Art + Design // A Font that Saves Ink?

This post is going to be short and sweet but I just wanted to introduce everyone to the 'World's Most Beautiful and Sustainable Font': Ryman Eco.

Free Ryman Eco Poster

Designed by the UK stationery retailer Ryman along with Grey London, the Ryman Eco font, when printed, uses 33% less ink than other commonly used fonts such as Times New Roman, Georgia, and Verdana. 

I've already downloaded it but for all you designers who also think this is a beautiful typeface, go here to download it for free or learn more about it.

"Because it isn't just what you write that can make a difference. It's how you write it." - Ryman

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Thanks for reading! 

Curiosities of the Triangle // Artwear Designs

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting newly minted entreprenuers, Natalia Chavez and Lisa Myers. They are both currently students at UNC Chapel Hill and have together launched a business venture, Artwear Designs, a company that prints local artists' work onto trendy clothing in order to make art more accessible to the public as well as support these artists. 

I found them through an article written about them on the Triangle Business Journal and immediately went to their website: artwear-designs.com, promptly bought "The Charlotte" tank, and emailed them for a meeting. 

(I'm wearing 'The Charlotte')

They graciously accepted and I had a great drive over to Chapel Hill and meeting with them in the Venture Lab off of Franklin Street across from the university.

I was incredibly impressed at how young and yet professional both of these ladies were. They have an excellent idea, one that is unique and scalable, and are running with it. Even while being students. There is no way they are sleeping between this and their classes. 

As much as I loved meeting them and soaking up the inspiration that they were, I also really just like their products. The idea of artwork on clothing is not particularly new, however they are revitalizing something that I believe has a thirsty market. I bought a shirt after visiting the site one time. They are very reasonably priced, high quality, uniquely designed pieces and I didn't even have to think twice about purchasing. 

I'm so excited to see where they go with this and hope that all of you will check out their story and support them!

Natalia, on the left and Lisa, on the right

Thanks for reading and check out their website: artwear-designs.com!

Curiosities of the Triangle // Duke vs. UNC

I graduated from NC State and I am a State fan. However, I was raised a Duke basketball fan. To complete the circle I married a UNC fan. If you know anything about North Carolina basketball, this is a very confusing problem to have.

On March 8th, JD and I attended the Duke UNC game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. We were blessed to be given the hardest tickets to get in the college basketball world and were ecstatic. Of course JD decided to wear a UNC shirt to Cameron Indoor Stadium like a dummy. I think he might've been suicidal...

This is my excited face.

JD preparing himself for the crazy. In his dumb UNC shirt.

The tents in Coach K-Ville.

The Crazies lined up to get their spot in Cameron.

Waiting to pick up our tickets!

These crazies built a Sulamonster sign.

Trying to survive the crowd!

I spent most of the game on my feet. 

Duke won!

Even though his team lost, JD had to admit that it was a once in a lifetime experience. He even said that he didn't understand how anybody could beat Duke at Cameron because the atmosphere is so out of control and electric.

Thank you so much to my friend who was generous with these tickets! I owe you big time. Gotta love NC basketball!!!

Thanks for reading. UNC fans, seriously no hard feelings. :)

Art + Design // Handmade Packaging

I attended an AIGA event recently entitled “Handmade Packaging: Incorporating Artisanal Elements into your Design Work” given by Andy Kurtts. He is one of a few on the design team for the Fresh Market grocery store. One of his passions in design is to incorporate handmade aspects into a digital design. For the following four reasons, he explains why we, as humans, love the handmade:

·     We can see the artist’ hand.

·     It speaks to us.

·     It is warm and inviting.

·     Nostalgia.

All of these reasons point to the fact that the handmade allows us to participate in the design on a more mental and emotional level.

He believes, as I do, that even though design is trending toward flat graphics, there is still a place for the handmade. He also encourages us as artists and designers to create by hand as much as possible—not solely rely on digital tools.

The most fascinating part of the presentation, though, was his demonstration of applying this principle to his design work on a professional level. I won’t go into this in too much detail but essentially he showed six different products for which the packaging had elements of the handmade in them: (I included pictures for the couple I could find...)

·      hand-marbled sheets and hand drawings used for Italian chocolate bars

The top drawing was handdrawn and the bottom marbling pattern was done by hand.

·      watercolor painted fruit and hand-lettering for organic jams and jellies

Not the Chobani--the other jar (on the right) has the hand lettering and watercolor strawberry.

·      hand-carved potato stamps for dry salad dressings

·      ombre fabric dying for organic dry oats

·      painted paper strips that were cut down and layered as illustration for fruit on the bottom yogurt

·      Letterpress letters on boxes of pizza instead of using food photography

The entire presentation was so inspiring to me because even though, I am already a believer in the handmade philosophy, I had never seen it demonstrated like this.

