Pantone Pink 219C BARBIE! A holiday must-have.

LOVE LOVE everything Marimekko. I've always been drawn to bold colors and oversized abstracted prints. 

I wish I knew about this sooner!

An entire show derived from 'shit people say in new york' transformed into artistic letterpress.

link from LBNY

Thought this printed piece from Primitive Colors was quite appropriate before my trip to Chicago tomorrow. It really captures that old town Chicago feel that is the Pump Room.

simple, creative type solution. love.

Missoni Mayhem

My mom called me 'insane' when I emailed her from work with my Missoni for Target wish list the night before the opening. I probably shouldn't tell people that I had her go to Target first thing in the a.m. to snag my must-have items, seeing that I'm a grown ass woman and all. I guess this is one of the perks of getting older and having retired parents living in a town like Tucson where the Missoni collection surely wasn't picked over within the first few hours of arriving on the shelves. Everywhere else  it was tagged by the media as 'Missoni Mayhem'. Here are some of my souvenirs;

 Recently high-end designers have been creating lines of their clothing to sell at a cheaper price for lower-end stores. Between the buzz that surrounds these events, the idea that the collections are limited edition and will fly off the shelves and wesbite, people are eating it up. 

ad in Vogue

Lanvin for H&M, Valentino for Gap, and Rodarte for Target are some of the partnerships that have caused this concept in fashion to snowball into things like Missoni Mayhem. While some people think of it as a way to make money by selling whatever they can on ebay, I enjoy it for the thrill. It's a smart and fun way to enhance any wardrobe or home. If you agree then get ready because Versace is collaborating  with H&M this November. See you there --unless you have to be at work...then you can email my mom.

Pinterested

For the last few months I have been pinning my way through pages and pages of quotes, photographs, DIY projects, interior design ideas and all things inspirational. The website Pinterest.com allows you to pin any image you find on the web and it will get posted onto a main board. From here, you can repin things you find on the main board, to your own personalized boards kind of like bookmarks but easier to view. My boards right now are; SNAP, ADs, Interior D, Must Make, Wannabe, Yum, Partay, and Art+Inspiration.

 I cannot wait to act on my Must Make board; it's given me so many crafting ideas. I plan on filling up a few carts of supplies tomorrow at the Moskatels & Crafts warehouse downtown LA. Thank goodness it's a long weekend.

Book shelves

DIY terracotta cake plates that I plan on spray painting

An instant pick-me-up....

Mark Rothko, White Center,1950, Private Collection

It's Getting Real in the Whole Foods Parking Lot

Today I read the Ad Age article about a former employee's resignation letter from Whole Foods, 'Has Whole Foods Really Become a 'Faux Hippy Wal-Mart'?'. The letter caused a lot of attention within the first few hours it was posted. Here's a snippet from the letter that Ad Age provided;

Dear [REDACTED], I don't think you could calm down enough and become a happy, tolerable person if you were to do yoga in a hot spring while high on ecstasy. Daily. For the rest of your life. Just wouldn't happen. I haven't met a single person working under you or who has worked under you who doesn't loath the way you treat people. Your job doesn't matter AT ALL. Get over it, relax and start treating people with a shred of respect. Chances are, you'll improve a lot of lives. Possibly even your own. I do have a suspicion that you're a sociopath though. Especially now, after seeing your reaction to you-know-who's hospital visit. If that is the case, this was futile. May I suggest some acting classes? You're not very good at pretending to be a complete, emotional, sincere human being....And I'll throw this out to Whole Foods employees -- is there a quinoa of truth to what he's saying? Email me.


A few weeks ago I was introduced to a You Tube video poking fun at the Whole Foods near my house in Santa Monica. While it was mainly pointing out the cluster of a parking lot, the 2,290,213 views of the video makes it clear that the shopper stereotypes portrayed (girl in yoga pants, iphones, being upset when WF took Kombucha off the shelf)  hit a sweet spot of familiarity for shoppers nationwide.


SO with all the media buzz, what will WF do to maintain a solid brand reputation? People, including myself, flock to WF because of its cleanliness; store and food. I don't want these bloggers and you tubers ruining my squeaky clean perception of the only grocery store I can tolerate within a 25 mile radius. 

carmageddon

I've been quite entertained with the media buzz surrounding car-mageddon. Most recently this JetBlue airfare deal featuring $4 one way flights from Long Beach to Burbank.

