The worst thing about this time of year is the deluge of truly terrible TV adverts (Iceland are particularly guilty this year). So it's a pleasure to see this Walls sausages one by Beattie McGuinness Bungay that raises more than a chuckle.
Ooh, check out this Designers' Christmas sale in Clerkenwell on December 10th (4 days after my one so hopefully I'll have some pennies to spend). It's the same day as my office Christmas party but such is my dedication to designer festive goods, I'll have to find time to pop down.
via Blogvon
Looking at these lovely new stamps celebrating British design makes me feel quite misty-eyed and proud to be a Brit too.
via CR
More Christmas-list fodder from UK-based Rock N Rose - lovely vintage-inspired jewellery. Really reasonably-priced too; I'm considering buying myself a pre-xmas pressie or two.
I went to the Golden Stiletto awards last night with some lovely girls from work. It was the inaugral awards from the She Says organisation who promote and encourage females in the creative industry, headed up by Laura Bambach from agency Glue.
The 5 shortlisted pieces of work were all excellent. They were
BBC's Culture Show by Hyper Happen (my favourite)
Non-stop Fernando by LMFM
Samsung camera phone by LMFM
Virgin Bets (video ad campaign) by LMFM (again!)
Sony Walkman Project by Dare, the overall winner.
I submitted my portfolio site just for fun really, but it got a special mention from Laura just for being unique to all the other big commercial entrants, and she said afterwards that it scored pretty highly compared to them, so I was pretty happy with that.
Today I'm mostly in love with the work of Kareena Zerefos. As well as having a brilliant name, she has a rare combination of solid drawing skills with the eye for space and colour of an ex-graphic designer. Couple that with dreamy subject matter including pretty girls, cats, hummingbirds, and ponies - all my favourite things then - and it doesn't get much better. Lots more work including graphic design on her site, and you can buy prints too.
P.S For those with short attention spans, remember to check out my Tumblr for approximately bi-daily updates of nice pictures with none of these bothersome words getting in the way.
Check out the awesome holidays discount book from Notcot - money off coupons for some brilliant online stores, including my favourite, the Curiosity Shoppe. Time like this I wish I was in the USA; the Christmas shopping would be sorted.
I will definitely be attending the Craftwerk fete this weekend. Gemma Correll is selling there (I bought her kittens zine from etsy and it's actually my new favourite book) and in addition they promise "a fully stocked bar, cakes and other treats, loads of awesome handmade goodies from knitted cushions, an excellent array of jewellery, fantastic printed items, xmas decorations and excellent festive jams", so how could you resist?
Pretty little piece of work by Poke for Topshop. Based around a festive fairytale reminiscent of Red Riding Hood and a sweet interactive zoetrope. Have a play!
via Monster-Munch
I plan to shop handmade this Christmas, and get as many presents as I can from local small crafters.With such a gorgeous selection available - and the thought that you're helping a creative person's livelihood - why would you not? Check out Of Cabbages and Kings, which is an adorable little shop just five minutes from my house. If you don't live nearby, you can shop online - a small selection of the jewellery they stock is above. I'll also be buying from Etsy and Folksy, and the craft fair that I'm exhibiting at in December.
Or if handmade isn't quite your thing, how about world-friendly Fairtrade jewellery from adili? I love these pieces made in Kenya from vintage gold, the 'already worn-in' look is really appealing.
This month's issue of For Mankind mag is most definitely worth a read. The theme is 'handmade' and it features interviews with illustrator James Gulliver Hancock and the founders of Dawanda and Radici, amongst much more.
I found a bunch of old vector drawings I did for Threadless and various other things, and just gave them a little Photoshop tweak - bit of texture and shadows to make them look a little more hand-rendered. They came out quite nice:
A few more on the flickr.
Woo, we're the proud owners of these super gorgeous prints and books by Shepard Fairey for Penguin's George Orwell reissues. A bargain at £80 for two signed 200-edition prints and 2 books. (Thanks OMG Posters for the link and discount code.) So that's five Obey prints we have now.. we've run out of wall space!
I found this amusing old post on Cookie's blog asking if there's a correlation between a person's appearance and their blog design. He concluded that there was definitely a resemblance and I'm inclined to agree:
My wardrobe pretty much revolves around grey, brown and pink, which also happen to be the colours of my blog and folio. Perfect co-ordination, no?
Wow - gorgeous illustration work from Oksana Badrak. You can buy prints of her work at Thumbtack Press.
I've been steadily compiling a wishlist of jewellery for Christmas. Here are my favourites.
I just adore everything Erica Weiner makes. This hummingbird skull is a favourite - creepy yet delicate.
Another one for my collection of Russian Doll knick-knacks - customised necklace from Lady Luck.
Comfort Station have a little shop tucked away near Brick Lane and I love going to visit. It's like a mini forest full of curious and precious items. Top of my list is an mutli-strand and -material necklace like this one.
This Pelican pendant is so pretty. I can't decide if I like this or the Peacock one best. By Zoe & Morgan at Kabiri.
You can see my whole list on delicious.
Something bright and cheerful for a Friday - the delightful work of illustrator Migy. I'm in love, especially with the bus one as my old house was on the 253 route!
I'm definitely not a gamer geek - the most recent console I own is a SNES though I did enjoy playing my sister's Wii all weekend - but working with videogame clients must have had an effect because last week I went to the Eurogamer Expo, held in the Old Truman Brewery. 
I finally got to play Mirror's Edge, after designing its website and being intrigued for so long. (Incidentally, the Mirror's Edge site made a Smashing Magazine list of creative interface designs, which I'm quite proud of.) I was rubbish at it but it's such an interesting, unusual game, gorgeously designed and intuitive to play. I'm sure it will do well when it launches next week.
Sadly the 'Indie Arcade' was shut by the time we got there. In there you could play such wonders as Psychosomnium, World of Goo, and the fantastic-looking and -named War Twat, stills of which are above and below (from this video).
Old skool ftw. Although I do very much want a Wii now.
'm Katie, a web designer at Poke by day; would-be crafter / illustrator / knitter by any-other-time-i-can-find. I live in North London with my boyfriend and cat. On this blog I chat about any cool design / art / illustration / craft stuff I see as well as my own work occasionally.
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