Paula Grief ceramics

The current thing most inspiring to me is Paula Grief Ceramics. Absolutely love the thick stripey line and relaxed vibe. Inspired me to do a sketch.

New Illustration: Modern Office

Interiors are my favourite thing to illustrate.

Am very happy with this new piece. 

Experimented with torn paper and watercolour and not colouring in the entire illo. 

Partially inspired by Ludwig Bemelmans

 and the drawing from the old Clue game.

Inspiration: Edith Head

I saw this book in the window of a vintage clothing store this afternoon (69 Vintage on Queen) and for the rest of the day I've had Edith Head on my mind.

She had a Masters degree in romance languages from Standford but 0 design experience when she was hired as a costume sketch artist at Paramount. She's a great example of faking it till you make it.  
Her incredible people skills, PR savvy, + talent all contributed to her huge success.
Total Inspiration

#businesswoman #costumedesigner #EdithHead #AcademyAwards #kickasswoman #inspiration

My fruit tattly's at The White House Easter Egg Roll

Tattly is contributing my fruit tattlys,  Julia Rothman's veggie tattlys plus 2 custom gold tattlys to the White House Easter Egg Roll this Monday. Exciting.
Tattly is excellent at collaborating with other companies and organziations.
I think any small business could learn a lot from their business model. Inspiring.

Ps. You can buy my tattlys here.

New sketch: Elle Decor Editor in Chief Michael Boodro

I read this colour pronouncement on Michael Boodro's Instagram on Friday and thought it was so cute -- just had to make an illustration of it. 
#sketch #illustration #MichaelBoodro #ElleDecorUSA #editor #colour #interiordesign #draw

New work: Jenna Lyons

I would call her style  'elegant librarian' with an androgynous eccentric edge.

I love how her outfits fuse colours, textures, patterns + materials in a quirky mix.

#fashion #illustration #style #icon

Inspiration: Isabella Blow + Fashion Blows show

Last week I went to the fantastic Fashion Blows show at The Room at The Hudson's Bay.

With her very quirky looks and incredible fashion sense I was immediately inspired to do some sketches of her.

 Isabella in fantastic hat by Philip Treacy.

My Sketch.

Loved Loved that wild Mouth "head piece" also by Philip Treacy and her helmet in the video.

 

Another sketch.

Inuit Art Quarterly Launch

Last week I attended the relaunch of Inuit Art Quarterly: 

a fabulous magazine which is published by The Inuit Art Foundation.

 

I love Inuit art so for me the entire magazine is delicious!
I especially enjoyed Patricia Feheley's article on the genesis of the Modern Inuit Art market.

 
Above is the Editor Nancy Campbell along with some of the members of the Advisory board.
Click here for more info on the magazine.

My new favourite thing

is comedian Hari Kondabolu.
So smart and funny.
See here.

New illustration: Eloise

As mentioned on Instagram my Eloise illustration was inspired by this ad for Eloise Grey clothing which I found in Selvedge magazine. (always a huge source of inspiration)

Inspiration: Tomi Ungerer - One of the absolute best!

On Sept 6th I saw the documentary Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story

Tomi is one of my all time favourite illustrators (his economical line!! his humour! his fabulous kids books! his incredible political posters! his saucy erotic drawings!) and I can't recommend the doc enuf. Thanks so much to Glenn Sumi for the reco. :-)
Watch the trailer here.

File under Funny people

I went to hear Canadian mom turned Hollywood screenwriter /Twitter sensation Kelly Oxford this week.
Funny and inspirational both in terms of both her writing + style.

My Favourite exchange:

Interviewer: Why do you put in so many specific references in your writing like Orphan Annie's broken locket? Aren't you worried that people won't get the references?

Kelly: I put them in to bring my people closer to me. My people get the references. :-)

It's inspiration for me to always create + write from the truest part of myself - and then have confidence that it will resonate with others.

A Month of Great Design in Toronto

The last 30 days has been absolutely chalk full of great design adventures in Toronto including:

 1. A super inspirational talk by Jonathan Adler at the DX

(Took 6 pages of notes!)

 2. A visit to Kevin Austin's stunning new shop Vintage Fine Objects in Corktown

(Could buy everything in the shop!)

