What? It’s like two of my best friends found each other while randomly backpacking around Thailand and decided to get married after a few steamy weeks. Yay.
Sephora + Pantone!
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Summer Style
The other day I was inspired to put on, not a few, but all of my cheap little bracelets. I found the result perfect for summer; relaxed, colorful, and a little bit Captain Jack Sparrow. What could be better? The above bracelets are a mix of gifts and purchases from places like Venice, Italy and The Gap, there’s even a hair band in there.
Hempz
So my mom gave me this lotion the other day…who knows why. But it passed my very strict smell test and is actually pretty decent.
But the name, Hempz, really?
Is it too much to dream of a world where we no longer think it’s cool and slang to add a Z to the end of a word to make it plural. And why is this product the plural hemps? Not sure.
Now I’m not going to lie, when Boyz 2 Men did it, it was awesome. And when John Singleton made Boyz N The Hood, it was also appropriately awesome.
But imagine if you saw Cuba Gooding Jr wearing this shirt today? The whole outfit really. It’s just unacceptable. At the time, the outfit was perfect. The title of the movie – great. The use of z to pluralize boys – fantastic.
But people, I beg, let’s just leave the Z plural off of our products for today’s consumers. Like Cuba’s outfit above, it was great in the recent past and is best left there. If you’re feeling nostalgic for something awesome from the early nineties, put on a little Cooleyhighharmony.
Perfect Purple
The color is great and so is how The Brooklyn Botanical Garden used it.
Playlists
I just started a new playlist in itunes. “Wedding.” Oh sigh…this is going to be a pretty sappy year.
I Heart Maps
Have I ever mentioned that I love maps? Pretty big time actually.
So it’s no surpise that this is my new favorite piece of art. My dad gave it to me when I was helping him get ready for a yard sale. He was not planning to sell it, it had hung above my great-grandfather’s desk (on Martha’s Vineyard), and my dad always loved it. He said when he was a kid he couldn’t tell if it was a photograph or a drawing.
The date on the bottom says 1958 and it’s got just about everything I would want on a 1958 Cape and Islands map; the color palette, type, little tiny boats, amazing perspective. Honestly, even the simple frame is kinda perfect. I’m pretty sure Wes Anderson would give me big bucks to use this as a prop in a movie. Of course, I’m not selling but I will sit down with Wes and discuss it over some mojitos or cappuccinos, and maybe listen to some records or something too. I mean, it will be strictly platonic as I’m newly engage. We’ll just become friends and talk about maps and music and beverages. Ah, is this getting off topic? I’d say so. OK, that’s all.
An Invitation
You know it’s contents are special when the envelope looks like this:
The address has been beautifully hand calligraphed in a creamy tangerine ink. The return address is in a simple all caps sans serif letter-pressed on the back. Sigh. So much beauty in one little envelope. My cousin’s wedding invitation inside is just as lovely, maybe that will be tomorrow’s blog post.
Someone put a lot of thought and care into this invitation. Certainly, not everyone will notice every little detail, but even those blind to good design will know that it’s special. Oh, and I’m particularly delighted to have my name followed by two misters, hehe.
Design Show
So, with all the reality tv out there (that I don’t watch), how is there not a graphic design show? There are numerous reality cooking competition shows and we (the audience) can’t even judge their productions. Boring in my book.
Whenever I need to design something on the fly I always think about my show concept. It would be amazing. Get a bunch of colorful designers together and make them sleep in bunk beds in a loft somewhere in the East Village or something and then give them 30 minutes or an hour to complete some design task; rebrand a company, layout an imaginary magazine, design a poster for a cool rock star who acts as one of the weeks judges. Give them fun restrictions…you have to design the poster using only Twizzlers and your left hand, unless you’re left handed then you can only use your right.
Anyway, my tall honey and I did a little Star Wars redesign for short honey’s 8th birthday. The big reveal was Saturday evening, and that day there was one last place left in the room that needed a bit more Star Wars art. So, with four cheap 8.5×11 frames and about an hour to spare this is what I came up with.
Not my best work ever, but it did the job and (as with most quick turn projects) was a pretty fun exercise.
“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Abraham Lincoln
No Direction Home
Last night my honey and I finished watching No Direction Home, the Bob Dylan documentary by Martin Scorsese. It was really good. I must admit, although a fan, I didn’t know much about him and really hadn’t been raised with Dylan (the way I was with The Beatles, Paul Simon, Led Zeppelin, Talking Heads, etc etc).
Anyway, what a freaking guy! I’ve written and deleted a few paragraphs about my take-aways from the film, and I still can’t quite articulate it. So for now I’ll just comment on the picture above and his looks. This guy is one of the ugliest slash sexiest guys ever. He looks like he’s always sort of mocking someone although he never usually was. It sort of seems like he’s always telling the truth and everyone else is bullshitting or it’s the other way around, which is frustrating and confusing. I can’t tell if when he was young he looks like he should be old or the other way around. Anyway, when you see him now (in the film not like at the grocery store), he’s got all those same qualities. And the dude is short. Maybe not Prince short, but pretty damn short.
Obviously, I’ve got a lot to sort out on my thoughts on Dylan, I’ll write again if there are any breakthroughs. I know I like his music, the picture above is amazing, and current old Dylan should just please shave that thin mustache, it’s upsetting to your fans. Oh wait, Bob Dylan doesn’t give a shit.
sarah's designed life 