Brussels

Off to Brussels tomorrow until Saturday. Being the organised/bored at work type, I made a cute Google map of all the places we want to hit. If you've visited, please feel free to suggest other places to me. I'm mostly looking forward the Belgian fries, picking up some truffles (both the chocolate and fungi varieties), and seeing some nice Art Nouveau architecture.

Photos and stories on my return..

Alphabet S

S is for stag, snake, skull, shoes, stars, spiders, swirls and splatters. Prints on sale soon, along with the C and K (in progress).

Following the playing card-hunting theme, I saw these clothing tags in Zara the other day and thought they were pretty cool.

Si Scott poster

We've just bought this Si Scott/Hype Type poster for our flat. Despite Si being a little over-exposed at the moment (a recent trip to Borders revealed that about 50% of current book covers feature his work - or rip-offs of the style), it's a lovely piece and a decent price for such a small run. Dunno where it'll go though; nearly all the walls in our small flat are covered in art already.

PS Saw The Dark Knight at the Imax last night. Creepy, intense, and brilliant.

Tony Meeuwissen

Another playing card illustrator, Tony Meeuwissen. Lovely stuffs, and check out the rest of work for sale on the Folio Boutique while you're there. Time to save up...

Folksy store

I've just set up shop on the UK-based Folksy (the name's similarity to a certain USA-based handmade goods store isn't lost on me either..). It's not as pretty as Etsy yet and there's a couple of bugs as it's still in beta, but it's easy to use and it's nice to have a UK-centric handmade shopfront.

Here's the link to my store!

New drawing - alphabet

I'm really happy with my newest drawing, the start of yet another series (and an ambitious one, at potentially 26 pieces)...



After the very Illustrator-based playing cards which required straight geometric shapes, this one was a lot looser and sketchier, and I used Photoshop to composite everything. I was going for a layered collage type effect and am pretty happy with the outcome. The C's pattern comes from some scanned-in origami paper and everything else has various paper textures. The watercolour wash in the background was made with some nifty Illustrator brushes. As ever, it'll be up on the etsy store soon - I think the print would be perfect for a child's room, as well as big kids!

I might take requests/suggestions for other letters..? S is up next, B after that I think, and K for Katie soon after, of course.

New in store & Tutorial

New in my store, greeting card sets. Choose from Tea, Cameras or Playing Cards. I had a lot of fun making these; the type is done with metal letterpress type and a stamp pad!

Also, if you're interested in the behind-the-scenes stuff, I created a tutorial for how I make some of my illustrations; you can see it on Vectortuts.

Pomme Chan

Gosh, I'm posting a lot this week!



Just found Pomme Chan's work via Behance - beautiful, especially the typographical pieces.

Behance

I set up a page on the Behance network last night, check it out.

Em cartoons

I love Em cartoons, probably the only thing worth reading in the London Paper. They're so funny, sweet and - rarely for a cartoon - relatable and true (almost scarily so sometimes). I'm pretty happy that I found the website so I can read the cartoons without getting icky newsprint all over my hands and having to endure seeing what Peaches Geldof got up to last night.

Latitude mix

Off to Latitude Festival on Friday with work! Thought I'd share a mixtape of some of the awesome bands playing.

New drawing

The very early beginnings of a new drawing. My next series for etsy will feature big ornate letters intertwined with things beginning with that letter :) I had to start with C for cat (and cake, cherry blossom, crown, cup, clouds and crystals), really.

Mystery Typeface

Anyone know what this delightful typeface is? I saw it uncredited on ilovetypography and it's perfect for the next project I have in mind. I'd redraw it anyway but I'd like a larger source image to refer to.

Edit to add: Seems it was sourced from an old - and presumably rare - type annual, but there's a bigger version here, which will do nicely for now. Thanks Frederik and Amanda for the help.

Greeting cards

A couple of greeting cards now for sale on my Etsy store. I had fun experimenting with 'fake' letterpress using my metal type - it worked quite successfully with a regular ink stamp pad. The effect is quite 'rustic' but I like it that way.

Target = blank?

Smashing Magazine published this article stating that it's more user-friendly to set your links to open in the same window, not a new one. I found that really surprising as I have always assumed it's good practice to open external links in a new window. They argue that users become annoyed with many tabs being open and the lack of back-button functionality, but to me it's easier to close a window than press back (especially if you've entered data, like in a search box, which then gets erased). I'm constantly right-clicking links to open them in a new window rather than overwrite my current page.

I set all the links off my blog to open in new windows because I think a user might want to check out what I've linked then carrying on reading my blog. It's not, as the article suggests, a sneaky way to keep people on your site. To me it's logical that any internal page of a site should open same window, and external links should open new windows.

How do non-designers feel about this?

Audrey Kawasaki print

This new print by Audrey Kawasaki is amazingly beautiful. Read about the production process here.

Why? Fest

I've been to see Why? two nights in a row in London (it wasn't originally planned that way; one was postponed because the bands got mumps and/or sustained broken limbs). I've been a massive fan ever since Josh sent me their song Fall Saddles about this time last year. I got pretty hooked on the Elephant Eyelash LP and this year's follow-up Alopecia is just as good. Happily the albums translated really well to a live gig. The first night in Soho was a bit lacking in atmosphere from the crowd, but for last night's gig at Cargo I was front row in the stinky little back-room venue and it was brilliant.

Lots more pics on my flickr.