Too bad I'd have to take the 405 to get to the Burbank or the Long Beach airport. I think I'll be parking it at home in Santa Monica this weekend. 

Google Doodle

Check out the Google Doodle today honoring the 96th birthday of Les Paul. When you go to google.com click on the guitar icon on the top. You can play a song on the 10-string guitar, record it and email your song using the url that's given.

Historically Hardcore campaign

A few months ago Design Milk posted a campaign by two portfolio school students. It's gotten a lot of buzz and I can see why. Love it.

read more

Because you Suck at Making Margaritas

I love this banner ad and not because I love margaritas so much.

http://www.bannerblog.com.au/2010/07/cuervo_margarita_fail.php

Old Spice campaign

I was wondering what was going to be next for Old Spice. I'm guessing most people prefer the original spokesguy, Mustafa, but I think this one is even better. This guy may not convey that muscle manly character in the same way but I think it's refreshing and still so funny.

Feel Like a Man spot

Books for Lunch

An idea of what my faux 

fireplace looked like.

If you know me- you know I'm a book junky. I mostly love to browse through coffee table and art books for inspiration but will also throw in a few randoms. If I'm having a slow day at work or need an idea for a new project, I'll bring my sketchbook and scour the bookstore for something to spark an idea. My cousin who loves food always asks me what I ate for lunch. I often find myself telling her that I went to Hennessy and Ingalls, my favorite bookstore in Santa Monica, for a long lunch. We have a running joke that I 'eat books' for lunch.

I also love textbooks and history books. Most of my college friends used to buy their books for show and then sell them after the semester was over. I on the other hand would read them cover to cover and then add them to the decorative pile in my faux fireplace.

                  

Read this if you like to laugh. It's 

about a writer and daughter of an 

ad exec growing up in New York.

The stack of spines on my floor currently reads something like this; Ancient Greek Art History, World Art, My Prescription for Antidepressive Living by Jonathon Adler, The History of Photography, The History of the Vietnam War, 1776, Hue by Kelly Wearstler, Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, Asian Art History, The Kennedy Curse, and most recently Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut.

Little Pixel Studio

Since moving to LA, I've started a side hobby/jobby designing invitations for large and small events. Here are some recent examples. 

digital invite for denim company

digital invitation for private jet event

bridal shower paper invitation set with info and recipe cards

Feast of Fine Art

I've had a few requests for samples of my artwork. Here is a mix of paintings, drawings and photos ranging from college to present day.

b+w film photography 

  

 Farm Series, b+w film photography

These photos were taken at my aunt's house in Hinsdale. I love taking photographs there because every time I visit I find something new to capture. These are a few of my favorite photos because the lighting on this day was perfectly overcast and I dramatized the contrast.

Figure drawings, charcoal

My favorite college courses were figure drawing. There's something intriguing about the challenge of capturing the values and lines of the human figure.

Tokyo, oil on canvas

After a trip to Asia I was inspired to turn some of my favorite photos into paintings.

Flower Abstract, oil on canvas

I make a lot of simple abstract paintings. This drippy flower became a hit with my friends and I've made many like it in various colors. 

Before my first running footage shoot for Acura, I saw this work for Ferrari. While it is quite inspirational I think the location and the helicopter didn't hurt. None the less, it's pretty awesome.

Take a look; 

Ferrari Running Footage

iMeet commercials

I love anything involving history and think the iMeet commercials are pretty clever. This one is my favorite.

iMeet: World's Greatest Meetings - Forefathers

It's a Draw

My preferred medium used to be a good old fashion pencil and some newsprint. I loved figure drawing so much in college that I took all levels of it...and then repeated a few just for fun. Now a days it's all about the computer and CS..5. While in advertising this makes life A LOT easier, I came across an image that made me miss my old old hobby and all that it stands for...

What is the Internet!?

Today Show 1994...

Starbucks

It's always very scary when something you are so familiar with changes with little or no warning. My friend Trina brought this new Starbucks logo change to my attention today. At first I was upset about the change until I stared at the logo for a while. It's pretty genius for BBDO/Starbucks to not only update the logo but take away the company name leaving just the bold looking symbol. Now my attitude is that 'it's about time' for Starbucks to have a recognizable design like the swoosh, golden arches or apple. This logo is a good transition for them to expand their products from just coffee.