Wooden Animals

Gotta love those Scandinavians...

birds by Kristian Vedel

elephant by Kay Bojesen

ducks by Hans Bølling

Number 17

image source: number 17

A little humor to start off your Monday...
I just can't get enough of these comics from NYC design firm Number 17.

Their branding work for the Mercer Hotel is also rather handsome.

image source here

How cool are these salt and pepper shakers created by Antrepo Design?

via the dieline

ShakeIt!

image source: chewingthecud

I recently discovered ShakeitPhoto, the iphone apps that turns your photos into polaroids. As you can tell, I was a little shakeit-happy.

Proef: a food design studio

image source here

Proef is a creative design studio in Amsterdam where food concepts are developed and executed. I love how they use food to tell a story.

About Founder Marije Vogelzang:
Designers who work with the subject ‘food’ are often called ‘food designers’. According to Vogelzang, food is already perfectly and beautifully designed by nature. She designs from the verb ‘to eat’. She is for example inspired by the origin of food, the preparation, etiquette, history or the culture of food. That is why she doesn’t call herself ‘food designer’but, as the first one in The Netherlands, ‘eating-designer’.

One of their experiements: Elements (pictured above)

"When entering Proef Rotterdam at the opening, guests were asked for their date of birth. According to this information we could track their astrological element; water, fire, earth of air and tied a coloured ribbon around their wrist referring to the element. We served everybody his or her own element-specific food. The opening lasted the day. In the first two hours I noticed that there were only air and earthpeople visiting. I started to get worried that we would run out of white and brown food and have lots of red and green leftovers. Finally the water and fire guests came and balanced things up. Later on I read that apparently water and fire people have the tendency to be late for appointments."

Present & Correct: Everyday Things

image source here

I've posted about these guys before. Present and Correct: from paper bags to everyday industrial clips, they seem to get everything just right.

Stylin' with Harlequin

image source here

some eye candy from Harlequin to start your day...

The Vendor Client Relationship—in Real World Situations

I think the title says it all.

Thanks for the laughs, Peter.

Malick Sidibé:

image source: here

Malick Sidibé is a Malian photographer known for his black-and-white documentation of popular culture in the 1960s. At 78, it's nice to know he's still at the top of his game.

Bracket Business Card

image source here

Loving this smart concept by Singaporean designer Felix Ng for Bracket Publishing.

via FPO

Lovely Gifts and Photos

images by Elizabeth Messina

After a rough day last week, I found these waiting in my inbox and they made me smile. These were some of the details I had designed for Elizabeth Messina's "A Lovely Workshop". Love the way they look against her vintage fabrics. Check out more beautiful images on Elizabeth's blog.

Thank you Elizabeth!

Ahoy, Alphabetilatelists!

image source here

It all started with a "Wouldn't it be fun if ..."

And so Alphabetilately was born. The brainchild of Bill Senkus, in collaboration with Alyson Kuhn, this project features a collection of alphabet stamps where each stands for some aspect of the collecting of stamps or the sending of snail mail. 26 designers in the San Francisco Bay Area were assigned an alphabet each, and asked to design a stamp based on their interpretations of definitions and examples provided to them.

Currently showing at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
image source here

I'm partial to alphabets and stamps, but I'm doubly excited that the exhibition made it to the Smithsonian because my dear pt was one of the 26 designers. His stamp... drumroll here... is the letter E. E is for EFO's.

EFO's? That, in printer languge, would be "Errors, Freaks, and Oddities", i.e. misprints, misperfs and other production blunders. Perforations shouldn't run down the middle of the design; grass shouldn't be blue; 2-cent stamps shouldn't say "5 cents" etc.

Even though this project was conceived more than 10 years ago, I still think the designs are still beautiful and relevant.

Update: for those in the Bay Area, Alyson Kuhn will be giving a talk about the AIGA SF philatelic alphabet project on Sunday afternoon, June 7, at 2 pm at The McCune Collection in Vallejo.

New Goodies in the Shop

images: chewingthecud

We now have more letterpress printed lovelies listed in the shop.

