt Times New Roman in black on some white computer paper—asking the nice folk politely to please not place their coffee on the table, thank you.

The effect:
People get their muffin and coffee, and then proceed to meander over to the table and set their coffee on it. And then it spills. Every time.

Tom and I are miffed.

Tom, being a retired NYPD, jokes we should threaten to punch them. I think the sign should be doing that for us. And so that was the goal here—a visual punch in the face. We want people to notice it and get it. BAM.

We deployed them last week, and are very pleased with the results so far—not one coffee made contact with the table! I think we'll probably need a graphical refresh down the road when people get used to them and start ignoring them again. I'm very interested to see how long these will last—exactly how long it takes for for a group to begin to filter out a specific instance of visual messaging.

But for now, mission accomplished.

Mattias gets Sprinkled

2010-11-16T14:53:00.000-08:00

My first time cartooning subjects in person. :) I drew/inked this during the baptism, and then scanned and digitally colored it when I got home.

The Best Abomination Ever

2010-11-13T09:06:00.000-08:00

Colors of the Greenmarket

2010-11-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

On Saturday mornings, there's a greenmarket that pops up in Union Square. I'm not, as a rule, a fan of things that grow from the ground and claim to be edible, but I did snap some fun pictures on my stroll through.

Another Pun'kin Season!

2010-11-03T04:20:00.000-07:00

Fall time = fun times, because I enjoy painting pumpkins. Here is this year's crop:

This one was for my friend Vanessa, who just had a baby named Owen:

For Zelet's, I decided to keep it simple with some web-entwined type:

I think Lois's is my favorite:

And I did one full size for Jonathan and Susana, so I would have room for a portrait of their golden-doodle, Surely:

Avily has Arrived!

2010-10-12T14:36:00.000-07:00

My first attempt at birth announcements! Avily was born and will grow up here in New York City—hence the stork driving a taxicab. I also chose the taxi theme because I could use the ad space on the taxi to incorporate her name in the drawing, and the rooftop dashboard to display the date—so the art is really personalized without being a traditional portrait.

This was a bit of an experiment in media—beloved colored pencil, meet my digital bff, pen tool! Let the potential synergistic awesomeness commence!
Here's how it worked itself out:

• I started by making a pencil outline drawing, and creating some textures {colored pencil on watercolor paper}.

• Then I scanned them both and used the sketch as a pattern to digitally cut out shapes from the textures.

• The shapes then got layered and shaded to make the picture.

I used inDesign to set the type, and finally MailChimp to program and send the whole shebang as an html e-mail. I think it worked out pretty well.

Nick Makes Things Too.

2010-10-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

Living space math, Manhattan style:
A studio apartment divided by (a ton-bunch of furniture) does not equal enough room for a couch.
But I happened to have aforementioned studio and ton-bunch of furniture, and I wanted a couch!

Master wood-worker brother to the rescue!

I've also been wanting a loft bed since I moved to the city—it's such a waste of space to have your bed on the ground! I gave my brother Nick a list of design demands (built in ladder, picket fence style guards up top, as little wood as possible on the bottom so light could get in, etc...). He drew up a plan, and we exchanged modifications via e-mail until my aesthetic demands and his insistence that it actually be structurally sound managed to be satisfied in one drawing.

And then he built it!

I am very pleased. We decided to paint it white (instead of a stain/wood finish) so we could use inexpensive, durable wood. I also like that, even though it's sitting in front of the window, a lot of light still manages to get in.

I found a super cool/cheap/well-kept antique couch on e-bay that fits perfectly underneath!

Nick built into the design a very handy shelf and storage box up top. (The pottery I have up there is a Japanese tea set that I made and fired myself in a very fun traditional raku fired ceramics class.)

My last alarm clock just died—I got this adorable battery powered one (yay, target!) to stick up there so I didn't have to run extension cords up the wall.

And the most exciting part? FLOOR SPACE! The kitties have plenty of romping room now!

And they can still climb in bed—they figured out how to make the 7.5 foot trek up to the top. This is Cerulean surveying her newly-expanded kingdom.

Round Just Got Rounder

2010-09-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

The pregnancy thing has become sort of an epidemic around here—everyone seems to be coming down with child. It was only a matter of time before it infected my doodle population...
{This gift tag for my friend Lisa was colored pencil on cereal box cardboard, a combination of media which was surprisingly excellent.}

Cerulean is Obsessed With the Toilet: A Brief Documentary

2010-09-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not very much into video—it seems to make my poor old computer want to curl up and die—but I couldn't resist this quickie:

Also, I discovered that though my all black kitty, Rubelet, does not photograph well, she looks great in videos. Here is a screengrab of her that I love:

Help!

2010-09-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

AIGA NY recently hosted a lecture by Richard Fine, one of the masterminds behind some of my favorite packaging design. He's one of the founders of Help Remedies, a line of products bent on making health care a bit more simple & fun. He's also a great presenter.

Here are my notes from the evening—you can click on any of these to enlarge them:

Adorable & Unusual Punishment

2010-09-11T12:26:00.001-07:00

On the Boardwalk

2010-09-09T09:43:00.001-07:00

Have point-and-shoot, will travel!
I've not had much luck in the past with my camera when lots of sun and sky are around {fortunately not conditions I encounter much as a city-dweller}. The pseudo-manual mode presents not a lot of options to battle my arch enemy, overexposure. Also, because I have no viewfinder and a screen that's pretty useless when it's bright out, photography becomes point-guess-and-shoot. But after some trial and much error, I seem to have found a go-to range of shutter speeds for outside outside-of-the-city. Woo.
These photos I snapped on a recent funtimes-trip to Ocean City, NJ, around noon on a very beautiful sunny day.

Cause for Celebration in the Cube 'Hood

2010-09-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

My next-door cube-neighbor at work is getting married this weekend. She is a great producer & cube-neighbor. So whilest I was fetching my free monthly truffle at Godiva (mmmm...), I also purchased some celebratory chocolate for her. Then I made this to wrap it in.