On March 12th, at Mad At Gallery in St. Louis, AIGA is hosting an event in support of The American Heart Association. Everyone at the studio plans to attend. I even have artwork in the show, which we be for sale along with other artists and designers in St. Louis and around the country.

Visit the website: http://www.stlouis.aiga.org/lovecrush.

We’ve created a new brand campaign for Ecomate®. We’re helping our client spread the word about their environmentally friendly product. This features the ad campaign only, but tradeshow graphics and new literature are in the works.

View it now! Go to the portfolio section and click on the leaf image.

While transferring a VHS to digital, I found this old video that includes some stop motion animation that I did in high school at the West Virginia Governor’s Honors Academy.

My friend Rob Deters did the Marcel Marceau bit at the beginning by scratching a strip of film. I can take credit for the claymation worm and the apple. It’s from 1995, so I don’t remember who did the rest.

It’s not Pixar, but enjoy.

Oh my gosh! Where has January gone? It has been foggy, snowy and gray for almost the whole month and it’s been hard to get inspired. We’ve also started several big projects (yay for us). I promise to post something interesting soon!

I sat down to watch Heroes last night and as my husband advanced through commercials on our Tivo, I noticed one of the NBC network promos in slow-mo. Now, normally, I would see this in its original speed, but when it moved slowly I could really appreciate each and every movement, transition and thought in color. I typically don’t design a lot of motion, but this little 10 second ditty truly inspired me.

The three screens you see below are the ones I captured best with the iPhone. It transitioned through all colors of the NBC logo, moving from monochromatic, to the next color, to the next. If you have a DVR, check it out next time you’re watching something on the NBC network.

Yes, it’s that time of year where all you see are holiday colors. Everywhere you go, it’s red, green and gold - too flashy and too much. So to my surprise, when I entered the doors of Bloomingdales Home Store on Wabash Avenue in Chicago, all I saw was a nice, serene green. This wasn’t your normal Christmas green, it had a lightness yet boldness to it. Paired with black & white, this pop of color was utterly stunning, transforming the entire store into a calming yet festive mood.

I also noticed this message, shouting out to me very clearly, “No pictures allowed except for specific written consent…” or something to the affect. All I can share are my descriptions of the inside and pictures of the outside building and display windows.

This building is unique – a massive, domed space called The Medina Temple. The 140,000-square-foot property had been owned by the Shriners, but was out-of-date for its original purpose as an auditorium and was unused. Beautiful stained glass windows adorn the inside and out and a similar green appears as one of the many colors present in the design.

What a difference really good design can make. Everything in the store clearly had its place, nothing cluttered or overworked. There are three levels - I especially loved the long draped fabric against the wall, presenting the escalators. A nice glow of green light cast its spell for the perfect ambiance.

Walking along the streets of Chicago after our movie outing, I spotted a wonderful painting in a huge gallery. The color and texture captivated me. Thankfully it was lit well so my iPhone did an okay job. If you had to give the face a name, what would it be? I’m thinking “Raúl”.

A Ferris Wheel Made out of Plastic

Last night, while waiting to be seated for Avatar at the IMAX 3-D theater, my husband and I had time to kill looking around at the various tourist shops at Navy Pier in Chicago. We ran across this replica of the Pier’s ferris wheel. It was quite stunning - there were seats too and everything was moving round and a round. My photo does not do it justice. You can by all the kits to make one yourself, for the low price of $500.

A few months ago They Might Be Giants released a DVD/CD set titled Here Comes Science. They have videos with great animation to accompany all of the songs, but my favorite is Meet the Elements. As with most of the songs and videos, it’s catchy, simple and graphically appealing.

Here are two more older educational videos that will help you learn multiplication on completely different scales.

Three is a Magic Number from School House Rock (1973)

Powers of Ten made by Charles and Ray Eames for IBM (1977)

A young designer brought this blog to my attention and I have to say, they post some pretty beautiful stuff that inspires them, which in turn, inspires me. I love the work on this so much that I have put the link permanently under our section: Links of Interest.

Check it out!

Graphics Exchange