Many of you have inquired about the reusable fabric gift wraps and those will be available in late June. Will keep you posted, promise!

Welcome Home

nyc was a blast but the best part was coming home to this...

Post-NSS entertainment: trapeze class!

image: byrd + bleeker

What better way to end the NYC trip than to go flying through the air?
Full post of our circus antics by Miss Bleeker of byrd + bleeker fame here.

NSS Roundup

images courtesy of Shannon Ho Photography

This was our first year exhibiting at the NSS and we had a blast! It was wonderful to meet so many fellow designers, artists and bloggers. We were tickled pink when the lovely Shannon Ho stopped by our booth and took these awesome shots for us. Shannon was one of the attendees at A Lovely Workshop (posted here) and is just one of the sweetest people I've known.

Nole over at Oh so beautiful paper has done a wonderful job of posting about the show but I just wanted to share a few of my favourites here.

yellow owl workshop "write your own message" gift wrap.


Christine from yellow owl workshop hand-painted these menus for Alyssa and Ryan's wedding. *sigh*... love.

small square design and linea carte shared a cozy booth.

linea carte silkscreened gift-tags/ornaments. smart idea!

Having been a longtime fan of Night Owl Paper Goods, it was quite a thrill to meet owner Alan.

Images 3-7: chewingthecud

A Lovely Workshop

all image source: elizabeth messina

ctc is extremely honored and delighted to be on the roster of amazing talent that created A Lovely Workshop—a one-day photography workshop by beloved photographer, Elizabeth Messina, hosted by Kenwood Inn and Spa in Sonoma.

Over the past few months, I had the opportunity to work closely with Elizabeth, who is the sweetest and most generous soul ever. We dreamt up ideas of presenting the invitations, menus, favors, giveaway bags, and vignette designs...(more to come in a follow-up post.) Using Elizabeth's blog: Kiss the Groom as inspiration, we had such fun tossing around ideas and possibilities that, in the most fluid and seamless manner came together at the workshop. It was Elizabeth's innate warmth and elegant style that set the tone from inception to execution and brought the collaboration to life.

I had such a blast working with the rest of the team (full list here), especially Eden of End-Design, Rosemary of Rosemary Special Events and Xandra of XYZ ink. I cannot even begin to describe the creative prowess of Eden. My first brainstorming session with her left me in awe (and I'll admit, slightly intimidated); she immediately shot to the top of my list of "Out-of-the-world designers." Rosemary is one of my favourite planners in the Bay Area. Take a look at her portfolio and you'll see why. Work aside, she has such a warm and fun personality, it makes me smile whenever I hear her voice. It was through Rosemary that I met calligrapher extraordinaire Xandra of XYZ ink. My oh my... I drooled when I saw her work and could not pick up the phone fast enough to get her onboard asap! By the time the workshop ended, we were already cooking up ideas for future collaborations.

There was so much talent that came together to create the workshop. Too much for one post, so I'll leave you to these links: here, here, here, here and here, so you can enjoy the full splendor of the event!

More to come soon with the behind-the-scenes inspiration for the designs.

Blow a thousand kisses to the ones you love....

NSS Day 1

Maria of {Ritzy Bee}, me, and Joy (Flybird Press)

Greetings from NYC! Yesterday was the first day of the National Stationery Show.
We had such a blast meeting new and old friends. I finally met the adorable Maria of {Ritzy Bee} and lovely Nole from "Oh so beautiful paper" (taking the picture.)

NSS Sneak Peek Part Deux

images source: chewingthecud


More goodies for the upcoming NY National Stationery Show.
See the full collection here.

Thank you so much to the lovely bloggers who have posted about our collection:
Design Sponge
Style Me Pretty
Poppytalk
{frolic!}
Pink Olive
My Modern Metropolis

NSS Sneak Peek

all image source: chewing the cud

We are eagerly counting down to the National Stationery Show. Here's a sneak preview of what we'll be debuting at the show: reusable organic cotton gift wrap!

The idea is that each wrap is a gift onto itself. "Give luck", "give love"...etc.

Hand-printed on 100% organic cotton with soy-based inks.

More sneak peeks coming up!