I feel like 2010 has been on fast forward. Lists are getting longer, promises are getting bigger, deadlines are becoming tighter and I haven’t had a real day off in over a month. And naturally, spending most of my waking hours in front of a computer each day doesn’t make for a very compelling Week in Pictures. In lieu of showing you photos of me totally glazed over, sitting in front of a screen, I thought I’d share my just cleaned office. On Monday, I’d had enough of clutter, piles and dust and went on a mad cleaning and organizing spree. It was worth it. Already, I feel much more focused. And, it had been beautiful and sunny nearly every day. Hello, Spring!

The larger painting is by my brother and the smaller one is by Joey. The oversized A is from a vintage Honda sign. My brother bought it from a a crazy hoarder who lives with his mother. I was more than happy to inherit it. Most of my furniture is from IKEA and Target. Some people organize their books by color…I do the same but instead with my shoes. Eventually, I would like to refinish my floors and make them black and distressed. My bedroom is across the hall and done in the opposite color scheme; all black with white trim. Yin and yang?

The always inspiring Kristin Cofer sent me a stack of the business cards that I designed for her earlier this year. They are mini squares and so cute! The backs are reversed – white with black type.

I love getting surprises in the mail! Swatch sent my brother and I some watches as a thank you for taking part in their Colour Codes campaign. There’s something so timeless about their style. I promised to share mine with Joey since he’s totally Swatch-obsessed.

I ran into fellow design acquaintance Jason Miranda on Monday and he gave me one of these super cool screen printed invites for the launch of his agency, Overhaul. Stop by on First Thursday and check it out!

Until next week,

• Find out how to effectively combine fonts from different families.

• Model Kim Noorda opens up about her struggles with body image via a very revealing journal in Vogue.

• Ad agency Wieden + Kennedy has a blog and I love the design. Beautiful type in the header!

• Beautiful food-related imagery is overflowing over at oh joy! eats blog.

• Design inspiration pops up in the oddest places. Behold vintage beer cans.

• How a web design goes straight to hell. (thanks, Star!)

• It seems rare that this topic gets brought up: When should you quit a blog and move on?

• Stop making excuses. Become your dream.

• Elizabeth of Enjoy Your Style just interviewed me.

• Will the price of clothes at the mall increase?

• The hidden meaning behind Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ video. Really? Someone has A LOT of free time on their hands.

I just designed the logo, flyer and catalog for the upcoming event Semiospectacle: A Literary Review, which will be held this Monday, March 22nd in New York City at Performance Space 122.

The curator of the event, Mashinka Firunts had prepped me by gathering inspiration beforehand. She’d defined a very clear visual direction that she wanted to take the branding and for as much work that had to be done, we moved through the process quite quickly. There were two strong runners-up for logo options but in the end, we felt that a more literal interpretation of the literary aspect of the event was needed.

Because the top hat / book logo is very bold and detailed, we agreed that the Semiospectacle type should be more clean and subtle. Since it’s not a word that registers immediately with viewers, legibility was very important – I ended up setting it in Gotham.

Once the logo was complete, the next step was to design an oversized, double-sided show card. Mashinka wanted an old-timey feel but didn’t want it to venture too far into a loud, vaudeville-style cliché. The biggest obstacle was trying to fit the abundance of type on the back while sectioning it off so that the viewer could see that there were multiple performers. While I used some decorative type, it is balanced out overall by the crisp, black and white palette.

Here are some of the type details from the back. For much of the tiny, descriptive text including the address, I used a combination of Trade Gothic and Mrs. Eaves.

The show card features a matte finish on both sides and measures 6 x 6 inches.

Once the show card was completed, I moved onto creating two standardized InDesign templates for Mashinka so she could create a catalog featuring all of the Semiospectacle information and performers.

We went through many rounds to get the layout just right. The Curatorial Statement and Artist Pages ended up looking very similar to these template options (the photos above are just placeholders).

These are the template details. All of the body text is done in Trade Gothic.

Of course, if there was an unlimited budget, there could be endless branding possibilities for Semiospectacle. I ran with a few concepts that I thought would be fun to use around New York City.

In Manhattan, there’s so much advertising space along buildings. I would enlarge the show card for mounted signs and brand doorways with the Semiospectacle type.

I really like the idea of blowing up the Semiospectacle type to grab viewers’ attention. The show cards would be placed by the doorway if they sought further information.

Extra, Extra! I also think it would be cool to make Semiospectacle newspapers featuring the show information on the front with artist details printed inside.

Ticket reservations for Semiospectacle have already reached maximum capacity but a 10 PM performance has now been added.

