I've Moved!

I hauled all of my virtual belongings over to tumblr for the time being, please visit emilylaurelharris.tumblr.com or my new book blog, The Tiny Bookshelf. Hope to see you!

My Weekend: Girl Crush Minneapolis

We sat in the gallery and talked while taking in the beautiful paintings by Samantha French that are currently on display at the Soo Visual Arts Center.

Bright and early on Saturday, I headed over to the Soo Visual Arts Center for a full day of talking and making with the Jealous Curator and Jennifer Davis. If you aren't familiar with Jennifer's work, it's pretty much amazing. Be sure to check out her website and Etsy shop, they are both full of beautiful work! 

We snacked on colorful treats all afternoon!

We spent the day discussing the process, frustrations and successes of living a creative life. A lot of time was spent on the idea of success, and what exactly does that mean? How do you define success? At what point will you feel successful and what do you need to do to make that happen? The Jealous Curator made one of my favorite points of the day, that you are already more successful than you realize, and that you should always take time to celebrate each success along the way. 

We were each given a small Plywerk panel and piles of magazine clippings and scraps to dig through. Everyone made a little collage during the afternoon portion of the workshop.  

The day gave me so much to think about regarding my work, this blog, and how I approach my projects...Needless to say, it was exhausting, but in the best way possible! A special thanks again to the Jealous Curator, Jennifer Davis and everyone at the Soo Visual Arts Center for a truly wonderful day! 

 PS-I am creating a new space for my doodles, illustrations and other designs. I want to streamline Design Gossip so it is a bit more focused. More soon!

AIGA See Change Conference

 Yesterday I attended the  AIGA See Change Conference at the University of Minnesota. I really like the idea behind this conference, as it's much more multidisciplinary than some of the other design conferences that I have been to. As a designer, or really if you practice any creative medium, I think that it is so important to be exposed to work and ideas outside the realm of what you normally do or think about on a daily basis.

The variety of speakers was fantastic, everything from fashion photography to data visualization and one of the presenters even creates Rube Goldberg machines for a living! It truly was a fascinating and inspiring day. Below are some of my highlights from the conference.

 The conference kicked off with a keynote by the legendary original madman George Lois, who created the "I want my MTV" ad campaign, along with a billion other high profile projects.  He is a feisty one, for sure! The amount of expletives that flew out of that man's mouth was incredible. I purchased his new book, Damn Good Advice (for people with talent!). It looks like it will be a good read.

Joseph Herscher is a kinetic artist who makes complicated and comical inventions, it's amazing that he has made a career for himself from such a unique passion and skill. Check out this wonderful video of his work.



 A photo from Austin Kleon's talk, he is a writer, artist and the author of Blackout Poetry as well as a new book entitled, Steal Like An Artist.

All in all, an invigorating day that left me with a lot to think about. I can't wait for next year!

My Weekly Internet Collection

A short list of things that I found fascinating this week.

1. This article on The Book Deal about book jacket design.

2. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of the illustrated version of Food Rules: An Eaters Manual by Michael Pollen, illustrated by Maria Kalman (my idol). 

3. I am obsessed with listening to podcasts of Design Matters with Debbie Millman. She recently interviewed Jake and Pum Lefebure of Design Army. Have a listen.

4. I absolutely LOVE the cover of this book, and I can't wait to check it out. The book trailer animates some of the lovely illustrations by Carson Ellis (The Mysterious Benedict Society). Apparently the baby brother in the story is abducted by a murder of crows and is taken to the impassable wilderness. Sounds wonderfully creepy and weird.

5. I really want to make these Crispy Squash Rounds via How Sweet It Is, such an interesting idea!

Hand Lettering Inspiration

While searching the interwebs for a few nice examples of hand lettering, I came across some fantastic images.

I am absolutely smitten with the work of Katie Daisy, a fellow MCAD alum, isn't her lettering beautiful?!

Another goodie I found is the work of Jay Roeder, I particularly love his Biggie Smalls "Juicy" set on Flickr.

Want more eye candy? The work of Mary Kate McDevitt is just fabulous.

Urbanized

This evening I saw Urbanized, the new film by Gary Hustwit who also directed Helvetica and Objectified. The film focuses on the design of cities, and all of the complexities involved in planning and urban development. Who shapes our cities? How do they do it? A fascinating look at how citizens around the world are getting involved to improve the spaces in which they live.

Animated Alphabet

The Alphabet 2 from n9ve on Vimeo.

I am in love with this animated alphabet by Italian creative firm n9ve.

