Kenneth Wingard

Just discovered the lovely home accessories of San Francisco-based designer Kenneth Wingard. I especially like his elegant wall art. See more here. Via poppytalk.

Knitting

I've recently started knitting again, something I haven't done since I was a kid. So far it's just been scarves, as I get my knitting skills back up to speed, but eventually I hope to tackle more ambitious projects...like, oh, hats. This Knitting Pretty book from Chronicle looks like a great place to start. Lovely and inspiring photos, too.

Instant Preschooler Street Cred

This is definitely the hippest tricycle around––a replica of the 1936 Sky King tricycle. Sturdy, too, as it's solid steel with solid rubber tires, plus it has an adjustable spring seat, a working headlight, and rubber handle grips. How cool would your little one look rolling down the street on this? If they made a grown up version, I bet there'd be lots of bigger kids buying them, too. Via swissmiss.

Holiday Shopping

Hoping to avoid the Christmas mall frenzy this year, I've decided to try doing more DIY, and, more online shopping. If you're looking for somewhere to start, Design*Sponge, Oh Joy! poppytalk, Port2Port and swissmiss are just a few of the great design sites and blogs featuring wonderful gift ideas.

All this gift surfing has made me realize that there is an amazing number of independent artists and craftspeople out there, doing beautiful and original work. The only problem now is trying to choose...

The photos above are from the Design*Sponge blog (scroll down a bit for info).

At Ease With Technology

International Herald Tribune article about Apple's brilliant designer Jonathan Ive.

illustrationclass.com

A hands on illustration website created by Von. R. Glitschka, with loads of tips, tutorials, useful links, and insights into the business. Excellent resource.

Book Typography: A Designer's Manual

The Design Observer reports that Book Typography: A Designer's Manual by Michael Mitchell and Susan Wightman "....may be the essential companion with Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style." Judging by the description on the publisher (Oak Knoll Press) site, they may very well be right––it looks amazingly comprehensive. Check it out here.

Björk

A list of ten great tracks by the wonderfully otherworldly Björk, courtesy of the Telegraph.

Toile de Jouy

Despite the mid-century modern furniture and the propensity for wearing rather a lot of severe black, secretly I love toile de Jouy. So, when I read about a museum devoted to it (and, even better, in Paris) called the musée de la toile de jouy (located at the chateau de l'églantine on 54 rue charles de gaulle) I was very happy indeed. Another excuse to go back...

Here are some very pretty (and somewhat mysterious) photos from the current exhibit. Via the very charming favorite choses blog.

New Work

This is a personal piece I just completed, inspired after reading a review by Michael Saler of the new John Le Carré novel on the Times Literary Supplement (TLS) website. It's not a strictly literal illustration of the novel, instead playing around with some of the ideas of moral complexities that are a continuing theme in Le Carré's work.

Keri Smith

I was just reminded of the work of one of my favourite illustrators, the wonderful Keri Smith, while browsing the Swiss Miss blog. Tina Roth Eisenberg, designer and writer of Swiss Miss, singles out a great piece that Keri wrote a couple of years ago, called Ten Ways to Infuse Your Work With Your Personality. Highly recommended.

Vogue

A retrospective of 90 years of British Vogue magazine covers. I'd have to say that they become less interesting (definitely less adventurous, design-wise) as the decades progress. It's sad to see how the use of illustration disappeared, oh, 45 years or so ago, too. The cover on the left is from September 1961.

Poppytalk and Uppercase

One of my regular blog stops is Poppytalk, which features great design with a Canadian slant. A recent post was about Calgary's uppercase gallery, a showcase for great Canadian art and design. Shown on the left are new wrap and card designs by Vangool Design and Typography, who share the space with uppercase.

More Linden Tree

A shot of the interior of Linden Tree Home, showing some of the lovely things to be found there...

Sophie Conran

Drove down to Merrickville this afternoon to visit Lindsey at her shop Linden Tree Home, and after a lovely lunch and chat (as well as a photo session of the store for the upcoming website) bought a beautiful round roasting dish by Sophie Conran for Portmeirion. At the moment I think it's too pretty to use, but eventually I'll break down and roast something in it...

