December 8 will mark my third winter Stitch 'n' Kitsch show. I'm pretty excited about it, and am working on some new products to sell at it as well.

I'm also pretty excited about the advertising I created for this show. It started with the postcard, up above. I created it (okay, actually a variation of it...) back in Spring. I was pretty happy with it right away.

Since then we kind of locked down the "Stitch 'n' Kitsch' wordmark. I'd made a few variations using these two fonts, as they fit into things, but we wanted something that matched to go up on the website, so I created a 'final' version of it to use in everything.

From the start I knew that for posters I wanted to expand on the idea of the postcard. At one of our meetings, someone suggested that for posters around town, instead of doing 11x17 posters, we use less paper and make 5.5x17 posters, two on one sheet. Instead of just making one poster, and doubling it up on a sheet, I made it into two matching posters, with all the same content, but 2 different birds on each.

Lastly we decided to run a movie-sized poster in the lobby of the Princess Twin (who got a new website recently!). Since there's so much space on one of those, I brought everything back together in one place.

And that's the whole thing. For now at least. I had an idea to make cards, each with a different bird on it, but I doubt that would happen in time for the show, it's really soon! Now I need to get working on having enough product to sell, and to get thinking about the identity for spring show, so we can start promoting it at this one!

Hope to see you there!

If you want to see more pictures of what I've been working on lately, check out my flickr page, or my instagram page. (There's lots of puppy pictures on the instagram page too...

Marc has another comedy night coming up at the Princess Cafe, so it was time for another anthropomorphized microphone poster! Maybe the last in the series of posters, but certainly not the last comedy night, and maybe not the last in the series of posters. I loved this idea when I had it, but I'm still not totally satisfied with it. It needed to be finished though, and so it is.
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Slogging through my still back-logged Google Reader I kept seeing Bill Murray posters, and finally found out the were all for Please Post Bills at Gallery 1988. Awesome, awesome show.

Not surprisingly, DKNG threw down my favourite with William James Murray. So good.
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I got an email from White Elephant in Hamilton this week that they were running low on my hankies and wanted more. The most exciting thing about this is that it gives us an excuse to go and shop at White Elephant this weekend!

(Seriously though, the most exciting part is actually that they sell my stuff, because their shop is awesome, and it means I'm being sold alongside other awesome people like Jenna Rose and others.)
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And, here's another new product pic from Twitter. Yes, I finally have towels with bikes on them. At some point I need to do a bike graphic that's more true to what I ride, but this design obviously works better on hankies and these very classic style towels.

Finished that poster up above a week or two ago. Final version ended up having "and" instead of "with," between the two names, but I like the way "with" looked better, so that's what you get here. More Lost Type Co-op. They just dropped two new fonts this week, and they're definitely still killing it. So good.
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So much stuff going on! Lots of things to get ready for BRFC's first Stitch 'n' Kitsch as a full fledged member (like the little trees you can see in the background here). A new Cafe Comedy night poster is in the works, there's some Starlight stuff, some QSY stuff, and, of course, my day job. Really wish I just had the extra stuff to do. Maybe one day?

In personal news, I have to go to the dentist tomorrow morning. Cavities. Somehow I didn't go to a dentist for like 10 years, and no cavities were found. 6 months later I go to a new dentist and there are cavities. Bad dentist, or 6 months of terrible brushing?
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For awhile now my intention has been to go to Android with my next cell phone, but this monolith iPhone case/projector is giving me more reason to want an iPhone. Pretty awesome.
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Cabin Porn is a blog that instantly got added to my reader, and then immediately became one of my most looked forward to 'reads.' So pretty. I want to print in this place (and maybe nap upstairs...)
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Want. Fisher-Price A-Frame (also from Cabin Porn)
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Jenna showed me this amazing quilt. I may be biased because it is in our wedding colours, but it is pretty damn perfect. Definitely want.

More new posters. Those in the know may notice that my posters of late are very Lost Type heavy. Loving their fonts. LOVING. A tip for you, if you're doing anything design-wise lately, check out Lost Type. Pay What You Can for awesome fonts. 

This Les Breastfeeders poster is possibly my raciest poster ever. Says a lot about my design preferences I think... 

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In life news, Jenna just had her gall bladder out on Monday. Bit of a wrench in the gears of wedding prep, but she should be pretty good to go by the end of the month. That, the wedding, and some other factors are making this a wicked stressful time, but we'll get through it. And then we get to leave for 2 weeks, so that will be nice. I just have to plan the trip now!!