Here is the full show description and details if you are interested in attending:

SEMIOSPECTACLE: A LITERARY REVUE

SEMIOSPECTACLE.COM
 PS122

This verbal varieté strategizes the explicitly semiotic spectacle in a multimedia showcase of live art representing an encounter between  academic lecture hall,  poet’s theater, and  house. Its players cut across the disciplinary boundaries of scholarship, pedagogy, cabaret, poetics, and performance in an investigation of linguistic mechanisms of spectacular identity formation. Linguistic illusionists expose the parlor trick of transparent speech, conjuring floating signifiers that levitate forty-four feet above the floor. Costumes sewn from three million majuscules burst at the semes. The auditorium oscillates between reading room and performatorium. The linguistic turn transmogrifies into a shimmy. Curated by Mashinka Firunts.

PERFORMANCES BY: Vaginal Davis | Lord Whimsy | Dr. Lucky | Jeremy J F Thompson | Paolo Javier | Daniel Scott Snelson | Shonni Enelow

STENO POOL - AN INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE: Leesa Abahuni | Nicole Abahuni | Jen Zak | Matt Jones | Kristen Rhea van Liew | Fyodor Pavlov | Lawrence Gullo | Kyle Hittmeier | Lindsay Comstock

CODEXKAMMER: A FUNCTIONAL LENDING LIBRARY 
MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY: Grandpa Musselman & His Syncopators 


INTERTITULAR TAP BY: The Minsky Sisters 


ONE-MINUTE CURATORIAL MICRO-LECTURES BY Mashinka  Firunts 



MARCH 22ND, FREE 

Performance Space 122 
150 First Avenue (at 9th Street) 

Doors Open at 7:30, Staged Performance Commences at 8PM 

Reception To Follow

A huge thank you goes out to Semiospectacle and Mashinka Firunts. This has been one of the most fun jobs I’ve ever done – black, white & type-based; a total dream come true. If you attend the event, let me know what you think!

Auntie Nubs stopped by Wolfgang Manor to visit me last week and I sweet talked her into taking some photos for me. I feel like I have a pile of very similar little black dresses but this one caught my eye in particular because instead of buttoning, it zips up the front. Oh, and the jeweled shoulders remind me of Michael Jackson. Can’t go wrong there. This is going to be another super busy week but I am hoping to do a big design post on Wednesday of a project that I just wrapped up.

P.S. Yes, that is an animal head on our kitchen table. Inviting, huh? Thank my brother for that one.

I wore:

Glamorous Epaulet Accent Dress, Forever 21
Belt, vintage
Tights, DKNY
Necklace, headband & bracelet, Forever 21
Atacoma wedges, Acne

Hello, lover. I’ve wanted these Chloes since I first saw them on the runway but they were totally out of reach. I finally tracked down a pair that had been a store display in my size last week on Ebay and they make me feel totally Barbarella-esque. Perfect gear to wear in the white room at Wolfgang Manor. And, the socks I am wearing do have blue toes. H&M is so crafty.

This is a view of my desktop this week: Nixon Time Teller P watch, Luke Copping business cards, black key, Philosophy Vanilla Birthday Cake lip gloss, Moleskine Colour a Month planner and an Avant Garde necklace.

For two entire days this week, my world was consumed with pink, gray and black as I designed the first round of a media kit for a burlesque star. I can’t wait to show you the final outcome!

This has basically been my view for the last week. I am so inundated with freelance work that it seems like I live in my office…except when it’s time to go to the grocery store. I did leave the house to critique senior thesis projects at PNCA on Tuesday night which was super fun. I love seeing how other people’s minds work and how a concept grows and comes to life over a few months.

Yes, it’s that cross necklace again. I can’t stop wearing it! Forever 21’s accessories get me every time.

Yesterday, Auntie Nubs zoomed by Wolfgang Manor in her fancy new wheels and whisked me away to lunch. Mexican food. We had a meeting planned for Monday, but unfortunately our plans were hexed.

The meeting was very important – we had agreed to exchange black keys. And at that very moment, the Unholy Trinity™ (comprised of me, Joey & Auntie Nubs) was completed.

Until next week,

• Legendary art director George Lois shares the stories behind 12 of his favorite Esquire covers.

• Zoetica Ebb has mastered the art of making black lipstick look amazing. She has it down to a fine science!

• Smashing Magazine has just penned an entire article about toy cameras and vintage photo effects that teach you how to fake the look of these famous cameras.

• You know those annoying little stickers that are always on your fruit? Well, thanks to Chiquita bananas, they just got about 1,000 times cooler:

• Freelance Switch shares 5 ways to regain your creative joy.