Linden Tree

My friend Lindsey's brand new shop in Merrickville (Ontario), Linden Tree Home, had its official opening yesterday, with a good-sized turnout for a first day. Lindsey had me on board from the start to help her with the shop's identity design (logo, signage, advertising, etc.), when it was still no more than a dream. It's been a lot of fun to work with her on it from start to finish, and it's so rewarding to see Lindsey's dream become a reality. She's worked hard to make it happen, and it shows--it's a beautiful space with beautiful products. To the left is the logo I designed for her.

Remembrance Day

November 11 is Remembrance Day in Canada, and it seems an appropriate occasion to post one of the many poignant records of wartime––In Ruhleben Camp No. 1, a magazine produced by English POWs inside a German camp during WWI. Writes the poster on Flickr: "My grandfather, Sol Geduld, was the German-born son of a British subject (Harris Geduld) and put in Ruhleben at the age of 8 in the year 1915 where he lived for one year until he was traded with his father in exchange for two German prisoners." See the scans of the magazine here. Via the Kottke blog.

Spell With Flickr

Okay, I'm probably the last person to hear about Spell With Flickr, but it's still pretty fun. This was another find on the very cool Ace Jet 170 blog...

Connoisseurship and its Consequences

Mark Resnick, executive vice-president of business affairs for Twentieth Century Fox, talks to Steven Heller about the extensive collection of American posters spanning the 1890s to present that he and his wife Maura have accumulated over the years. Read the interview here.

50 Essential Bookmarks

Communication Arts "...asked leading designers representing a cross-section of the profession to share the top ten sites they consider vital to their work. Culled from more than 500 suggestions, the narrowed list is divided into categories to help navigate the Web." Check out the list here.

What Lies Beneath

New York Times article by Miles Unger about “Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych,” an exhibition of 15th- and 16-century paintings by masters of the Northern Renaissance opening on Nov. 12 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Not just a show of beautiful paintings, but an examination of the physical history of each piece, thanks to the use of x-rays, infrared light, binocular microscopy and dendrochronology (counting the rings in the wooden panel on which the image was painted). An extract:

"Probing the surface with X-rays or infrared light or dating the work by dendrochronology . . . can reveal much about how a work was actually made: the struggles endured before an artist settled on a satisfactory composition, the extent to which assistants and apprentices were used to speed up production, and the various market forces that drove those decisions. Such analysis can also uncover many twists and turns in the long trip from the artist’s studio to the museum wall."

Read the rest of the article here.

Collage Machine 1.0

Don't worry––this is not how I create my own collages. Fun to play around with, though...

Bookshelf: Scandinavian Design

Scandinavian Design, by Charlotte Fiell, is a beautifully researched and illustrated book that's been on my wish list for a while. A quick glance at the Chapters website indicates that it's presently out of stock, which is a bit ominous––often this means that a title is going out of print. Looks like I may soon regret my descision not to pick it up when I last saw it, which was at Harrods in London, two years ago. The sheer weight of it was the deciding factor at the time, but still...

Bowls

For years I've collected bowls by artisans in a small way, in particular raku fired ones. I love the beauty of their purity of form, and the subtle complexity of the glazes. The bowls shown here are by the Swedish artist Karin Eriksson, who also has a great design blog. Lovely work. I'd love to add one of her bowls to my collection some day...

Steven Heller

Designer extraordinaire Steven Heller has a new website, featuring his many books as well as his newspaper, magazine and other work. Beautiful work over a distinguished career, but most importantly his real love of design and illustration really shines through. That's From Victorian to Digital, one of his (literally) hundreds of books on design, shown here on the left.

The Country

An mp3 file of the poet Billy Collins reading his poem The Country. Funny and atmospheric at the same time.

Six Word Stories

For its November issue Wired Magazine asked 33 writers to write a six-word story, which was then interpreted visually by designers Stephen Doyle, Frost Design, Chip Kidd, John Maeda and Tomato. The inspiration for the series was Hemingway's own famous six-word story ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") which he is said to have called his best work. Read the series here. The design on the left is by Tomato.