Been pretty busy lately with various things. Bunch of Queen Street Yoga posters, some club posters (like that pretty basic 'artist photo' poster up above, not my favourite type of poster to do, but I try to make them a little interesting) and a new BRFC project or two in the works. I've been amassing a tonne of links to share, but just haven't gotten around to it...
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At work it's film guide time again. Time to flip through about 8 million images online. Always interesting to see what stands out in that time.

One of the films we're playing in March/April is the Oscar nominated Dogtooth. Sounds like a weird one, but one I'm intrigued by. LOVE this poster for it, though you won't see it in the film guide. I described the poster to my boss as ballsy. Ballsy to make a movie poster like that. It's more something you'd see for a concert. Just a simple image. Love it.

It's unlikely that we'll show I Saw The Devil, but I can't stop going back to look at this poster for it. Striking, for sure. No pun intended. Really love it. Makes all the other posters for it look like shit.

We showed Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives a few months ago, and I wish this poster for it had been making the rounds at the time, because it definitely would have made it's way home with me. Seriously, more of this please, film companies! Criterion has had some good covers done by Daniel Clowes recently, but more movie posters would be awesome too.
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And, just to burn off a couple more links that have piled up:

Want. (Ben Ong shared this on Google. LOVE.)

Neat. (I think Jenna sent me this)

AWESOME. (Super clever monolith art. Pretty sure this came from the amazing Coudal feed)

Getting a bit more work done. Some yoga posters, some ads, and that poster up above. Tomorrow I finally get down to work on wedding invitations for some friends. Looking forward to that, at the same time that it's a little scary to do work for friends. Not as scary as doing my own invitations will be, but still scary.
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The National Post shows some of the cover design process of Seth. Pretty cool to see. I can never say enough how much I love Seth's lettering and style. So nice. (from Drawn)
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Just in Time, Or A Short History of Production. Amazing looking art installation. I'd love to see footage of it running.
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Blerg. I was supposed to get more done today, but so far I have not. Fridays off always disappear way too quickly.

Finished that poster last night. For some DJ nights my friend Frank has coming up. It seems hard to tell on here, but 'coolest' is in an icy blue. Aside from being a DJ, Frank also runs the UW Weather Station, so I figured that if you combined that, 'coolness' and 'love,' you get a thermometer with a heart on the bottom... Fitting?
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The subject matter of this Christmas song is one I am definitely familiar with. Gift Card by Thao. Well dealt with. Totally feel the sentiment. 
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A sad/sweet christmas wish from Patches. Poor Glasses.
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Fonts in Use. This is my kind of blog. Doing film guide layout involves its fair share of font identification on posters. I can do a fair bit of it on my own, or at least throw up a close facsimile, but I also do my fair share of googling 'moviename poster font' for the tough nuts. Hoping this blog will be entertaining and helpful.
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In this essay by Ricky Gervais he says some things I have said almost exactly many times:
'As an atheist, I see nothing “wrong” in believing in a god. I don’t think there is a god, but belief in him does no harm. If it helps you in any way, then that’s fine with me. It’s when belief starts infringing on other people’s rights when it worries me. I would never deny your right to believe in a god. I would just rather you didn’t kill people who believe in a different god, say. Or stone someone to death because your rulebook says their sexuality is immoral.'


'“Do unto others…” is a good rule of thumb. I live by that. Forgiveness is probably the greatest virtue there is. But that’s exactly what it is -­‐ a virtue. Not just a Christian virtue. No one owns being good. I’m good. I just don’t believe I’ll be rewarded for it in heaven. My reward is here and now. It’s knowing that I try to do the right thing. That I lived a good life. And that’s where spirituality really lost its way. When it became a stick to beat people with. “Do this or you’ll burn in hell."'


It's a little long winded, but still a good read.
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I'm sure this is making the rounds pretty heavily, but I gotta link it here anyway: You're A Comic Sans Criminal. You tell 'em!

I'm really holding it down with being inconsistent with my blogging. Honestly, I've been pretty busy all around. Lots of work being done outside of work lately, like those two posters up above, and printing items for brfc.etsy.com and the upcoming Stitch 'n' Kitsch show on December 4. The posters each reference something different that I'm a big fan of; Saul Bass & toggle switches. I have been tweeting a fair bit lately, so if you want to know what's going up with me personally, check out the feed up there on the right.

