Linzie Hunter

I know this style of typography and illustration is very of the moment, but some do it much better than others and I'm loving Linzie Hunter's work. Especially the Spam project below.

Linzie Hunter's Spam Poject >

Buy online here > 

Muslin

Oliver was born with blocked tear ducts, which he will be having a small operation to fix a week after his first birthday in July. Because his eyes are unable to clear themselves of tears and dirt, it means they weep and tend to get gooped up and make him look like he has conjunctivitis.
To stop his eyes from getting sore (and looking bad) it means I'm constantly wiping away any fluid, and as a matter of course, have to clean them thoroughly twice a day (sometimes more if it's particulary bad) with cooled boiled water.
It means that even though he's now ten and a half months old, I'm still carrying around muslin everywhere I go so I have something on hand to use. And because they've constantly been around him, Oli is now using them as a comforter.

Because I think of muslin tending to be a younger baby accessory, and because it's acting a lot like a blanket aswell, I thought it would be nice to get a more attractive blue striped piece of muslin and make it look a bit more grown up.
I spent ages on the internet and at first thought it was an impossibe task, but once I included the magic word 'BABY' in my search terms I actually came across a few nice ones including these particularly stylish designer muslins.
They're Swaddling Blanket /Muslin Squares from a company called Aden & Anais - buy them in the UK from here.

If only I'd known about these sooner!
To be honest, they are actually hideously expesive so I don't think I will be purchasing any, plus the only nice striped one comes in a pack and I don't like the other ones in the pack. But these camo ones are pretty cool though.

When I was pregnant I found a multi pack of plain white muslins that I bought from The Nappy Lady as a very sensible, and very cheap option considering it was a pack of 10 - £11.99! They were also huge and have been extremely useful. I've since cut one of them up into four smaller ones and hand sewn some coloured stiching around the edges to stop them fraying.

I can't believe I never came across anything other than plain white ones before.
These are lovely too, and a lot more affordable. I might have to make a trip to Ikea tomorrow.

Google's logo

Google's logo today - Celebrating 25 Years of The Tetris Effect.

25 years?! I will refrain from adding any further questions marks and exclamation marks.

But really?!

Hel Fucking Vetica

Ben got himself this shirt a few months ago now, but it's never failed to amuse me since...


Buy it from Wire&Twine

Google's logo

Check out Google's logo today...



Very clever. And very topical for us these days too, what with revisiting The Very Hungry Caterpillar with Oli. It's also the books 40th anniversary this year. Last week I bought Oli this great little library collection...

isak posters

There is still some empty wall space in Oliver's room so I've got my eye out for some stylish child friendly art to go up there.

These posters from isak.co.uk fit the bill perfectly...

Jewellery stands

I always have my eye out for decent jewellery stands so here are a few that shine out...


Clockwise from top left:

"Japanese Cherry Tree" by TimothyAdamDesigns (on Etsy)
"Boudoir jewellery stands" on plumo
"Vintage jewellery display" on plumo
"Silver Jewellery Tree" by Menu (on WhereDidYouBuyThat.com)
"Red Dragon Earring Shrine" by psoriginal (on Etsy)

Lucie Sheridan

A few posts ago I mentioned a local illustrator here in Bristol called Lucie Sheridan who's work I really love.

She's done some great illustrations of local landmarks such as...

Park Street


Bath Crescent


Three Lamp Junction

This is my favourite, not just because the Three Lamps Junction is local to my neighbourhood but as with all the images in this series, I love the colours she uses.

Something about this one also reminds me of one of my other favourite artists Matte Stephens.

She also does lovely images such as these...

Growing Love


Peacock Dress


Check Lucie's site out here >

Style for Oli's walls

I love the fact that we've been able to put some great pictures up on Oli's walls. Illustrations by Camilla Engman that I've admired for ages as well as designs by Pushmepullyou.




And we were given this little gem as a wedding gift 4 years ago by friends. It's a doodle by an illustrator friend of theirs called Jonny Voss.


I've also got my eye on some others such as these Etsy sellers:

ABC animal set by JennSki


Animal Alphabet Silkscreen Poster by petitcollage


The Sensible Owl by John W. Golden


X is for X-ray by strawberryluna

Last day at work

Today is my last here at work with tomorrow marking only 2 weeks left until our official due day.

I'm sure in a few weeks time I won't even be thinking of this place and will be so in love with our brand new first born that I'll wonder what I was thinking of, but I do love to work and to create and would like to think that I'll be back (mentally as well as physically) in the creative working world - as well as back to making my jewellery of course!

I said a lot in this previous post so I just wanted to show some of the work I've done in the last year that I'm most proud of, starting off with some internal work.

These characters are part of a family used to illustrate our off-the-shelf 360 degree appraisal software called Carbon360.

I designed all of the branding related to this product including the logo, software interface, website, flash animations, brochures, all related printed items, exhibition panels - everything basically! The concept of these little guys started from someone else who worked here before me, but since then I've had to re-create them as well create this entire new team...


We also thought it would be cool to have some personal ones that we could use on our business cards and office mugs (can you tell which one is me?).



This is the new design concept I've done for our own internal site (you'll notice we've gone all web 2.0) which is unfortunately only finally going to get built during my absence so I won't be here to keep a tight grip on it!


And here are some other design concepts that I did for a few pitches over the year...

Are you the next great British designer?

"BBC Two and Philippe Starck are teaming up for a brand new TV series to find the next great British designer.

Internationally renowned designer Starck will be heading up a specially created School of Design in Paris.

Ten aspiring designers with the talent, drive and vision to create the next ‘must have’ products of the 21st Century will be given the unique opportunity to learn and work alongside Starck and his team over a period of several months."

Check out the site: www.bbc.co.uk/schoolofdesign