Fabric with no purpose

Thanks to my sister and my mama, I indulged in some fabric shopping recently. What joy to my heart! I bought fabric by artists and designers I love and I have no plan for it. Only a birthday gift can be so frivolous. Of course, I am sure that someday I will make them into something beautiful. Just give me time.

Here's a tour for those who are fellow fabric fanatics.

The group on the left is from the Garden Party and Drawing Room collections by Anna Maria Horner. I follow her blog here. I bought them from Mountain of the Dragon on etsy.

The four in the center are called Alegria and they are by illustrator Geninne D. Zlatkis. They might look familiar to you because they are the very same birdies I did the sunroom curtains in! I love/adore Genine's blog and highly recommend it and her beautiful peek into her art and her life in Mexico. I bought these from Blije Olifantje on etsy. I should mention that Genine herself has a shop on etsy too. Strange to think I have yet to buy a piece of her artwork!

The one tucked up in the upper right corner of the photo was found by patiently scrolling through page after page of search results for "feather fabric." You know I love feathers and birdies! This fabric is also done by an illustrator: Katherine Codega. She sells her own work on etsy.

Amazing illustrations and a magical story…

Are you sure this is an annual report?

Cover spread from GRPL 2012 Annual Report; illustration by Kate Wheeler

The Grand Rapids Public Library's 2012 annual report is ready for online viewing.

Thanks to the amazing illustrations by Kate Wheeler of Rat Girl Studios (she also happens to be on staff at the library!), we've published an annual report that really doesn't look much like an annual report at all. And I mean that as the very highest compliment!

Taking the barest of outlines as her starting point, Kate ran with it and developed rich concepts and lovely, magical illustrations that sweep the reader right into the drama.

"Branches" illustration by Kate Wheeler

I only give myself the barest of credit for laying out the type nicely. Kudos really belong to Kate for this one!

princess party tablecloth

One thing I always beeline for in antique shops is the stacks of linens. I am curious about old quilts, interested in embroidery, amused by aprons, and always on the hunt for a tablecloth for my big old dining room table.

This fabulous find is a girly pink with a metallic gold and silver pattern on the sides! Since I have two daughter, one who is very girly and one who has yet to voice an opinion on such matters, I can easily envision this being put to good use come birthday party time.

It even had the original tag still on it! Love the vintage style illustration!

love this poster

Have any of my fellow Grand Rapidians seen this promotion lately? I love the colors, I love the illustrations, I love the layering, I love the playful typography. Woo hoo for good design. And for shopping local – my mom and I hit up the UICA Artist's Market, the shops at MoDiv, and a few more on Cherry Street on Saturday. We never made it to the mall and that was perfectly fine.

GR Reads 2011

The last big thing I completed before my maternity leave from my job as a graphic designer at the Grand Rapids Public Library was promotional pieces for this summer's GR Reads. It's a summer reading program for adults and this year's theme is good vs. evil.

My first inclination was to do a design in stark black and white. Or perhaps using some gray to represent the so-called gray area. Maybe a fuzzy border between the black and white? Perhaps the words "good" and "evil" and reflections of each other? Linked? Grown together? Is the line between the fuzzy or solid? I had many many visions, sketches, and drafts. And nothing was pleasing me.

Then I thought some more about GR Reads, the overall program, and realized that it was supposed to be fun. Sure, some of the books are obviously going to be serious in nature, but the point is for all of us to have some fun reading and go to some interesting programs. It's summertime, not homework time.

So I switched directions, introduced some bright color (I do love our color palette), added an outsider font and created an illustration for the theme that's just a touch lighthearted (reusing and modifying characters from the font, I might add). At last, a design solution I am pleased with!

Tah-dah!

Charley Harper fan

His subject matter was most often animals illustrated in a beautiful, simple, modern style uniquely his own. I really really like it. Check out the book on his life, the adorable children's books, the 2011 calendar, and the official website.

And I just found these fun alphabet flashcards!

cover art

These are the covers of catalogs put out by book publishers. I love them all for different reasons.

The top one is a catalog of fashion-related books. I love the messiness on the wide brushstrokes, the way they are almost abstract but so carefully capture the movement of the figures. Repetition is a design tool that always works well.

The middle one has some intricate illustration that I always admire. I like that it appears to be a doodle in black ink later filled in with color. And who doesn't admire hand-drawn typography? The bottom one is a photograph of some kind of embroidery – a handicraft way beyond my skill level. Just gorgeous.

love this artist

Oh the joy of wandering the web and discovering someone new! She sells her prints on etsy. Here's her blog. Here's an interview with her. The work is lovely! So many things I love – the subject matter (very nature based), the colors, her style of illustration. Immediately I am imagining places for them all over my house!

Gennine, you have a fan in me!

free stuff

We sent a few librarians to Book Expo and they sent back boxes of goodies from publishers. Lots and lots of book bags (but of course!) were up for the grabs. I was very attracted the bold zebra. The two side panels are in zebra print. The teal one has a fun illustration style that appealed to me. The opposite side has an open book with pages (not sprouting the illustrations).

Just a bit of recent inspiration. Anything I lay my eyes on could come out again as art. You just never know!