I’m an organizational freak and love office supplies – especially pretty, fun ones. That’s why I love Russell + Hazel. The details of the collection are inspired by vintage architecture, classic Hollywood and contemporary couture.
Audrey Fine Finishing Touches Set ($45)
– Boxed set includes place cards, book marks,
page finders, notes and gift enclosures
– 10 of each style—80 pieces total
– Assorted shapes and sizes
Self-Adhesive Note Set ($40)
– set of Self-adhesive To-Dos in olive
– set of Self-adhesive Memos in tangerine
– set of Self-adhesive Squares
– set of Self-adhesive Minis
– set of Self-adhesive Chicklets
Recipe Binder Set ($110)
– 2 slim binders (in white/charcoal or blue/red)
– Set of 15 section tabs & 1 measuring equivalents
– Recipe Pages, 40 pages
– Recipe cards, 50 cards
– Menu Planning Sheets, 60 pages
I’m a big fan of hot tea. I even went through a short phase of preferring it in the morning over coffee, which is saying a lot. The Tazo brand has long been one of my favorites. And its design presence is what initially turned me on to the tea.
The Tazo Tea site is beautifully designed with elegant type and photography. But it’s also got personality with its funky expanding menu, animated details, ethnic music and, my favorite, a Tea Leaf Oracle whose creepy eyes follow the mouse wherever it goes.
This chair from Anthropologie is fabulous. I love the big, bright yellow print and the pleasingly plump proportions. It would be really cute in my bedroom, but I think I’d want it out in the open to see all of the time. But costing $998 as it currently does, it won’t be coming anywhere near any of my rooms unless the Chair Fairy pays me a visit. Oh well, I can enjoy the pictures. Maybe I’ll sit on the pictures of it and pretend, you know, like Phoebe did in Friends with the bicycle box. Only I won’t make anyone drag me around the living room on it.
Rethink of Vancouver, British Columbia is a cutting edge agency.
The agency’s philosophy – creative and otherwise – is pared down to the essentials. Pencil rough storyboard presentations (no PowerPoint). Notes in client meetings are taken on walls covered in chalkboard paint. Any leave-behinds are tucked into blank white folders, DVD covers, or booklets stamped with a small backwards circle R – the Rethink logo. Even business cards are generic – they’re plain white with blank spaces for the handwritten name of the staffer and a phone number or email address. The web site itself is a blank white screen with a small glyph saying “web site.” Pretty Cool.
This is my favorite project of theirs. Fifty-thousand buttons were displayed, each printed with a single word representing one of a hundred possible responses to contemporary art. The public was free to walk away with as many as they wanted in this installation for the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver.
Someecards may or may not be the greatest thing since ecards. It was created by Brook Lundy and Duncan Mitchell, and designed by Jerry Tamburro. New cards, categories, and features will be frequently added until everyone involved with the site dies (or so they say). I swear I can think of at least one person to send every single one of their cards to. Hope you love it as much as I do.
I came across this in the Design Annual 46 from Communication Arts magazine. Working in the business some points I wholeheartedly agree with, while others are a little much. Let me know what you think.
1. No headline will begin with “Something is wrong when…”, “Exactly at what point does…” or “Has it ever occurred to you that…”
2. Access to all awards show books shall be limited to one hour per month. Maybe
3. No commercial or Internet film will be shot in winter. In Jamaica. On a beach. WIth a little bar with a grass roof. Where they serve those blue drinks with mango slices.
4. No celebrity voiceovers shall be permitted unless at least three people in the country actually recognize who the hell it is.
5. No further use of chimpanzees on the Superbowl shall be allowed.
6. The same goes for chickens.
7. And gratuitous beasts.
8. Art directors will not be permitted to use Photoshop until an actual concept has been determined.
9. All creatives who get off on debasing, senseless or sexis humor and feel compelling to impose it on civilized society shall have all previous memories of Saturday night frat house binges erased from their memory banks.
10. No shots of mothers holding babies.
11. No meaningless taglines that don’t add a damn thing to the campaign other than give the client something to put on coffee mugs and t-shirts at the annual sales meeting.
12. Anyont caught sleazing a slash on an awards show entry form because, after all, “If I hadn’t suggested switching paragraph 4 with paragraph 2, this would have sucked,” will be dropped down the elevator shaft. Naked.
13. Creatives shall be barred from imposing the same idea that won them the Palm d’Or, gold One Show pencil and D&AD Best In Show on every project they come in contact with until the end of eternity.
