Favorite Picture Books of 2012

Hello, friends! As usual, it's been a while and I am a bad blogger. BUT since it's almost the end of the year (can you believe it?!) and it's Picture Book Month (yay!), I thought I would share some my favorites that were published in 2012. What are yours? I would love to know!

 And Then It's Spring, written by Julie Fogliano and illustrated by Erin E. Stead, published by Roaring Brook Press
-A little boy and his dog, (turtle and rabbit, too!) plant some seeds and eagerly anticipate the arrival of spring. This simple story is made wonderful by the illustrations and muted color palette.

 Sweet Dreams, written by Rose A. Lewis and illustrated by Jen Corace, published by Abrams Books
-Oh, how I love Jen Corace's illustrations! This is just such a lovely rhyming bedtime story.

 Olivia the Fairy Princess, written and illustrated by Ian Faconer, published by Atheneum
-Now you could argue that Olivia has become a bit a franchise, but I still love the books. The latest is one of my favorites, simply because Olivia, like myself, is sick of princesses! She has a bit of an identity crisis in this story because she doesn't want to be ordinary, she wants to stand out! Follow her humorous journey to answer that question in this quirky book.

 More, written by I. C. Springman, illustrated by Brian Lies, published by Houghton Mifflin
-Goodness, I love this book about a magpie who collects too much stuff and his little mice friends show him how less can be more.

 The Insomniacs, written by Karina Wolf, illustrated by The Brothers Hilts, published by Putnam
-A fabulous story of a family that moves twelve time zones away for a new job and has trouble adopting to the time change. They discover a whole new world at night when they are unable to sleep, and eventually find beauty in their new schedule. This book channels Charles Addams and Edward Gorey which is probably why I like it so very much.

The Mastery of Alvin & Elaine Lustig

This afternoon I wandered over to the gallery at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul to check out a fabulous exhibit filled with the work of Alvin and Elaine Lustig. There were almost 500 book, album and magazine covers designed by the amazing couple.

Alvin Lustig accomplished so much in his short life, he died at the young age of forty due to complications with diabetes. He lost his vision towards the end of his life and his wife basically became his eyes, as he would dictate his design ideas to her and she would execute them.

I need to go back again to fully soak in all of the design goodness, and I must order this book asap. If you like books, design or anything from the mid-century era, I highly recommend this exhibit! 

 

 

Artist Lecture: Craig Thompson

A while back a co-worker recommended Blankets (Craig Thompson's memoir) to me, which I basically devoured. It was honestly one of my first ventures into the world of graphic novels, and after reading this wonderful story, I will definitely be reading more of this genre. If you haven't read Blankets, please do. It's fantastic.

Last night I was lucky enough to see Craig Thompson speak at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He is so talented, my goodness! His new graphic novel just came out last week, and it is truly a work of art. Habibi took seven years to make, but once you see it, you will understand why. He does everything himself, by hand. It's pretty incredible to see the amount of detail and research that went into this masterpiece.

I Heart NY

I recently found out that I was accepted into the Milton Glaser summer program at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. I will spend a week this summer studying with Mr. Glaser himself! He designed the popular I Love NY logo, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2009. He is such a legend in the design world, it will be quite the honor just to be in the same room with him!

I found this video on the Milton Glaser website, and had to share!

Joke Books

It's been a while since I have posted recent projects, so here are some (not so great-sorry!) photos of a set of joke books that I designed for Picture Window Books. It was a fun challenge to make these covers primarily type driven.

What's Up?

Yikes! It's almost been a month since my last post, sorry friends! It's been insanity over here, but in a good way I guess, since some exciting things are happening. First of all, we are all moved in to our new home! And that does not mean unpacked, or organized, or anything like that, because there are boxes everywhere. But things are slowly coming together, and it's just so nice to be here that we don't even really care. Also, I have been designing books like a mad woman, as you can see from the photo, and that's not even all of the titles that I worked on this past season. I will post some (hopefully) better photos soon.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Inspiration: Penguin Red Classics

Perhaps you have seen these already, because the Creative Review posted them a while ago, but I thought they were interesting and wanted to share. Penguin collaborated with the AIDS awareness fund (RED) to publish these redesigned classics. Why is Penguin so darn good at redesigns?

Some New Work

It's been a while since I posted some of my work, so here are a few semi-decent photos of recent projects. I hope to post good photos of everything on my website soon, as I have about 19 books that I designed last season. I am working on close to 30 right now, so I will have plenty to share with you soon!

Katie Woo, set of 6-She's my favorite!

My First Graphic Novel, set of 4.

Wonder Woman, set of 4.

The Wonder Woman logo that I designed.

Ridgeview Riding Club, set of 4. I had fun with the patterns!

Inspiration: Penguin Classics Redesigned

I was browsing through my most favorite blog/source for inspiration, The Apple and the Egg, the other day when I came across these Penguin Classics redesigned. Aren't they lovely? I of course love the use of color and pattern! They were all designed by Ian Bilbey, who has quite the portfolio.

This one is totally channeling Marimekko.

I could never get into the Little House on the Prairie books, but I am loving this cover.