Owl Themed Baby Shower Invitation

A few weeks ago my mom, sister and I threw my oldest sister an owl-themed baby shower. Truth be told I've never thrown any sort of shower before and I had such a blast planning it. It was slightly difficult planning with me in DC, my middle sister in North Carolina, and the shower in Boston where my oldest sister lives. But I think we pulled it off well with one full day before dedicated to hectic running around!

I'm sharing the invitations I designed for the shower today and will share pictures from the event tomorrow. I first got inspiration for the owl theme from a gift my brother-in-law gave to my sister when she first got pregnant. It was a modern owl stuffed animal made out of vintage fabrics. They eventually built their nursery theme around it.

My sister has a green and white birch rug in her dining room, which is where I pulled the birch trees into the design. I mainly chose the colors to be bright, fun and playful with the main color palette being turquoise, brown, and orange. They were a lot of fun to design, especially since they were for my big sister.

Stay tuned tomorrow for pictures of the designs I created for the actual shower!

Google Before You Tweet

One of my friends sent me this Google before you tweet poster a while back. And I completely forgot about it until I stumbled upon it again. And thought oh yeah such a true statement! I love Typography sells prints for a mere $15. A pretty small price for such a wise proverb.

{via Design is Mine}

Moomah

Lately I've seen Moomah, a creative arts cafe for children and their parents, everywhere. First I saw the creative logos and packaging designed by Apartment One in HOW Magazine's design annual. I instantly fell for their identity made up of whimsical collages. And I thought what a great idea for a cafe. A space where parents and their children can spend time together and be creative.

Then I stumbled upon pictures of the interior. Which I realized, this is exactly how I would have imagined it. Collages of artwork, missed match furniture of various materials, and spaces to relax and be creative.

Looking at their website I just love the whole concept of this cafe. A place like this would be really popular in DC and many other cities. They believe in serving foods that are locally grown as well as encouraging kids to try new foods. Their menu is clever with items like yummus and a dish called the super tryer where kids choose 6 items to try.

I think their motto says it best, " A place of sweet whimsy, wonder and warmth, moomah is a creative playscape, a cozy cafe, a living classroom, a quiet hideaway, an art oasis, your meeting spot. Your favorite place to be together, and a place for your child to simply be." I just really love the whole concept and think it would be great in other cities. Below are more pictures of the interior and their branding.

Killer Jellyfish of Graphic Design Favors

I seriously laughed out loud when I read this poster. Mainly because it is way too true. Being a graphic designer I get hit up for free design favors ALL the time. Sometimes I don't mind it because it is for a good friend or it is a fun project. But sometimes it is ridiculous requests by people I barely know or at least do not fall into the friend category.

A few I've gotten most recently are t-shirt designs for the twilight movie premier because they were too cheap to purchase already made ones. And a sports poster for a football game with a specially designed font that includes the nike check in every letter. Both expected to be pro bono. And both expected to be just whipped up. I don't want to sound whiney because I love doing favors for my friends and family. But if you don't fall into that category and your request is super frivolous...it gets to be ridiculous. Which is why this poster is so glorious. Maybe I should hang this on my cubicle wall so people start to get the hint. Especially since I'm awful at saying no.

By LunchBreath

{via Core77}

1920's Advertising

So I'm working on a new graphic design project where I'm pulling looks from the 1920's. And while researching for some inspiration, I stumbled upon an amazing Flickr pool of advertising from the roaring 20's. To be honest I was stunned. I've always thought the advertising/design field has always evolved and grown in a good way. But looking at these gorgeous ads a little part of me feels like we have digressed! Look at the gorgeous colors and drawings! They could make any product look beautiful! Below are a few of my favorites. Check out Gatochey's flickr pool for some more inspiration.

Wall Art: Farouche

Confession: I've neglected any apartment decorating since the week I moved in.....which was almost a year ago. Awful I know. Now in my defense it is still decently decorated and put together. I just haven't purchased anything new to customize or add to my apartment since I moved in. Including wall art. Oh man do I have a desperate need for wall art.