14. Whining will not be permitted under any circumstances. This includes budget whining. Account executive whining. Client whining. Client’s wife whining. Lack of creative freedom whining. What-do-you-mean-I-can’t-use-Nadav-Kander whining.
15. No goatees.
16. Audible groans when being asked to do radio is off limits. Radio only sucks because you’ve made yourself believe it does.
17. When presenting, no words over three syllables shall be used thus allowing the actual work to prove how smart you are.
18. No vacation plans shall be changed at the 11th hour, thereby causing your spouse to question your life priorities in the name of taking one for the team, assuming the team has never taken one for you.
19. Except in dire emergencies which does not include “The client is going on vacation,” “I’m sorry I sat on the brief so long” and “I need to meet my roommate at the airport,” creatives shall keep the concept of the All Nighter a fond, but distant memory of college days, understanding that there comes a point when editing a brand video at two in the morning begins to feel a lot like walking out a 39th floor window on LSD.
20. During office hours, no billiards, dart games, Nerf basketball or other distractions masquerading as creative stimulators will be permitted. If you want stimulation, get on a plane for Amsterdam.
21. Every creative will be required to go through an entire day once a week without saying the word “viral,” unless you’ve recently been on a float trip down Ebola River.
22. The term “mockumentary” shall be banned at all times.
23. No account executive shall be permitted to actually suggest in client meetings that “we might want to think about street art.”
24. No further reference to hijacking shall be allowed unless you’re comfortable with the idea of several large gentlemen with wool suits, earpieces and Ray Ban sunglasses removing you from your cubicle while you’re playing Texas Hold ’em online.
25. Copywriters shall glue their laptops shut for a period of a month during which they will reaquaint themselves with a pad of paer and a No. 2 pencil. No, not a pen. Not a Pentel. A pencil.
26. All creative department wastebaskets shall be replaced with much bigger ones.
27. No copywriter shall own a thesaurus. There is no fancy word in a thesaurus that is better than the simple one that just pops naturally into your head.
28. Creative teams shall produce on campaign per year for a nonprofit organization of their choice with no interntion of entering said campaign into any awards show anywhere on this or any other planet.
29. The use of music shall be prohibited from all emotional TV spots until such time as the spot itself, sans music, is capable of making at least twelve people cry like a river.
30. For a period of one week, no creative shall use humor in a radio spot.
31. Especially a beer spot.
Shanked from Ernie Shenck’s article in the November 2005 Communcation Arts.
Katherine DeJarnette Babin is the brain behind DeJarnette. She creates striking pieces with carefully selected materials such as vintage glass beads, lockets and brooches, semi-precious stones, metals and textiles, many of which were found in her native city of New Orleans.
I’m especially in love with this The Highest Number necklace. Inspired from a childhood saying, “I love you the highest number in the universes,” this necklace features multi-sized brass digits and a tiny brass heart that delicately hangs separately on the left hand side. It can be mine for $82. 🙂
This unique chain necklace features a vintage medallion that reads, “Thou Shalt Not Make Unto Thee Any Graven Image.” This pendant is paired with a number two that hangs right above. Katherine had created an entire series out of the Ten Commandments, this is the only one that remains for sale.
One of the few things I miss about Cleveland is living so close to an Anthropologie. It was located in a great little plaza along with a Barnes & Noble and Trader Joe’s, as well as some amazing restaurants and specialty stores. I don’t visit their site too often because it just isn’t the same as the store. There isn’t the huge sale area and there isn’t the ambience. Sigh. So recently I sucked up my sorrow and checked out the goods and actually found a couple of great things. I’m especially loving the tea towel.
It’s been raining for roughly the past month here in Oklahoma. It’s like we have our own mini-hurricane that just keeps circling the state.
Everyone (and I mean everyone) is complaining. “I can’t keep up with their lawn.” “This is summer in Oklahoma for “christake.” It’s not supposed to rain, it’s supposed to be 100 degrees and bone dry.” “I’ve only been to the lake once and it’s almost July.” “My basement won’t stop flooding!”
Okay, I can almost sympathize with that last one, but I for one am enjoying it. It reminds me of growing up in Pennsylvania and summers at my grandparent’s house. Of early morning and, cheesily enough, picking blueberries at the edge of their yard. Basically, this weather is suiting me just fine and it can hang around for a little while longer if I have any say in the matter.