• Eavesdropping in Paris. Pretty funny if you ask me.

• How to blog: choosing a niche for your blog.

• I absolutely love Once Upon a Time…The Alchemist, a post in which Krissy takes us through a visual journey of what she imagines key moments in The Alchemist resembling. I think she did a great job capturing the magic, mystery and spirituality that weaves throughout the pages.

• LVMH x Parsons = My First foray as a Designer into New York Fashion Week is a real life, behind-the-scenes account of my friend Gilda’s painstaking journey over many months to create an outfit with her team. The best part is that she explains the process, shows the samples and talks about the fittings so you can better understand what goes into a project on this scale.

• A total godsend if you’re a semi-new homeowner (like me): DIY Painting Tips, Tricks, and a Step-By-Step Guide courtesy of Making it Lovely!

Last week, I designed these double-sided business cards for Molly Crabapple. Molly is an award-winning artist, author, and the founder of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School that learned to draw in a Parisian bookstore. And, The New York Times once labeled her a ‘Downtown Phenomenon.’ We’ve met on many occasions and I can vouch for this claim! I thought the quote was so awesome that I had to include it on her cards.

The cards are meant to match Molly’s fresh new visual identity which was formed late last year when web developer Star St. Germain and I paired up to design her new site. And, it just went live!

I will share more site details soon. In the meantime, Molly and I have another project in the works. Her style and vision just keep getting bigger and better and I love the visual direction her identity has taken. It still has her trademark Victorian edge but a with a slightly more mature flair. 2010 is definitely Molly’s year! She is at SXSW this week and you can see her schedule here.

Taken from a Lady Gaga feature a few months back, I never tire of Elle’s design aesthetic and art direction. You can view all of The Typofiles on Flickr here.

My new favorite piece of jewelry is this multi-chain cross by Forever 21. It’s a total urbanized version of what my childhood idol, Mr. T would wear and maybe that’s why I love it so much!

Over the last few months, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Buffalo, New York based photographer Luke Copping. His images are sharp, engaging and stylish and he needed an identity to match.

Of his work, Luke says:

My images are all about style, creating it and changing it. I make beauty and fashion images that are elegant, unique, and sensorial. I love to apply the aesthetics of beauty and fashion to create quirky offbeat portraits of artists and musicians too. I work with clients ranging from the corporate to the counterculture who appreciate the high energy, humor, artful simplicity, and subtle alternative twist I bring to their projects.

When we started the process, Luke provided me with an outline of dream clients, magazines he’d like to work with and various interests to give me a better idea of the direction we should go in. Luke also likes medical imagery so in the end, we went with a red cross symbol made of L’s that could stand in as a watermark on his photographs. We did his name in varying weights of Avant Garde since it is clean and legible at fairly small sizes.

Once the logo was completed, I designed three introduction sheets for each of Luke’s portfolios for music, beauty and style. Each of these were printed on legal-sized white sheets with the logo centered.

Every month, Luke sends out emails with images of his work and a link to his site so we worked to design a template in both horizontal and vertical formats that could be easily switched out every month. These are actually digital but would look great eventually printed as oversized promo cards.

Moving forward, we just finished double-sided business cards. Luke just sent me a stack and I love how he used a gloss finish on the photo side and a matte finish on the information side which is helpful when you need to jot down additional information for a client.

Since the logo has been completed, Luke has pulled the branding through the rest of his business including his website and blog.

It’s been a pleasure working with Luke over the last few months and in closing, the above images are some of his favorites of 2009. Thanks, Luke!

Always and forever and ever. Another week, more of the same. Busy, work-packed, everything hitting all at once, multitasking to the max. April equals a vacation for sure. Vegas?

Issue #22 of POP Magazine is now out and the one page ad my brother and I collaborated on for the Swatch Colour Codes collection is featured. Thanks, Pop and Swatch!

Last Friday, my dad took me out to the famous Dan & Louis Oyster Bar which was literally like stepping 100 years back in time. I was in awe of the walls covered in collector plates. A definite must-visit if you’re ever in Portland!

In Portland, it really is true that anything goes. Having goats roaming through your front yard in the middle of the city? Totally cool. I’d prefer a llama, but that’s another topic for another time.

I am finally getting around to posting the painting that Joey surprised me with for Valentine’s Day. I definitely wasn’t expecting a portrait of myself and the fact that it’s composed of five separate pieces forming a red cross made it that much more special.

Until next week,

Modcloth sent me these Flipside Tights months ago and I kept forgetting to wear them. And, now that I have, I want to wear them with everything.

