Entry the world of Lisa Congdon

A lovely San Francisco based Illustrator, called Lisa Congdon whose work I stumbled across a few weeks ago. I love her playful drawings and bright patterns. She did a project last year called 365 days of hand written typography, which as the title suggests involved a piece of hand written typography beautifully drawn everyday! I really need to start my own "365" project, any suggestions readers? I know this should have been started on 1st Jan but I always feel a few steps behind in these decisions! It's the thought/intention which counts! Anyway do stop by Lisa's blog as her stuff is really great! Despite the non stop rain, roadworks outside my flat, I'm wishing you all a very happy monday! Enjoy!

Floral

Happy Weekend! Here's a little photo of some lovely flowers I treated myself to a few weeks ago which finally opened this week. They've certainly cheered up my chilled weekend.

Coffee Cup Doodle

So I decided to take a break from chatting about other people's lovely work and post a very quick (but fun) doodle I did last night. Here's to more evening doodles! Happy Monday everyone!

Sandra Dieckmann

Hi everyone,
Monday again! Phew! So the Illustrator I want to talk about tonight is a lady called Sandra Dieckmann. She's an amazing Illustrator whose work captures folk tales and fantasy worlds. I love the way she captures the animals in her drawings. They have so much character and detail/pattern. She's just great!

Drop Cap // Penguin Classics // Jessica Hische

Hi everyone,

The week has once again run away with me. How did we get to wednesday already? Jeez!

Anyway I thought I'd show you guys some brilliant book covers (my hobby/passion). These classic Penguin books were designed by Daily Drop Caps Blogger, Jessica Hische with Art Direction from Penguin's Paul Buckley. She'll redesign 26 classic hard back books for Penguin.

Her now terribly famous Drop Caps blog was started to keep her motivated whilst shifting from the world of the day job to that of a freelancer. I love that the blog has brought her clients and dubbed her "drops caps girl". It has made her name and it was just started as a bit of fun. I think her work is beautiful and her story is an inspiration to me. So enjoy and go explore her world!

A is for Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

B is for Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

C is for Willa Cather's My Antonia

D is for Charles Dickens' Great Expectations

E is for George Eliot's Middlemarch

A thought on a Monday

Hi everyone,

So tonight, I thought I'd share some beautiful work from my very favourite and most importantly Scottish Illustrator. I just feel an affinity with Johanna Basford because she set one of my favourite Illustration projects when I was in my second year of University, just after she had graduated from the same University, the very great DOJ . It was a project that stood out because it was fun and exciting. We simply had to chose a theme and fill an ink blot with Illustrations. I guess because she'd recently graduated and she was really passionate, either way the project really clicked with me. I guess I've been fortune enough to watch her success flourish. She's put in the hard graft and made a career as a freelance Illustrator who still lives in Scotland. I love the detail in her inky drawings and her selective palette. I also really like that she puts hand drawn Illustrations before pixels, which in this digital age is sometimes a challenge. Her work is a wonderland of different characters. I just think it's important when so many people give up on art after art school, to have people like Johanna to look up to. I've not stuck with freelancing as I found it just too hard. I wasn't organised before graduation to make enough contacts to launch myself into the freelance world. But I love my "grown up job" and learning from other designers is what my craft needs right now. Anyway Johanna is currently taking a break from her successful freelance career, and doing a sabbatical to refresh her mind and re-inspire her work. I can't wait to go back to Fife in the summer and visit her first exhibition at the DCA. She also has books in the pipeline which I can't wait to add to my bookshelf. So really what I'm admitting is that I'm a geek and big fan of Johanna but not her publicist so all opinions are my own here.

I hope you like her work too.

Happy Monday people!

Ferm-Living

So I stumbled upon this wonderful Danish shop called Ferm-Living through a Scandinavian blog I read aptly named Nordic Design . I fell instantly in love with their soft pastel colour palettes, simple retro patterns, and of course their Danish style. I am also a big fan of organisation (lame I know but it makes me happy) so anything that allows me to create order within chic fixtures, is a winner with me. The woman I have to thank for this beautiful company is a lady called Trine Anderson, who founded Ferm-Living in 2005, with her first wallpaper collection being launched in Feb 2006. I love that despite the company's huge success it is still based today in Denmark.  I would desperately love to fill my entire home with everything from their catalogue but for now pictures will have to keep me happy! I highly recommend a pursue one lunch hour of their catalogue too.

Resolution part 2

So I can't decided how I want to use this blog. 

I haven't really had much time/energy to do many new illustrations (personal work: i.e children's book characters or thoughtful doodles) since I started "le grown up job" in March last year. I have become obsessed since starting "le grown up job" with Pinterest and so see little point in blogging or creating (dare I say it) a tumbler account to display everyday imagery that inspires me - literally everyday I update Pinterest. So I find myself at a cross roads. I don't want to get rid of my dear blog since I have far more chance of updating this baby than my website. I am a self diagnosed techno-phob. However I am able to use macs/creative suites etc i just haven't quite got round to mastering the art of coding. So its down to my lovely computer whizz friend Alex to do my biding when it comes to updates for my website. It literally took me a month of attempts to master a wacom tablet. This quickly brings me to the point of this post, I've part decided in keeping with my new years resolution (to blog more) to post at least once a week (hopefully on a Monday) about creatives and people who inspire me. This could mean Illustrators, Artists, Restauranteers, Bloggers and beyond! Wish me luck!

Snow day!

So I thought I'd add some nice photos of the London snow! There is just something quite magical about snow and it makes even somewhere like London quiet. I've had a fairly quiet weekend with the usual saturday night out of course, despite the weather. I'd love to have a snow day tomorrow but I think that is probably not going to happen. Oh well! Happy weekend everyone!

Happy New Year 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR! BRING ON 2013!

Phew! I cannot believe how badly I have neglected my dear blog. However I think 2012 despite being a total disaster on the blog front, was to say the least a successful one! I landed myself my first design job back in march, along with getting to visit my dear friend robyn in NYC. The professional design job took a huge weight off my shoulders and I guess I spent the next 9 months trying to remember how to function in the world, without the worry of no "real" job and wtf am I going to do now I've graduated. But with 2013 already here I've decided to get back to blogging and get my priorities in line once more! I am hopeful the new year will bring lots of new creative projects, along with lots of travels and adventures too. I am determined to treat myself once a month so I'm not quite as frazzled by the end of 2013, as I was at the end of 2012. I have also decided I WILL learn to knit and teach myself to cook really great food, before this year is out. So anyway I will leave you all now with a nice image or two. Do pop over to my pinterest acc (i have a serious addiction, in fact that too maybe a reason to why the blog got left on the back burner, whoops!) to see what inspires me daily My Pinterest Joy!

A New Year Jelly Fishy... yes there is such a thing!