Lately though I've had a yearning to finally add some custom touches. Things to make it more homey. So I'm guessing you will start to see a lot more home decor posts on this blog. At least until I've satisfied my nesting period.

So anyways I strongly believe that the art in your home should make you smile. Or at least just make you feel something. These pictures by etsy seller Farouche, are so sweet and I can see myself hanging them above my dresser. So that I can read them every day as I get ready and remind myself to be happy and think happy thoughts.

Happy Happy

Make Do and Mend

Bright Sunshiny Day

Crocodile Scales

Also how awesome are these Drunken Gift Tags. I love the vintage type and hilarious sayings. Perfect for any gift to that crazy girlfriend of yours.

{via Design Work Life}

Erin Jang's Design

I'm like a kid in a candy store looking at Erin Jang's Flickr stream of her work. As a side note (why have I had so many side notes lately?) it is really interesting how much the uses of Flickr have started to change and I love that more designers are starting to put their work up on there. I've noticed different groups for business card ideas, invitation ideas ect and it is a great way to quickly scan for ideas. I highly recommend searching through flickr groups for whatever inspiration you need.

So back to Erin Jang, she is a designer for Esquire magazine by day (so fun right?) and invitation designer by night. Both pretty sweet gigs if you ask me. Her styles are definitely a little different between the two, as you would expect. But I love when you can see various sides of a designer's work.

For this invitation she took her inspiration from the architecture where the couple is getting married. Such a wonderful idea and resource to pull from! Its always great when you can tie in elements that are meaningful to the couple.

These wedding invitations were inspired by the couple's love for vintage ephemera and secret notes. The little envelopes containing fold out invitations are so sweet. There is something to be said for creating an experience with different steps to open an invitation/brochure.

Below are Erin's table of contents design for Esquire magazine! So freaking cool, right? And a slightly different look from her invitations. I feel like this is a unique take on both table of contents and photo collages. I always appreciate it when magazines get creative with this section in their magazine which can so often be overlooked design wise. And in my opinion these are inspiration board worthy!

Check out Erin's flickr stream of designs here and her wonderful blog here.

Patterned Book Covers

These pattern book covers by Gabriele Wilson are so pretty I wish I had them as cards.

{via Seesaw Designs}

Mucca Design Firm

I knew of Mucca Design before I actually knew of Mucca Design. If that makes any sense. What I mean is I had seen so much of Mucca's work around in other publications, but had never put together that 1) they were Mucca and 2) they were responsible for several different design projects that had caught my attention. That is until I finally clicked over to their site and therefore discovered Mucca Design.

So now that I cleared all that up, I feel like I should share some of Mucca Design with you, since I was so excited to finally discover them myself! They are a smallish firm located in New York City...I actually totally lost the guessing game on this one. When looking at a design firm's work online I always play a game where I try to guess the city they are located in based on their look.....annnnd this one I was totally wrong. You win some you lose some.

I love their brutally honest philosophy: "Great brands deserve great branding, bad brands deserve to work with our competition." If only we could all choose our clients like that. I guess if you are as awesome as Mucca you can.

I originally clicked on Mucca's website because of this packaging. I'm still very torn whether I love or am annoyed by the coffee cups. I hate that corporate Starbucks has taken over the coffee house market so much that their clever misleading lingo has become synonymous with ordering a small, medium, or large. But at the same time when I make the mistake of ordering a tall at a non Starbucks coffee house, I hate it when they snidely correct me. Come on can't I have it both ways? Hate the people that make the mistake, but also hate the people that correct me when I do it? No? Ok well then I think I like this design.

Such a pretty B and I'm a huge fan of the teal background pattern.

I'm not exactly sure what the saying means, but I love the coaster/business cards for the Mexican restaurant.

I'm a sucker for pretty book covers and this one is just so simple and whimsical.

To some this may look like a basic mexican menu, but I love all the playful fonts and watercolor shades.

Hold the phone where do you get colored match heads like that! And does it quadruple the cost of the matches?!

See more of Mucca Design's work on their website.