Friedman Sprout

Amy has taken her editorial career to a new high with the recent publication of the Friedman Sprout, a monthly newsletter devoted to all the happenings in the Friedman community. While writing is definitely not my strong-suit I told her I'd help out with logo design. A few of my ideas are to the right.

I wish I had more time to spend on these for two reasons: 1. Amy rocks and 2. designing logos is really fun. Sadly I am way too swamped with jobs and school and life to make much time for creating so I turned these in to her for consideration last night.

I'm not going to tell you which logo she picked. If you'd like to find out, subscribe to the newsletter! To subscribe, send an email to friedmansprout at gmail dot com.

who, me?

The past few weeks have been peppered with friends and strangers thrusting the pejorative label of "hipster" upon me. Don't you people know that this is an insult? It's gotten so bad I've asked Julie to take me shopping for boot-cut jeans and polo shirts (and I was only sort of kidding).

If I was still drawing comics I would write one about how frustrating it is to be lumped in to a category typically associated with pretentious trust-fund babies. But as I am currently comic-less, whenever I'm feeling the urge to bitch about popular culture these days my go-to source is cat and girl. Dorothy has taken on the concept of hipsterdom on many occassions. One of my favorites (which also happens to be seasonally appropriate) is to the right. Cheers to you, Dorothy, for so succinctly summing up my thoughts.

This Will Be Our Year...

School has picked up in earnest leaving me with little time for anything but homework... and for hanging out with all my friends who are now back in town (poor me). In the spirit of the season I've come up with a new playlist with a "back to school" theme. It starts off optimistic and has a few fun times, then fades to skepticism about our future and ends on a dour note of mild cynicism. Sound familiar?

And my apologies for the double-dose of Lennon. Actually, nevermind. Both those songs rock.

My New Favorite Timewaster

I've fallen hard for Bear, a collection of photos, quotes, and works of art. Its almost as if this blogger tapped in to my subconscious and picked an assortment of words and images that make me happy. Dreamy nature photography? Check. Cephalopods? Check. Washed out romantic images, vague personal affirmations, cool illustrations, and Paul Newman? Check, check, check, check. I can even hang with the random Harry Potter stuff thrown in there.

I love the idea of curating a blog. I would even go so far as to say that blogs like Bear may help push art galleries to the point of obsolescence. And sure, viewing something digitally is not the same as seeing it in person, so galleries will never be completely gone. But I am so much more inspired by this website than I have been by most of the shows I've seen lately (full disclosure: I haven't seen very many shows lately). Cheers to you, Love Your Chaos. I approve.

My Water Bottle in Action

OK, it's not really in action. It's actually just sitting on my desk. But still. Ain't it grand? I think the design suits the clean lines of the metal bottle. Friedman gave them away to all the incoming first-year students this year and since I designed the logo I was able to finagle one for myself. Sadly I've only been using it for a week and you can already see some wear and tear on the image. I suppose it's an ephemeral work of art. There was a period in my life when this was the only kind of art that I liked, so I'm OK with that.

It's been kind of exciting seeing all of these people I don't know carrying around something that I designed. Every time I spot one I am tempted to walk up to this unknown face and say, "hey! that's my wheat and cheese on your bottle!" But greater forces prevail and I keep it to myself.

To see my original design, check out my previous post on it here.

Awesome.good.is

I have a soft spot in my heart for well-done infographics. Call me a nerd or a design snob, or maybe a "designerd", but I enjoy reading research papers/magazines and stumbling across lovely graphics illustrating the point of the article. A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say. For this reason I was delighted to receive an email about the latest project from Good Magazine. This project attempts to illustrate all of the connections between a sustainable future.

It needs to have a lot more content before I am totally convinced of its merit, but it sure does make for a decent start (and a pretty picture). However, I'm less than enthused by the big Prius logo at the bottom. Sure, there is a place for hybrid cars when visioning a sustainable ecosystem, but certainly not a very big place. I guess they have to get money to pay all those graphic designers from somewhere...

Wardrobe Refashion

I recently took the Wardrobe Refashion pledge. The Pledge is stated thusly:

I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate and recycle preloved items, or create and craft handmade items of clothing for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the duration of my contract.

This means that for the next 6 months I'll be making all of my clothes. It also means that I have to post a project on their blog once a week, so expect many more clothing related posts from me. Considering all the sewing I've been doing over the past year I think this is a challenge I'm well suited for (hah!). I have to admit though, its a good thing I bought a winter coat this summer because that seems like it would be pretty tough to make.

(500) Songs of Summer

Create a playlist at MixPod.com

I've spent this final day of summer compiling a list of all the songs that made the season so special. There are exactly 500 of them. I intended to post it on here, but it ended up being over three pages long. So instead of bogging down your RSS feed with a boring list of music I'm posting a mixtape (I just discovered MixPod and I'm VERY excited about it). Listed above are a few songs I was avidly obsessed with this summer. My apologies to those of you who were forced to listen to them on repeat for the last three months! And if you are curious about the remaining 485 songs for whatever reason, let me know and I'll send you the list.

Cicadas

It's been almost a year to the day since I moved to Boston. This makes sense, sure, because school is starting up again, but what really drove it home for me was the return of the cicadas. Last year the constant buzz emanating from many-a street tree was the first thing that made me realize that I wasn't in California anymore. We've got cicadas in CA too, but they aren't nearly as prevalent and are far, far quieter.

If you happen across a fallen cicada as you are strolling about Boston (and aren't squeamish about these types of things), pick it up and bring it back to me! They are really interesting looking bugs and I would love to turn it's expired little body in to something cool.

And for an extra dose of inspiration, check out the cicada wing earrings to the right. I would TOTALLY wear those.

Hmm. This post makes me seem kind of like an oddball... which I guess is pretty much the truth. Oh well!

Buy Art, Make Friends

My dear friend Amy has recently relaunched her etsy site. Please check out her page to bask in the awesomeness of her goods. While you're there, won't you buy a card or two? As an added bonus I'll throw in a high-five absolutely free with each purchase!

Amy is starting a teaching credential program this fall and could really use the cash to help offset those hefty tuition bills. Maybe if she sells enough she can even come visit me in Boston! So go do your part and buy something from her already. We both will thank you.