If you’re interested in reaching out to Andy, his Twitter is @apkdesign.

If you’d like to see pictures and get more detail from his presentation, visit the Recap post on the AIGA Raleigh website.

House of Literature // How to Win Friends and Influence People

I read “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie for work last month in order to help me learn how to sell better. I just started as an account executive at Theo, which is a fancy word for sales rep. I loved this book because it showed how really we are all salespeople to a certain extent. Even if we are not trying to make money by convincing someone to buy a service or a product from us, we are always trying to sway people to our way of thinking as a spouse, parent, teacher, doctor, etc. Doing all of this well requires sales ability and this book highlights the foundation for being successful with it. 

It is also a very practical book for developing solid relationships with the people in our lives. The golden rule here is to put the other person's interests and ambitions in front of your own. This book lays out specifically where to do that and how to get better at it. 

So I made a mess of my copy of this book underlining everything. Below are five of the quotes I underlined that I believe challenged or inspired me the most. Mostly challenged though. 

Quotes I underlined:    **These are all direct quotes from the book**

·       So the only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it.

·       Even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15% of one's financial success is due to one's technical knowledge and about 85% is due to skill in human engineering - to personality and the ability to lead people.

·       If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as wells as from your own.

·       You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

·       It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow man who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring.

Below is my brain dump action list for things I want to actually do because of what I learned. I highly recommend this book for everyone, but especially for managers and salespeople.

My main takeaways:

·       Public Speaking class.

·       Practice asking good questions and being interested in the other person.

·       Make it known what you can do for them, maybe even present some of your own ideas. Then become wholly interested in them and their problems—even if it is unrelated to what you are selling.

·       Brainstorm creative ideas for showing interest in other companies/people.

·       Read more about the topics that matter to my customers/prospects.

·       List what these topics are and start finding good books/articles on them.

·       Learn how to provide value personally past just being their print contact.

·       Always strive to be a student of different industries.

     Thanks for reading! I hope this was at least a little bit inspiring for those of you wanting to be successful at moving people. 

House of Literature // Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Book Poster

Last month I finished reading this book: The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett. My friend Val, recommended it to me, as she is herself an avid reader and lover of great writing like me. Then before I could get it for myself, she bought it for me before I left for Memphis! I started reading it there and finished it in March. [P.S. You can read more about my Memphis trip here.] 

It is not a particularly light read. The book is 973 pages long and is a very long story with multiple main characters and deep development of each one. I love books like this because I can just dive in and know that I will be entertained for quite a long time. 

The book was copyrighted by Ken Follett in 1989. He is an English writer and is quite famous for his thriller novels in Great Britain. I wanted to write here a little portion of what he wrote in his preface, when describing how unusual it was for him to write this book. I found it fascinating, so here it is:

"Nothing happens the way you plan it. A lot of people were surprised by The Pillars of the Earth, including me. I was known as a thriller writer. In the book business, when you have had success, the smart thing to do is write the same sort of thing once a year for the rest of your life. Clowns should not try to play Hamlet; pop starts should not write symphonies. I should not have risked my reputation by writing something out of character and overambitious.

What's more, I don't believe in God. I'm not what you would call a spiritual person. According to my agent, my greatest problem as a writer is that I'm not a tortured soul. The last thing anyone would have expected from me was a story about building a church. So Pillars was an unlikely book for me to write--and I almost didn't. I started it, then dropped it, and did not look at it again for ten years." 

[Pulled from his Preface, Page 3 of Pillars]

I don't want to tell you too much about the story but it is the history behind a cathedral being built in Kingsbridge, England between the years of 1123-1174. Many characters and their life stories are developed in and around this village where the cathedral is built, some having helped build it and some are just associated because they live near it. There are battles, romances, villains, knights, kings, rebellions, and of course priests. 

As a Christian myself, I am very critical of how 'Christian' characters are developed in books. I was very impressed by how Follett captured the spirit of the main monk who spearheaded the building of the cathedral, seeing how Follett had previously described himself as not believing in God or being a spiritual person. You can tell he did extensive research in understanding how these religious men think and respond to difficult situations because he wrote this character very well. Follett also did extensive architectural research, proven by the fact that he could describe in detail the measurements and strategies of building a very complicated structure. A structure that is not built the same way anymore. 

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in historical fiction, architecture, the priesthood, politics, or just great writing. I absolutely loved it!

If you are interested, you can click on the image below to learn more about it:

Thanks for reading and if you have any great book finds you want to share, let me know in the comments below! 

Curiosities of the Triangle // Brian Allen-Artisan Printer

I recently stepped back in time and experienced an old art form that is starting to come back in style: letterpress printing.

