Dwell Bedding

I'm working on a Baby themed gift card.
For colour inspiration I've turned to the baby collection of Dwell Bedding.
I love their sophisticated palettes and interesting colour combinations like the grey, ochre and turquoise in top sample.
Gorgeous.
Have you ever seen more a sophisticated rug for a newborn?

New sketches: Shoes

New Work: T is for Tap dance

New Work: Financial Post Magazine

Art director Brianna Freitag

Sarah Palin Flow chart

from the fabulous swiss miss.

New work: Peggy Olson from Mad men

Mad men

Am obsessed with Madmen at the moment.

Michael Bierut 79 Short Essays on Design

I'm reading Michael Bierut's 79 Short Essays On Design

It's a collection of his essays which have previously appeared in Emigre, Adbusters, I.D. and mostly on his blog Design Observer.

Anyone who saw Michael Bierut in the documentary Helvetica knows that he is both hilarious and really smart. His humour and insightfulness come through loud and clear in these essays which range in topic from art to politics to commentary on revered figures from the 'design pantheon' including Paul Rand and Tibor Kalman.

I really groove with his insistence in the first essay that designers (and illustrators by extension) should push themselves to learn about much more than design. As he states " The more things you're interested in, the better your work will be."

Real Simple "How to Dress" Story

I have 6 illustrations in this month's issue of Real Simple magazine.
Here is the opening illustration for the story.



ps. I'm back from New York and can be reached at 416. 515. 0628.

Contact

I'm in New York for the summer and can be reached at 212.874.0706.

The World is round again

From cbc today
With Globalization the world was flat for a while but now with the oil shortage and high gas prices the world is round again. (ie. people are becoming aware of the actual distance products need to travel) This is a good thing.

Mr. Boddington's Studio

Inspiration for both writing and design: Mr. Boddington's Studio
http://mrboddington.com/
Through Design Sponge discovered this fantastic and very unique stationary company
which brands itself as Couture Correspondence.
They design and produce stunning personal stationary, wedding invites, baby announcements and "calling cards' many with very witty copy.

The copy on the website also includes several witty surprises .
(am too tired to think of another word for witty)
For eg. When the first page loads "WHERE TO FIRST? pops up on the screen
and when you click on the Contact button It reads "PLEASE DO". cute.

The real Mr. Boddington is Rebecca Schmidt-Ruebensaal.

Graham Roumieu

Illustrator/writer Graham Roumieu
was on Q (on cbc) today promoting his new Big Foot book

one of the few illustrators who also writes.
he explained that Big foot represents all of us who feel at odds with society
I think his strengths are
capturing the feeling of modern day alienation and
skewering pop culture. (black berries, facebook etc)

New sketches: Incorporating fabric

Inspired by Quilter Denyse Schmidt and Spanish Illustrator Begona Chezz I am experimenting with adding real fabric to my illustrations.
Here's the Real simple sketch with paisley fabric.

Denyse Schmidt

Denyse Schmidt quilter extraordinaire never fails to inspire.

Her new line of fabrics called katie jump rope have the vintage charm of flea market finds combined with a distinctly modern appeal. The collection includes lots of happy dots and cheerful floral patterns.

Sketches for Real Simple Opener

for an article on dressing for every occasion
am attempting a cropped off figure similiar to my bellboy illustration
as i think the cropping adds a level of sophistication