I am wearing Tiara loose eyeshadow by Sugarpill above. The photo does it no justice; it’s a super sparkly, intense Barabrella-esque silver that goes on with major impact. I’ve been wearing it as a base on my lids instead of white or a neutral. In the next few weeks I’ll be doing a full Sugarpill review and showing off some other goodies.

Flower headband, shirt and wool jumper, Forever 21
Belt, vintage
Flipside tights, Modcloth
Zipper boots, Minimarket
Key necklace, Star
Watch, Nixon

I am on a bit of a black and white kick at the moment and I blame it on the influence of this brigade of cool girls:

In an issue of Print, I found an interesting article about the evolving script logo of iconic department store Lord & Taylor, which has been hand-rendered for decades.

Also, a snippet from avant garde Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto’s storefront and branding was tucked away in the same issue.

You can view all of The Typofiles on Flickr here.

Yellow and I normally don’t get along. I don’t think I’ve owned anything yellow until a week ago when these shoes showed up. When I want to wear something bright and cheery, I stick to white. But, I am all about embracing change. When I first spotted these heels, I had the typical reaction that I normally have with anything Margiela-related. At first I thought they were weird, then intriguingly architectural…and finally totally unique and amazing! When you’re scrolling through Yoox and there’s one pair left in your size for a total steal, it’s meant to be. I plan on wearing these with everything (as long as it is head-to-toe black).

It’s been two weeks since I’ve had a chance to do a Week in Pictures update but a lot has happened in that time and I promise it’s worth the wait! The weather in Portland has been remarkably good. And, I’ve taken an absurd amount of photo booth pictures.

Over the weekend, Joey and I stopped by the Ace Hotel for some photo booth fun. The whole day was pretty over the top and at one point, we even ended up out in some far-flung suburbs.

These signs are posted over some building windows a few blocks from The Ace. Totes obsessed with that type.

Since a lot has happened in the last two weeks, some of these occurrences aren’t quite linear. I have to backtrack a bit and show off the most amazing valentine EVER that I received from Miss Mary Bee. Even better, she texts me when she’s listening to Tupac (we bonded over him while she fake tattooed my arm during our road trip). I love her.

I quickly snapped these during my last day at Nike two weeks ago. I worked with the Global Communications Team which was super awesome and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Thanks, Nike!

My favorite color scheme always. Thanks to photographer Kristin Cofer for sending me a cute mix CD and letter. And, she just forwarded me this photo of the business cards I designed for her! The Avant Garde necklace is by Plastique.

Over the weekend, Joey and I did a bit of shopping (well, I did). I am a bit obsessed with this white leather skirt that I found for $14.00 at an antique mall in Seattle. When the weather warms up, I want to do a more nurse-inspired look with it. Anyway, we were dead tired and the reason why is perhaps the best ever:

On my way downtown…too many times to count lately.

These are some out-takes of snapshots I took for a cute little online magazine project. The Proenzas usually reside in the corner of my office on a stack of NEST mags with bright yellow spines.

Since I’ve been working so much, it’s been harder to meet up with friends. I finally caught up with Tyler over the weekend (who just got back from a month in Germany…jealous) and walked to the 7-Eleven with him and some buddies. When in Rome, do as the Romans do?

On Monday, I played more catch up with my friend Jason. We met at the Doug Fir for breakfast (which was mighty tasty, I might add). The atmosphere during the morning hours is markedly different than the late nights sitting by the outside fire with a pile of mashed potatoes and a stiff drink listening to the drunken patrons’ hilarious conversations.

Jason and I also ended up at the Ace photo booth trying to re-enact the infamous Murder at the Mountain. Actually, we’re constantly trying to relive the week-long bender of Christmas 2009 but have yet to succeed.

This is the Ace Hotel lobby. Tres chic.

After The Ace, we stopped by Clyde Common for mimosas. I adore the impeccably designed menus and minimal atmosphere.

On a closing note, if you leave my brother and I alone for too long, this is the type of stuff that transpires. But, if you leave my brother and dad alone for too long…you end up with an eight-foot tall bear in the corner of your living room. I am truly speechless. Maybe I’ll show you sometime.

P.S For all of next week, I am going to be working with Nike again and I have a ton of freelance projects due. So if posting is late or slows down, that is why. I am thankful for all of the work but also very, very busy.

• In A Model’s Prospects: Slim and None, model Coco Rocha boldly asserts “I don’t do nudes, I don’t do semi-nudes, I don’t do cigarette shots.” And she says, “Everybody knows that, in general, a basketball player needs to be tall and a fashion model needs to be skinny, but how skinny is too skinny?” She has a point.