I visited the letterpress printing office of Brian Allen at 923 Franklin Street in Durham, NC. .  I watched this short video about letterpress to educate myself before I went. That way I wouldn’t be completely clueless when I got there…

He is located in the same building as the Scrap Exchange in downtown Durham, which is part of the Golden Belt District on the east side of Durham. **Just a warning, if you enter 923 Franklin Street in your GPS it will most likely send you to the wrong address. It’s better to pull directions right off the Scrap Exchange website**

As you enter Brian’s shop, this is the inscription that greets you:

A PRINTING OFFICE

CROSSROADS OF CIVILIZATION

REFUGE OF ALL THE ARTS

AGAINST THE RAVAGES OF TIME

ARMOURY OF FEARLESS TRUTH

AGAINST WHISPERING RUMOUR

INCESSANT TRUMPET OF TRADE

FROM THIS PLACE WORDS MAY FLY ABROAD

not to perish on waves of sound

not to vary with the writer's hand

but fixed in time having been verified in proof

FRIEND, YOU STAND ON SACRED GROUND

THIS IS A PRINTING OFFICE

One of his vintage letterpresses is an Improved Albion that was manufactured in London in the 1800’s. The address engraved on the top of the machine, 121 Old Street, London is an address that still exists.

This is an example of the iron letters used in an old letterpress like the Albion. I can now say that I held Helvetica!

Here is Brian’s business card that he printed himself on this letterpress using the metal block of letters it is leaning against.

Nicholas Jenson was a printer in 1472 that produced published works including this page I had the priviledge of holding. The original book had fallen beyond repair but this particular page has held on to its existence since 1472. Simply beautiful.

Another beautifully letterpressed sheet. Brian used to have a subscription service where he would send his subscribers a piece of letterpress art every month. This is one piece of art he sent during that time.

In case you can’t read it, the quote he used says: “We are type designers, punch cutters, wood cutters, type founders, compositors, printers, and bookbinders from conviction and with passion, not because we are insufficiently talented for other higher things, but because to us the highest things stand in closest kinship to our own crafts.”

Here is Brian, next to his commercial letterpress that he used for printing wedding invitations, RSVP cards, programs, book covers, and other art for his customers.

Examples of his recent wedding program/invitation work.

This is his most complicated wedding invitation thus far. Interestingly, it was one of his first projects.

His wall of framed letterpress posters. Some of them are pages in books that he did or covers of books. Some are experiments he conducted for himself. All of them are exquisite. It saddens me to think that this form of art is not being given the credit and pursuit it deserves. I would hate to see it go extinct. 

At the end of my visit, we used these block letters to letterpress my name. I ‘did it myself’ on the Albion so I could say I letterpressed something!

Brian helped me a lot though. It actually requires a certain amount of strength to operate—strength that I didn’t have, so he helped me with the harder parts. I now have this poster to hang on my wall.

If you want to visit Brian’s shop yourself, you can shoot him an email at brian@artisanprinter.com or you can call him at 919.609.8992.

Thank you for the hospitality and sharing your very unique world with me Brian!

Art + Design // March 2014 Projects

[March] was a great month for design and art projects. I did several that I felt particularly inspired to do: one I got paid for, one was for a friend, and the other was for myself. 


I'll start with me...

I drew this picture of a feather one night and thought it would look interesting on the front of a notebook. 

So then I created this book using paper I had here, a holepuncher and waxed thread I had ordered from Amazon. I had to watch this video on Youtube to learn how to create the stab binding. 

Next I got paid to design and print my darling friend, Kimberly's wedding invitations and RSVP cards. We had a meeting and she shared her vision for them and I tried to capture that in this design:

Front of the invitation

Back of Invitation

Front of RSVP Card

Back of RSVP Card

One Sunday afternoon, I put together this logo for the Workplace Options Kickball team. They needed something to put on their shirts to represent the New Kicks on the Block team.

I put an orange background behind it and created a poster to go in JD's office as something fun for the wall.

Poster

This month was lots of fun. I won't have this many projects every month but just wanted to share what I did for March.

Thanks for reading!

House of Literature // The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Rialto Theater, Glenwood Avenue Raleigh

The Grand Budapest Hotel: when it was showing at the Rialto Theater...

What a delightful, colorful, beautiful film! I wasn't sure what to expect going in, but whatever I subconsciously expected fell far short. I love movie experiences, where from the beginning, I am engulfed in the characters, story, setting, and beauty on the screen. This movie, for me, was the very definition of this experience. 

Grand Budapest Hotel Poster

Directed by Wes Anderson, the story is set in the fictional European town of Lutz between the World Wars. Gustave H. [Ralph Fiennes] is the legendary concierge at the famous Grand Budapest Hotel, where many a scandal occur. He befriends Zero Moustafa [Tony Revolori], the lobby boy, and together they get into ridiculous predicaments involving the theft and recovery of a priceless painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune. The story is told by an elderly M. Moustafa [F Murray Abraham] to a young writer [Jude Law]. A fascinating, hilarious world of impressive moustaches, colorful characters, old rich women, crazy villains, and a scheming family, this movie has everything you could ask for.