Cut Paper Fashion

The other day when I Googled Origami, I came across these beautiful cut paper fashions by Ralph Pucci. Amazing.

Fashion of the Future

I found this little gem of a video on Twitter and just had to pass it along. Predictions from the 1930's as to what clothing would look like in the year 2000. Fabulous!

Weekend Reading

With the long weekend in front of me, I am looking forward to making a dent in my massive TBR pile. Here are a few of the selections I will be reading over this final weekend of summer.

1. Just Being Audrey by Margaret Cardillo, illustrated by Julia Denos
I bought this not only because I love Audrey Hepburn, but I adore the work of Julia Denos. I highly recommend her blog, The Cinnamon Rabbit. It's interesting that a children's book was published about Ms. Audrey in 2011, but I guess she is just a timeless lady!

2. Scripts, Elegant Lettering From Design's Golden Age by Steven Heller and Louise Fili
Talk about a power couple! Steven Heller is the author of over 130 design books, the co-chair of the design MFA program at the School of Visual Arts AND a columnist for The New York Times Book Review. His blog, The Daily Heller is full of all kinds of conversations about design.
Louise Fili is known for her beautiful typography, restaurant design and love of Italy. Her work is simply stunning.

3. bon appetit magazine because the recipes always look delish and the photography is fabulous. What's not to love?!

4. Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain
After a fantastic, unforgettable meal at his restaurant while I was in NYC, I had to move this one up on my to-read list.

What will you be reading this weekend? Happy Friday!

Moveable Type Truck

Today on my way home from work I stopped by Open Book to check out the Moveable Type truck, a cool little studio set up in a 1982 Chevy Step Van. Funded through Kickstarter, the truck was converted into a fully functioning letterpress studio that travels around the country so people can learn more about the art of letterpress through demos, workshops, etc. It's a sweet little space, and a great project. Check out how an old linens van was converted into the workspace here. Thanks for stopping in Minneapolis, Moveable Type!

HOW Design Conference Part 2: Studio Tours

Before the speaker sessions of the HOW Design Conference really got going, I took a studio tour of six different design spaces around the city of Chicago. It was fast paced, as we only had about 15 minutes at each studio, but it was so interesting to see how and where other designers work. Unfortunately, I did not get photos in all of the spaces, but hopefully this will give you a sense of the variety of places that I saw.

Our first stop was at The Post Family, a screen printing/letterpress/design collective. Comprised of a group of 7 friends, most of whom have full time jobs, they use their space as a workspace and gallery and their work revolves around the ideas of collaboration and community. I love that they actively choose to spend their free time together making work and helping/inspiring one another even after they have been at their jobs all day. It must be exhausting, but so rewarding to be making all of that personal work!



Next, it was on to the Threadless t-shirt company, which was I very excited to see! I am a big fan of their shirts, and their business model is just so interesting. They don't actually design any of their shirts in house, all of the designs come from the general public. People vote on submitted designs and the ones that win get printed (and then the person who made the design gets paid). Their space is AMAZING. Each division of the company got to design their own workspace, so every floor looks different and everything was so colorful and vibrant. A great workspace, for sure! Plus they have two Airstreams, a mode of transportation that I dream about often.

Stop #3 was at Design Kitchen, an ad agency/user experience company. Their studio name came from how people always tend to gather in the kitchen at parties.

Then it was on to 15 Letters, a small interactive studio. They make interactive user experiences for museums, like the image below which they did for Walmart. Yes, Walmart has a museum and the studio built an interactive kiosk/table for them. They showed us this progressive map of the growth of Walmart stores and by the end the world is filled with yellow dots, it's truly terrifying. But the device they built to house this map is amazing, and they are a tiny studio of like 5-10 people!

Stop #5 was at Avenue, a branding agency. They help companies launch new products and websites. Most of their focus is on business strategy and brand identity, from motion graphics to packaging for a retail environment.

The last stop was at Grip Design, an agency that has worked with clients such as Bluefly and Rockport Publishers. They do a lot of packaging design and one of their founders, Kevin McConkey, spoke later in the weekend. He was hilarious, full of energy and very inspiring!

A full afternoon of driving around Chicago, taking in lots of different design work and studio spaces, it was tiring for sure! I love to see the behind the scenes, where the ideas come from, so it was definitely a worth while adventure.

On My Bookshelf: Pulled by Mike Perry

As soon as I saw images of this book, I knew I had to have it. Fortunately, one of my co-workers nabbed a copy for me at Book Expo America (thanks, Kay!). I have one of Mike's other books, Over & Over, which is also fantastic. If you are a fan of screen printing, I recommend this book to you, it's full of inspiration!