• In this recession, it takes a little more work to sell someone a $35,000.00 watch.

• The definitive guide to choosing a topic for your new blog.

• Art manifestos and their applications in contemporary design.

• The new issue of Lula magazine makes great use of white space on the cover. Instead of cramming a million headlines and a massive photo onto the front like many others do, its quiet simplicity speaks volumes.

• A brief history of Photoshop which is now celebrating its 20th anniversary (thanks, star).

• Steve Pavlina delivers another thought provoking post in How to Order. In the article, he says “The universe you live in works very much like a popular restaurant. You go in, you decide what you want, you order it, you receive it, and you digest it. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t seem to know how to order. Some are downright inept at it. They walk into this restaurant, behave like complete idiots, and they end up hungry and disappointed. Then they complain about the restaurant and post negative reviews online, despite the fact that the restaurant has received rave reviews from the most experienced food critics.”

• Looking into the Past is a fascinating Flickr group that compares before and after images of places. “Images are made by finding old photographs of places, printing them out, and then holding the print up in the modern day location that the original photograph was taken.”

• Freelancers, are your working hours jeapordizing your productivity?

• Lady Gaga’s rapid ascent to stardom has no doubt been helped by her penchant for using social media to her advantage. According to Why Lady Gaga is the Ultimate Social Climber, “Lady Gaga, with her army of nearly 2.8 million Twitter followers and more than 5.2 million Facebook fans, can move product. Since fall 2008, her digital-single sales have exceeded 20 million and her album sales hit 8 million, all at a time when no one under the age of 60 buys CDs anymore.”

It must be Watch Week around here. On Monday, I was waxing poetic about Swatch and today, it’s Nixon!

Last month, I was standing around at Nemo when I looked down at one of the producer’s arms (Hi, Megan!) and noticed this watch. Quite dramatically, I reached for it and demanded to know where she got it. I was immediately drawn to the solid white exterior and frankly, the shape (which to me resembles a Swatch on steroids). The Time Teller P comes in a whopping 19 colors. I’ve been wearing the Nixon Chalet in black for the last two years and figured this stark white watch would be perfect for Spring. So far, so good.

Readers: Do you wear a watch? If so, what kind?

I just dug up an old Veer catalog with some delectable type options and thought I’d share. You can view all of The Typofiles on Flickr here.

A few months ago, I was contacted by POP Magazine and asked to participate in a special contest. Swatch, the iconic brand of watches that originally launched in 1983 (and have gone on to become the most successful wristwatch of all time) is going back to its roots by launching a series of monochromatic plastic watches called Colour Codes.

I immediately agreed to take part on POP’s behalf because I’ve been a huge Swatch fan since middle school (I think I still have the neon splashed version my mom bought me in the 7th grade around here somewhere). When Swatch came out with the Typically Square model featuring the Swiss flag, I wore it for three years straight.

But, back to the brief. We were asked to create images of Swatch watches that focused on color co-ordination with clothes and surroundings and were given complete creative freedom.

For the advertisement design, my brother and I each decided that since we each had drastically different styles, it would be fun to each take a shot at one. For mine (above), I went with a clean and classic Swiss-inspired poster feel since Swatch is Swiss-based and the Colour Codes collection is meant to go back to their roots.

In contrast, my brother referenced 80’s Swatch ads with his design which tend to be very bold with contrasting themes and multi-angled designs. In the end, our submissions were tied amongst the POP art directors so they made a hybrid of the two which can be seen below. This is the version that went to print:

Thanks to POP for inviting me to participate as well as Swatch for providing the watches and brief. I’d also like to thank my brother for art directing, styling and taking all of the photos. Oh…..and to our beloved bear rug for so kindly assisting!

The POP issue featuring our ads should be arriving at newsstands worldwide right about now. You can view all of the Swatch Colour Codes entries on the Swatch website. Please vote for us under POP!

It’s been another one of those crazy busy deadline-inducing weeks but I managed to sneak away to the white room for five minutes to get some photos of my new Jeffrey Campbell Mary Roks wedges. Thanks to Joey for taking the photos. I am looking away in a few because in the middle of photo snapping, my brother surprised me by returning home from a trip to LA. He was touring stores and sitting in meetings for a reality show pitch and of course driving me insane by texting me things like “On the beach in Malibu” and “Sitting in the Standard Hotel lobby” all week. Whatevs. And with that, I am taking a mini blogging break for the rest of the week to get caught up on client work.

Headband, shirt and jacket, Forever 21
Knit vest, thrifted
Jeans, Kill City
Wedges, Jeffrey Campbell
Watch, Nixon