One of the things I personally identified with in the movie was the thought that this fantastic story, divulged by M. Moustafa, would never have been shared if this young writer hadn't met him. There is just something about having his story recorded that pushed M. Moustafa to spill his heart and past out. All the pleasant and the unpleasant. Obviously this is not a true story. But, I must ask, what other truly fantastic stories are forgotten because nobody is writing them down? What about those?

I will say that this is not a family-friendly movie, so I do not suggest bringing children to see it. It is rated R for brief glances of nudity as well as some language. Neither of those things characterizes the movie at all, or left much of an impression on me, but they are part of it so be warned.

The cast list is also pretty impressive, with Jude Law, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, and several others. 

Again, I highly suggest seeing this movie for a fun, artistic, hilarious movie experience. 92% of critics enjoyed it, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and I already know it will be on my favorite movies of 2014 list. 

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think if you go see it!

Art + Design // An Interview with Michelle Petrie

I would like to introduce you all to Michelle Petrie, Creative Director of Petrie Creative, and overall just a fascinating, fun person to hang out with. I interviewed/made a sales call/ drooled over her studio (however you want to describe it) last week and loved it.

Her studio is within walking distance of Café Helios in downtown Raleigh so I met her at her studio and we took a walk to get coffee to start our time.

For a little background, Michelle worked at T3 Advertising in Austin, TX as their Interactive Art Director before moving to Raleigh in 2004. At T3, she worked on brands such as Dell and JCPenney, so she definitely has some big brand experience. Moving to Raleigh was a pivotal change. She worked remote for a little while, until T3 found another Interactive Art Director. She then decided she didn’t want to work on big brands or for an agency, so she started Petrie Creative.

And then we started the interview officially…

What led her to being a designer? She has always loved art, but it really started in high school when she was in charge of the layout for the school paper. Doing layout helped her realize that she enjoyed it and could pursue it as a career. That launched the design dream. She went from falling in love with type in high school to graduating from the University of Texas with a degree in Fine Art. One of her younger siblings passed away while she was in high school. This taught her that life is short and decided to chase her passion for design instead of worrying about making money.

What is her main goal when approaching her projects? She likes to take the little guys and make them look like the big guys. Not necessarily selling out to a corporate look but making it look like they invested in an expensive design that will gain the public’s respect. With the flexibility to charge less than agencies, since she doesn’t have the massive overhead associated with them, Michelle provides the best of both worlds: agency design experience without the cost.

What are her challenges working in the design world currently? Client compliance and education, she said. Her most challenging task is educating clients on the value of good design. ROI is not easily measured on good logo design or the cost of designing a marketing piece. She has had to develop an ability to sell good design, as well as provide it.

What are the main trends she is noticing in graphic design, particularly in Raleigh? Since 2004 in Raleigh, she has noticed the level of interactive design going up. People are also more willing to experiment and Raleigh has really embraced an innovative culture to encourage this. Raleigh designers are tiring of the corporate look and are running towards a handmade/handdrawn look in their art. One of the negative trends she has noticed includes the tendency to always go with digital printing, instead of offset or one of the other more elite forms of printing. Design schools are not educating their students on how to spec for offset printing or even how to find good stocks for printing their projects. The creative options offered in the art of printing are being ignored. Another negative trend is the increase of stock photography being used in design. Instead of finding an interesting door on the street and taking their own picture, designers will spend hours online looking for the perfect picture of a door. This produces predictable, boring design that looks like everyone else’s work.

What advice would she give aspiring artists? Experiment. Don’t be satisfied doing what everyone else is doing. Try out hand drawing your own font. Take your own photos to include in your work. Take apart objects and photograph them. Always be drawing/sketching/doodling. Don’t go straight to the computer when beginning a project—draw something first.

What are her other hobbies? She has quite a list of interests:

·      Teaches a strengthening and conditioning class at a boxing gym.

·      Restoring a sailboat, loves to sail.

·      Belay-Certified rock climber.

·      Kiteboarding

·      Will participate in her 5^th Tough Mudder this year.

·      Mambo Saki: her personal art venture. She is designing a coloring book with her illustrations currently.

Some Mambo Saki, produced on her letterpress with neon ink

A Mambo Saki Bookmark: My souvenir from the visit

 She graciously let me take pictures of her creative space. I even got an invitation to do some of my art there. I’m looking forward to taking her up on this soon!

She is such an inspiration to me: her work ethic, passion for what she does and the guts to pursue it regardless of the ‘risk’. Thank you Michelle for giving me a window into your lovely world!

Thanks for reading, please comment below!