Gouache has its day

1. know what you are eating!, 2. Frozen Food, 3. 175, 4. cosmonaut, 5. fall house, 6. 1 of 5 illustrations for 'My Heart Draws a Rough Map', 7. Untitled, 8. Athena (Gouache on Wood), 9. I bought brand new gouache colors today

Thanks to a couple artist's at work who brought it to my attention, I've discovered that gouache is making a comeback. I think gouache was always seen as the graphic artist's poor cousin to watercolors and acrylics and never seen as a medium for "serious artists." But now, thanks to the urge to do something different, gouache is getting its day in the sun (though due to its lightfastness rating, maybe "day in the shade" might be better).

Check out the Gouache Works group for more inspiration.

The Midcentury Modernist: Home decor porn for designers

From Eames to appliances, The Midcentury Modernist is now officially my favorite home decor blog. Gorgeous plywood furniture and those deliciously minimalist lines from California to Sweden, this is a feast for the eyes. Warning: maybe be detrimental to bank account. You've been warned.

Luv-able + Hug-able Show at Gallery Hanahou

Gallery Hanahou in NYC is hosting its third annual holiday plush show. The theme this year is "medium and mini" so all the plush will be smaller scale -- perfectly gift-sized. Fifty artists are featured from around the world. The show opens on Thursday, Dec. 3 from 6-9pm.

Some of the artist's involved are friends of P+P so we'll get the nepotism started first: Robyn Fabsits, and Lisa of QDPatooties will have work in the show. Other (favorite) artists featured are Christina Gordon of Jam Fancy, Anna Chambers, Elisabeth Doherty of Gourmet Amigurumi along with new-to-us artists, Heidi Kenney, APAK!, and Sandra Monat of herzensart.


[Plush by Lisa of QDPatooties]

Kapitza Vector Images and Dingbat Fonts

Kapitza sells vector illustrations as fonts or vector files. Sets include botanicals, geometrics and figurative.

Christoph Niemann's take on diversity

Once again, Christoph Niemann's Abstract City blog on the New York Times doesn't disappoint. In this post, he tackles bio-diversity in a unique and witty way.

Eye Candy: Ben Javens

Ben Javens creates lovely illustrations which he chronicles in his blog. From sweet to rockin', his work totally makes me smile. He also has a shop on Big Cartel to purchase hand screenprinted prints and other objects d'art.

New York Through The Years

Being a photographer, graphic designer and tiny bit of a history geek, I love finding photographic documentation of specific locations over a span of dozens of years. Imagine my glee when the New York Times recently published a small photo archive of various locations through out Manhattan and the boroughs from 1930, 1980 and today. The collection provides an insightful look at the evolution of a metropolis and it's neighborhoods over the past century.

In the beginning Crumb created Genesis

Comic icon R. Crumb just released a 224 page graphic novel of Genesis called, The Book of Genesis Illustrated. Both comic geeks and Christians are snapping up the book left and right. From the excerpts I've seen of the book, I might have to grab one for myself.

20 Tweetable Truths About Magazines

This video was created by the magazine trade organization, Magazine Publishers of America, as an introduction to the Magazine Innovation Summit but the video has made its way to YouTube with Tweet-sized statements about the statistics of magazine readership and its advantages to other media.

Bonus? It's been lovingly set in Gotham all caps.

Its a nicely created flash video and a great reminder that people are still looking for tangible non-Tweet-sized information.

[via FontFeed]

Congratulations to Jake and his Cut & Paste Victory!

It is a little late, but we want to give a big congratulations to our friend Jake who won the Cut & Paste Global Championships for Motion Graphics! Jake did a guest post for us back in March describing what it was like to win the New York City regional event and now he won the whole enchilada. Check out his winning entry below.

In The Garden of 1001101110 from Jake Guttormsson on Vimeo.

Design Sponge, the Swedish Version

Emmas Designblogg is a contemporary home decor and lifestyle blog from Sweden. Its a different look at a well-worn topic. Yes, there's a little bit of nesting going on there but heck, Swiss Miss is doing it too.

Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles from Brent Barson on Vimeo

Brilliant opening sequence for the 5th Annual Typophile Film Festival created by Brent Barson and design students and faculty from BYU.Created entirely using traditional filming techniques with the five senses being the theme for the film. Letters were cut from Plexiglass, wood, aluminum, foam, ham, potatoes, jell-o, squash, Kool-Aid, clay and incense cones. Watch the video. Four minutes, very well spent.

None of your business cards

In the tradition of CarTalk's closing credits, Mauseth Design (with the help of Studio on Fire) created a series of "None of your Business" cards. Beautifully letterpress printed, these cards can be handed out to skeevy people you meet at cocktail parties, bars and various AIGA events. Only once they've sobered up a bit will they get that the joke is on them.

The Lettering of Harry Potter

The Harry Potter films are chock-full of beautiful hand lettered calligraphy, from opening sequences to the closing credits. Bob Walker (worked on Sorcerer's Stone) and Julian Walker (worked on the first three films) are actually mentioned in the credits as "lettering artists." Cool!




[via DesignWorkLife]