If you've been looking for links to stuff I like, sorry! Here are some for you now though.
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It Would Have Been Cooler as a Van. Classic movie vehicles re-imagined as vans. Awesome. So hard to pick a favourite, but I pretty much have to pick the Back to the Future Delorean any time I get the chance.
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History of video game consoles. Thorough. Seriously. Like, so thorough I've barely even started to look at it. Excited to slog through the whole thing when I have some time (so, never?).
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Apple: Their tablet computer history. More thorough, nerdy chronicling of techno-history. Another thing I'm excited to read through...
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Heroes of Folk. Love these. Love the classic American folk hero stories.
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Jack Purcell mids in melton wool? Yes please!
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10 reasons to grow a beard. As if you needed one.
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CBC 75th anniversary logo. Nice.
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The evolution of the geek.
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That's enough for now! Maybe more sometime?

That just might be my favourite poster I've done yet. Excited to see it printed. Tried out a bit of a style I've been envying for quite some time.
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This NES coffee table is one of the most impressive things I've seen in awhile. Seriously amazing. The giant pull out controller is functional! Insane. The controller ports are outlets! So clever!
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Speaking of impressive, check out this Lego Ghostbusters scene. Shared by Sean via google. Nice stuff.
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To digress for a second, here's a quick shot of car-related things. I can be a fan of cars sometimes. I can't help it....

What a find! Over 50 Porsches found in a Ford dealership. Can you imagine finding that? Even just looking at the pictures is somewhat awe inspiring.

The BMW Isetta - Mid-century micro car. AKA that weird car Steve Urkel drove, if I'm not mistaken. Amazing looking little car.

Speaking of little cars, check out these great kid-sized reproductions of classic cars. Can you imagine having one of these as a kid? I'd go for the Porsche, not surprisingly. Okay, or the Jeep...
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Out of cars, and into.... a cab? This is a really cute story about a cab driver who makes people in his cab make "paintings" for him. Love it.
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I almost forgot this one. It's been haunting me. I keep going back to it and being amazed at how huge the boat looks. Can you imagine standing there in the shadow of it like that? Amazing. Just amazing. So impressive.
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Layer Tennis is tomorrow. Check it out. Mark Weaver is in it and he has made some stuff I love. Of course, he's up against the guy behind the Obama campaign, so it should be an amazing match. I had to edit this to add that this self portrait by Weaver is pretty much one of my favourite images on the internet.

Been doing more book reading than blog-reading this past week. By the way, you should read City of Thieves by David Benioff. Jenna got me to read it, and it was real good. Aside from reading, this weekend I spent a lot of time re-arranging, sweeping, vacuuming, mowing, baking and more.  Busy weekend, with satisfying results.
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That image above is a crop of this image from Shorpy. I just love that giant hat.
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Here's an interesting little article on the founder of Best Made Co., who make really pretty axes. I frequently browse and covet their axes. They're really nice, but pretty impractical. If I had a ridiculous amount of extra money, I might buy one though. Like that's every going to happen...

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Living in: Stand by Me. I always find this feature on design*sponge interesting, but this has got to be my favourite so far. I think about this movie, and it's look and feel a lot. Many things trigger it. I've always loved the idea of it, and the image of the boys, and their bedrolls, trudging down the tracks. Particularly the bedrolls. There's just something about bedrolls...
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Speaking of camping, look how pretty these trailers are. Super compact, and super classy.
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Soviet Posters Recreated With Barbie Dolls. Genius.
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Caffeinated Maple-Bacon Lollipops. Wow. These things just have it all, don't they? Damn.
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Just what is letterpress? Here's a nice little Q&A with the guy from Studio on Fire, answering questions about what letterpress is, and why it is currently popular, in case you didn't already know these things...

Finished that one last week for Andy Kim, who wrote such hits as 'Sugar Sugar' for The Archies. Fun poster to make for sure.
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So there's all kind of buzz in the geek world about the 'leaked' new iphone. Gizmodo seems to have verified that it is real.

