Because it's Friday and it's been that sort of week

here 

here, though it says SOLD OUT, try here

as above

No words necessary

'nuff said

Via

Art Deco and Art Nouveau

I'm fairly certain I've written about my love of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles before. Here are some of my favourite examples of the styles.

Elizabeth Norton, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fork pendant, Doctor Gus

Via http://datography.tumblr.com/archive

London Underground poster

I love the Tiffany blue

Something on Twitter made me keen on a small project which involves the Tiffany blue colour. I'm really quite excited about it. Stay tuned for more details. 

Ursa the Bear - I'm falling in love

 These bears are from David Weeks Studio and you can buy one (there's a small and a large) at Tweek

They are made in Brooklyn using Beechwood and I've fallen completely in love with them. They are quite big, the large is 13.5 inches (34.29cm) x 6 inches (15.24cm) x 5.75 inches (14.605cm) and the smaller (called Ursa Minor) is 5.5 inches (13.97cm) x 10 inches (25.4cm) x 4.5 inches (11.43cm). I think it's the size that makes them so divinely tactile - I would absolutely love to hold one.

There are also other animals in the range. In some places they are described as toys but to me they are so sculptural, I think Ursa the Bear would keep my artist's mannequin company.

Feeling sheepish

I'm totally in love with the products from Herdy and isn't this the cutest sheep you have ever seen?

January in the Lake District is wonderfully un-crowded but I was disappointed to find that the Herdy shop was closed. The B&B where we stayed had these Herdy mugs.

The Herdy company also donates a percentage of their profit to the herdyfund which promotes conservation of the Herdwick sheep and upland fell farming.

Alphabet Bags - Yay Hooray!

Okay, I confess, I'm still window shopping online (pssst, check out these actual Christmas window displays in London) and today I found these lovely Alphabet Bags by Rob Ryan (of the laser-cut paper art fame).

Guess which letter I'm wanting most...

Heart Market next weekend

I've always loved the designs of these posters but I think this one is the best so far. Design and concept by Dominic Strauss.
Take note: The market is on the North side of the stadium this month.

Upcycled and cute

I just love this little lamp (again, I'm thinking of the Luxor lamp from Pixar). It's from Fab UK. My favourite part is that the little tap turns the light on and off. Perfect!

Open Dyslexic

This covers two of my interests...

A friend directed me to this site which has an open source font for people with dyslexia to use to make it easier for them to read web pages.

Designed by Abelardo Gonzalez, it was created to increase readability for readers with dyslexia. "Letters have heavy weighted bottoms to add a kind of "gravity" to each letter, helping to keep your brain from rotating them around in ways that can make them look like other letters. Consistently weighted bottoms can also help reinforce the line of text. The unique shapes of each letter can help prevent flipping and swapping."

People with dyslexia (including my friend) say it means that they don't need to keep rereading a page.

You can download the font package here and there's also an app!

Holiday plans

I'll be going to England later this year and of course have started making a (very long) list of places I might like to see. Today I came across this photo...

Wild at Heart flower kiosk in Westbourne Grove

(the roof reminds me of Paris Metro entrances)

Metro Station Porte Dauphine, Paris, design, Hector Guimard. Photo © Prestel

and now I'm just desperate to see it.

London Underground Radio

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record (pun intended... apologies), here's another brilliant design featured on the adafruit.com website.

This is a project by Japanese designer Yuri Suzuki as part of the designers in residence programme at the Design Museum, London. A printed circuit board (PCB) based on Harry Beck's iconic London Underground map with strategically positioned speaker, resistor and battery components enables users to visually understand the complex networks associated with electricity and how power is generated within a radio.

Getting crafty

A little while ago I was lucky enough to visit Fat Tuesday in Kloof where I treated myself to (amongst other things) a cool set of postmark stamps. I hurriedly used them on some gift wrap to justify their purchase. Future plans for the stamps include more gift wrap and some birthday cards.

A postscript (if you will): the UNISA logo is not one of the stamps. It's just me recycling a very old envelope.

Cool new typeface

Once upon a time I worked with a graphic designer who insisted that the correct term was typeface and not "font" as we have all learned from using Word.

Well, this is a new typeface designed by illustrator and typographer Alex Trochut for Wallpaper magazine.

I love it.

Thanks to Creative Review magazine and @wallpapermag for drawing my attention to it.

Digilympics! Tweet your team to success

I found this through the Adafruit blog and as it combines my love of Lego and the maker culture I just had to post it here.

Samuel Cox has designed a Twitter-powered Lego race where related tweets move the competing Lego figures. To support Tweet @UK_Digi (TeamGB), @US_Digi (USA), @CA_Digi (Canada) or @JP_Digi (Japan). South Africa is not represented, but it's still so inventive that I must participate.

Like the Luxor lamp from Pixar

This breakfast bowl instantly reminded me of the adorable lamp from one of the very first Pixar shorts.

Designs that move

I'm more entertained by this than I care to admit but I do think it's fascinating and captivating. I often find myself considering the process behind a design (like the packaging from Amazon) and thinking that every movement of this hand is part of a program just makes my mind bend.
goto http://astretchyhand.com/

http://astretchyhand.com/

Industrial art

I've just finished reading the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson and was impressed by the fact that Steve Jobs believed his products should look good, even on the inside.

This four-platter disk-drive from one of our old computers looks quite awesome to me.

My Top Blogs

Mint the Shop

Kirsty has great style and a real flair for Art Deco and the 1950's (also known as Mid-century Modern or MCM). Her prices are excellent, the quality of her stock is reliable and she does detailed research on each and every item. I like to check her blog every weekday morning because there are four new items for sale every day! There are so often things that I would love to own. Sometimes I just can't resist. This beauty was posted just after Christmas and I fell in love.

Here it is in my home:

Backwards in High Heels

Tania Kindersley is such a great writer that it's hard not to go on and on about all the things I love about her blog. Her photographs are like having a window in Scotland.

This is a recent photo from her blog:

Busy Bee Lauren

Truly inspirational in many respects. I love the honesty in her writing and her cheerful outlook. She's super-stylish and posts about her life, family, food and clothes. All-in-all a great read.

I hope she won't mind me using this very colourful image from her blog which, to me, mirrors her sunny personality.

Christmas decor

I want to try to achieve this on a similar ceiling light that we have at home.

Wish me luck. (image from here)