 The Opening of Revealing The Early Renaissance at The AGO (curated by my friend Sasha Suda) (So proud of her!)

A fashion show of Comrags' Fall Winter 2013 Collection at Andrew Richard Designs. 

(Loved the clothes + check out this new swanky event space!)

All were very juicy experiences and deserving of their own post -- which will come next week when I'm caught up on my illustration work! Stay tuned.
Toronto - you are a great design city and sometimes terribly distracting. :-)

Tyler Brulé At OCAD

Tyler Brule's talk at OCAD last week was funny + inspirational and served as a big kick in the ass reminder to always be brave, original + THINK BIGGER.

Some favourite lines:

1. "Can we all be present in the room here tonight? I don't wanna see any tops of heads."
(In other words... turn off your phone)

2. "I worked at Movenpick in Yorkville and I spent all my tip money across the street at Maison de la Presse. That's where I got my education."

3. "Toronto needs to change it's residential vernacular. In terms of architecture it needs to raise the bar". Yep.

4. "Rather than looking south all the time Canadians should look East + West"
(After that I wrote in my notebook... LESS MAINE.... MORE SPAIN!")

Thanks OCADU for a great night.

Creative Morning 6

Gary speaking at the Gladstone
Instagram photo by Jennifer Stark.

Creative Morning with Gary Taxali was great this morning.
His slide show took us through his entire career and included images of his work on a great mix of surfaces including wine labels, pillow cases, toys and even cufflinks. (!) Inspiring.

Great reference Book: Print + Pattern 2

 

 I'm working on a new surface design project this week + for inspiration have been consulting Print + Pattern 2 by Bowie Style (aka Marie Perkins - who writes the very popular blog of the same name).

The book is great for getting ideas for new colour combinations to use in one's work.
I absolutely love the colour combos which Jessica Jones has used in her Calliope pattern above. Both colourways are sooo juicy.

The book includes some of my favourite illustrators and/or designers including Lab Partners, Donna Wilson,  Dwell Studio + the fabulous Rob Ryan above.
A great reference book and methinks essential for any surface designer's library.

Hillman Curtis 1961 - 2012

Shocked and deeply saddened to learn that Designer, Author, Filmmaker Hillman Curtis passed away on Wednesday. I wrote about him several times on this blog and was lucky enough to hear him speak in Toronto in 2007. He was one of my favourite creative thinkers. Incredibly generous with his ideas and so modest. He will be deeply missed.

A visit to comrags

Spring = A visit to comrags for a new spring frock.
**News: Did you know...comrags is moving to Dundas West?!
The design of this shop on Queen was described as "Country farmhouse meets urban industrial". Can't wait to see what they'll do in terms of interior design in the new space.
Stay tuned.

I settled on the Lucy dress in dijon.
Isn't it great?
Loved the pockets - big enough to collect eggs :-)


Happiness is a comrags package in one's bicycle basket!

Jen Bekman

Wow just listened to Debbie Millman's Design Matters podcast with Jen Bekman - owner of 20 X 200 + Jen Bekman projects.
Very interesting to learn how Jen's varied work + life experiences (and issues with authority!) eventually led to the creation of 20 X 200. Her scrappy, slightly bad ass nature really comes through in the interview and is completely inspiring.

One gem that stuck out:
"Your list of what you need to accomplish is always longer than your list of accomplishments
... But you have to look at the latter one every night and take a sec to enjoy your achievements in order to get the energy to move forward the next day."
Amen to that.

Such a good interview. Methinks required listening for any creative entrepreneur type - and extra special for the creative woman folk! Listen to it here.

Ingenious New Yorker cover

Saw this cover in the subway last week. It stopped me in my tracks.

Here is a close up. Isn't it ingenious?
It's a blurred version of that fabulous dandy Eustace Tilley with a scroll wheel on top of him indicating the universal message of 'page loading'. I thought sooo clever. The cover was done by reader Brett Culbert and was his entry to the magazine’s annual Eustace Tilley competition that has readers submit their own interpretations of the publication’s original 1925 cover illustration by Rea Irvin.
You can see the rest of the entries here:
Sure is alotta clever folks out there...