EmersonMade

EmersonMade, originally makers of cute flower pins and accessories, has continued to expanded its line as devotees continue to fall to pieces over each new thing the adorable Emerson comes up with. I am utterly in love Emerson and her husband’s country house (posted twice before here and here), and their whole brand aesthetic makes you want to live in their world (the ultimate accomplishment for a ‘brand’?), so I was not surprised to find that I am crazy for their apparel line…

Nike’s ‘Paint With Your Feet’ Project

I am so impressed when brands endeavor to do something totally original and creative.

Those pieces of art above are representations of runners’ routes, as documented by Nike Free technology. YesYesNo, the company that created the software, describes the project below:

For the launch of the Nike Free Run+ 2 City Pack series, YesYesNo was invited to develop software that would allow runners to create dynamic paintings with their feet using their Nike+ GPS run data. During the two day workshop at Nike headquarters, we invited the participants to record their runs and then using our custom software we imported the metrics from their run, to create visuals based on the speed, consistency and unique style of each person’s run.

Using the software the participants were able to play with the mapping and adjust the composition of their run which was then outputted as a high resolution print for them to take home. We also worked with the Innovation Lab at Nike to laser etch the runner’s name, the distance they ran and their run path onto a custom fabricated shoe box, which contained a pair of the ‘City Pack’ shoes from their city of origin.

[via Creative Journal]

Papercut Stationery

Now these are the kind of cards you’d hang on to.

I am such an admirer of papercut work for the sheer amount of loving attention and time it takes to create. It’s the kind of thing I wish I spent my free time doing– cutting clever crafty cards to send to loved ones– but I’ve had to accept that I never will, and instead I’m glad to find artists like Ashley Pahl who make pretty things like this and sell them to ADD people like me!

PS – Bunting is already one of the best things ever, how freaking cute is it in miniature on a notecard??

Modern Anthology

A new must-visit destination next time I’m in New York… Modern Anthology. Love the aesthetic.

A few minutes browsing their site reveals a host of treasures, from vintage darts with real feathers, to a perfectly worn button-tufted leather Chesterfield sofa, to custom vintage wallpapers made from enlarged British ephemera. The actual store must be such a treasure trove.

The Small Stakes

Loving the concert poster art of Jason Munn, who works under the name The Small Stakes.

Also just discovered his work is in the collection at SFMoMA!

Cowboy Junkies

This well-rounded piece on The Bold Italic about the best places in San Francisco to listen to classic country music got me in so many ways.

It first caught my eye because of the graphics used for the story– creations made out of paper by artist Chloe Fluery that somehow remind me of the work of  Wayne Thiebaud.

Then, the wonderful intro essay (below) by Sasha Darling about coming around to classic country music later in life after an early education by her dad totally sucked me in. I too developed a love of the music I grew up listening to with my dad– though it was more along the lines of The Rolling Stones, early soul, and anything with a good beat to dance to– and Darling put it more eloquently than I ever could have.

Finally, I love reading a good city guide (or really reviews of anything, also inherited from my dad) in the same illogical way that I love reading a cookbook cover to cover. It doesn’t make a ton of sense to read such things as leisure reading, when they’re meant for specific research. You can’t take advantage of the acquired knowledge at that moment. But still, just immersing yourself in the details takes you on a little escape as your imagination creates a preview of the thing you’re going to do/cook/go to/read/etc. Point being, I loved reading the descriptions of all these country joints that I now definitely want to check out in SF!

Below, the essay by Darling, and click over to the article to read about the spots she highlights.

“My dad bought me my first turntable when I was in third grade, and searching for records was our bonding activity. We spent all weekend hitting up record dealers and flea markets in search of rare scores. We agreed on almost everything when it came to music – except that I refused to listen to country.

Country was for rednecks and I was becoming a little new wave, punk rock girl. I couldn’t understand how my incredibly cool father could listen to such crap. He insisted that when I grew up I would appreciate country music. I firmly stated, never!

Of course as I grew older, I ate my immature words. In my late teens I got involved in the budding rockabilly scene. This new world of ex-punks turned hillbilly opened my mind to honky-tonk. As the years went on, I found myself putting on George Jones and Patsy Cline more often than the Descendents or The Smiths.

I was shocked at how connected I felt to the music. As much as I tried as a child to block out the lonesome and rebellious crooners, I knew the words to every country standard by adulthood. I still love all types of music, but these days I’m definitely a little bit more country and a little less rock and roll.

In this rock- and electronic-heavy city, it can be hard to find some good honky-tonks to hang out at, but with a little country know-how, you can find that hillbilly spirit within these urban confines.”

This one’s for my dad – if there’s a country singer, or rather duo, he loves, it’s Waylon and Willie, and particularly this song. He bought me an album of their duets before a cross country road trip, and I’ll forever associate the album with that trip. We even made a detour to go through Luckenbach, TX, just so we could listen to this song there.

Going Solo

Designer Brandt Botes recently decided to go solo with his design business, and he asked a few respected colleagues in the industry who had done the same thing for a little advice. With that advice, he created this stop-motion animation video for the Toffie Festival 2011.

Very useful if you’re a freelancer, and even if you don’t work for yourself, there are some really useful little bits of advice that are relevant no matter your job, and they’re just made more interesting (and credible) by the fact that they were given by people who have successfully gone solo.

The Invisible Man

Do you see him?

Liu Bolin spends hours painting himself to camouflage himself into a scene and then photographs himself. Here are a few from his series “Hiding in the City.”

Mechiche in Paris

Loving the art- and book-filled Paris apartment of interior designer Frederic Mechiche. The mix of 18th century antiques and paneling with mid-century classics is unified by the simplistic color palette and set off by art ranging from African masks to pieces by Dubuffet, Sol Lewitt, and Joseph Beuys.

Add in the furniture– Bertoia, Mies van der Rohe– and the place practically reads like a 20th century name game. But despite all the heavy-hitters, the space doesn’t feel cliche (which could’ve happened so easily) and instead has an eclectic, collected, personal vibe.

photos via Triple Max Tons and Automatism

Work.Place

I spent a good long while absorbed in the blog Work.Place last night, which documents the working environments of Portland creative types. As one who is not patient enough to ever be a true creative type, I love getting a peek into the setting in which artists and artisas do their thing, where I imagine them abosrbed for hours in their craft… something I’m far too ADD to ever do. The photographer and blogger is Carlie Armstrong, and she takes the photos on a twin lens reflex camera, resulting in a quality (occasionally wonderfully grainy) that I love that seems to add even more mystique to the settings she documents.

I’ve also never been to Portland and am loving the impression of the place that this blog is giving me… now want to go visit even more!

If you like this blog, also check out Ginny Branch‘s column on design*sponge called What’s in Your Toolbox.