Every once in awhile I have pangs of regret over buying a BlackBerry instead of an iphone. Believe it or not, seeing these images makes me feel better, because if I had bought the current iphone, and then this model had dropped in a few months, I would have been so disappointed. This new version is so much nicer looking. More functional machine, less toy. Flat back over round is a huge improvement. The gizmodo article makes a reference to this harkening to classic Dieter Rams designs for Braun, which I definitely agree with, and appreciate. It's exactly what I thought of when I saw this shot. Now, when I move out of my BlackBerry in 3 years, if I move into whatever iphone they'll be on then (rather than whatever Google/Android product is out there), I'll be so happy if it's still in the vein of this new style.
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Speaking of things that I would like, as we often are, check out this minifig crank flashlight. This is SO CUTE. And AWESOME. Totally can't justify the $32.90, but I really wish that I could This is one of my favourite things that I have seen in awhile. The fact that you crank his arm? Hilarious, clever, amazing, awesome.
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Check out this interesting little article about the origin of the good Sriracha. I've tried others, definitely not as good. Informative. Tasty.
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Rare Star Wars Images. Wow. Some really great candid stuff in there.
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So you need a typeface. Clever. Funny.
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Film guide prints Thursday. Still way too much stuff to do. Not looking forward to the next few days.

New poster up this week. Not my favourite I've done, but it should do the trick.
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Conan is on tour (love the tour name, btw), and we missed getting tickets by like seconds. Seriously, we actually had a pair up on ticketmaster, dropped it to try to get a better pair, and then couldn't get anything. Kicking ourselves for that one. Itching for a second date to get added. Fingers crossed!
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Have you seen the trailer for Tron: Legacy yet? You should.
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Record grooves under an electron microscope. Neat!
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GrainEdit has been posting some stuff I've been loving recently (not surprisingly...). Check these out:

Old Shell ads. Love the lines. Love

New HP ads. Impressive!

Naive: Modernism & Folklore in Graphic Design. Looks like a great book.

Tom Eckersley. Such great work. I don't know if I can pick a favourite on that page... The Panda, the handshake, or keeping britain tidy... Please, pick one for me! I've seen his work before, and it's just so damn good.

Another of last week's new posters. Still more to do this week.

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Here's a couple fun things before this post get's serious:

Bea Arthur Mountains Pizza. Obviously like Selleck Waterfall Sandwich. Not as good, but I do love Bea.

Really nice Glidden design work. I'm not sure if this is student work or not. Kind of looks like it, 'cause I doubt you'd see paint cans in that shape. It would be cool to though! The word mark is so cute!

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Have you heard about what's going on with downtown Brantford? Here's a nice little summary that Ben Ong shared on google. It's been on my radar for a little while now and I think the whole thing is ridiculous. Particularly that there's no real plan as to what to do when the building's come down. Reading through the comments, someone posted a quoted from the Mayor that made me so mad: "I think the worst mistake we could make is to have a solid plan. Let’s just take it down and look at what we have got. Then we can start deciding together what should go there.”

How stupid does that sound?

Something else that I think only comes up in the comments that I think is of particular note: "Within those 41 historic buildings we have the longest stretch of remaining pre-confederation buildings in Canada."

Here's a witty take on it all from the point of view of Hamilton.

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And now here's where I annoy people...

So I watched the big game on Sunday. How exciting! What I don't get though, is this celebration in Uptown Waterloo. I get that everyone is all excited and all and want to be together, but what a ridiculous place to do it! All I can think of when I see that is nuisance. Check out the ambulance slowly making it's way through the crowd 1 minute in. I don't know for sure that they weren't just there to celebrate, but it does look like they're on their way to the hospital, possibly with someone dying inside. Oh, but just keep celebrating, don't worry about that person...

This would have been the perfect occasion for a gathering in the square. What would have been really neat would have been to set up a screen in the square and make it a big event (maybe this happened and I just don't know about it...). But then I guess everybody had to drink while they were watching the game, hence the party in the video happening in the epicenter between bars. And of course none of them would want to bother to go down the street to where there's a big open area, so clearly the middle of the street is a good place to party.

I don't know. I get it to an extent. The heat of the moment, the joy of other people, the excitement, the patriotism, etc etc etc. But it all just seems like a big inconsiderate mess to me.

What a weekend. I got a new phone, and the flu. I've been bed/couch-ridden since Sunday afternoon. Not so pleasant.
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I'm loving this moon globe. The owners run a vintage shop on Etsy where they sell a lot of things that are pretty up my alley. Definitely worth taking a browse through.
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These minimalist Star Wars travel posters are pretty great.

So are these object-based tv images.

I need to carve out more time to design stuff just to design stuff for my own fun and enjoyment. That's what things like this always make me think of...
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Wes Anderson's Spiderman. Josh Chong shared this on Google reader. I have to admit, I thought it was going to be crap. I was pleasantly surprised!
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Exit Through the Gift Shop. Bansky makes a movie? I may have to put this on the 'must see' list. It's definitely on the radar, and I need to find out more about it.
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Check out these awesome van designs on A Time to Get. Nice find!