Merry Christmas

Rica Takada

I always read the blog Grain Edit, which features vintage graphics. This illustration is a recent one but has mod 60s styling. It's from Japanese illustrator Rica Takada, who employs lots of texture and color-over-color to make illustrations that look like screenprints. Simple but beautiful.

Sanna Annukka

I love these designs and illustrations from Sanna Annukka. This artist is half Finnish and half English, and her work has a beautiful Scandinavian quality. She has an online shop where you can buy her screenprint and bags. She is also the illustrator behind Keane's second album cover, "Under the Iron Sea." I find the mix of folklore and fairy tale imagery quite beautiful. See her portfolio here.

Pearlfisher

Take a look at this new brand creation for chef Jamie Oliver from the Pearlfisher agency. Great use of typography and bold graphics to establish some interesting and compelling packaging. Oliver is moving from cookbooks and kitchen utensils into packaged foods and home supplies. Great work!

Siggi Eggertsson

I love the work of this Icelandic illustrator and designer now living in Berlin. Great typefaces and I really like his use of outlines to amplify and give energy to the letters. The digitized look of some of his graphic work suggests a rigid style but the curvy lines and bright colors make the piece playful and dynamic. Iceland must be a inspiring place! See more here. Just look at that E!

Carl Kleiner

Stockholm artist and photographer shares his work with collage, style, fashion, and painting. Lots of interesting compositions and use of color. See more.

Wallpaper* Graduate Directory

Wallpaper* Magazine's annual graduate directory is now available online. Featuring up and coming designers and artists in the fields of fashion, photography, design, graphics, travel, architecture, transportation, food, and perfumery, the site is an inspiring tour through some of the young minds of today's graduates. Interesting to take a look. (Above, work by Harger, Kern, Barclona, Lavabre.)

MAKE IT!

I love these retro-inspired do-it-yourself kits from Urban Outfitters. You can choose a screen printing or block printing version-- hey, why not get both? What better time than now to express your creative (not to mention resourceful and frugal) side?

Brass Lanterns

It's the season of candles and ambience. I love the handmade metal lanterns from Canadian artist Martha Sturdy. They're brass, with irregular cut holes. Martha's are very pricey, but we found these other similar lanterns that might give you all the warm ambience without the hot price. (From top: Martha Sturdy $200-300, Urban Outfitters $16, Crate and Barrel $79)

The Oxford Project

This is the portrait of Oxford, Iowa, from photographer Peter Feldstein, who photographed every resident of this midwestern town. That was twenty something years ago, and now he's gone back to photograph the same folks again and to update their stories. You can see the side by side photos of these residents in his new book The Oxford Project. I love this type of time travel-- just like the 7 Up, 14 Up etc movies where one documentarian revisits the same group of people every seven years to learn how life has changed them, molded them, moved them. Read more about this project here.

20 for 2008

I love year-end lists, so I took notice when Font Shop named 20 influential typefaces for 2008. See them all here.

Brandi Strickland

This is the third time I've written about Strickland-- I find her collages provocative and interesting. She handles the material really well and I'm drawn to her subjects, her editing, and her compositions. I'm still interested, still enjoying looking at these pieces from this Charlotte artist. You can see more here.

Holidays at three potato four

This online shop has one of the best selections of vintage and new products on the web-- all chosen by the Virginian mom and pop team Janet Morales & Stu Eli. They started the shop "because of our love of collections. We're collectors, and to us, all products and belongings tell a story." This is a great shop to browse.

Viable London

Don't know how I missed posting about these great "spiral Stools" from viable london, unveiled at this year’s london design festival. Part of thir new line of sustainable goods, these stools are made from cork and felt.

Lushpad

Lushpad is a great online market place where you can post ads for items you want or items you have to sell. Extremely well organized and presented, Lushpad is worth a look even if you're not in the market: they have resource information on trends, manufacturers, and design biographies-- even a great short film about modern American in the 1950s. This is mid-century nirvana and a great resource. They have a store in Phoenix if you're in the neighborhood!

Happify

From Happify in Minneapolis come these cheery 2009 calendars with a twist: on the reverse side of each month there's space for writing a note and sending them off as postcards to friends and family. Cards are offset printed in a rich chocolate brown on an extra-thick cream cardstock (5"x7"). Happy New Year!

Craig Anczelowitz

Craig Anczelowitz is a US designer living and working in Thailand. He has created a beautiful line of stationery goods for the Japanese company Awagami, a 200 year old washi factory currently run by the 8th generation of the Fujimori family. Additionally, he works as a ceramic designer and you can find some of his items at Pottery Barn and Habitat. Craig worked for over 10 years in buying and product development for Urban Outfitters and abC Carpet & home when he decided to make a life change and move to Thailand. His now works with several Asian factories to produce his designs. The Ribbon Stool (top) is one of my favorites. I'd like to have about 3 of these! See more of his ceramics and wood work here.

Eames Elephant

In 1945, Charles and Ray Eames --uber figures in mid-century modern design-- designed a toy elephant made of plywood. However, it never made it into mass production. The Eames elephant is now available for the first time in a plastic version for those it was originally intended for: children.