Check out Matt Schwartz's design for the Citi Prepaid holiday e-greeting. It includes JavaScript enabled snow!

My letter to AM I COLLECTIVE. Wish me luck!

Check out Marina Borker's new website, built by graphic designer Christian Mortlock. The glass votives below are my favorite. There are great pics of her home installations throughout the site. Be sure to visit.

Watched Julie & Julia over the weekend. My favorite part of this charming film is Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci re-enacting the making of Child's homemade Valentine's postcards. They were simply black and whites stamped with deep red ink. Wonderful! Julia Childs was a printmaker?

Happy Halloween!

Tonight!, UArts, SOD, W+K, DPhi, GDs

Heeeey Philadelphia! New video from HOLLERADO.

Design Philadelphia began yesterday! Check out their amazing new site, built by Electronic Ink. Also, be sure to check out the Society of Design event, on October 11th @ 6:00 pm at the U-Arts Levitt Auditorium. Weiden+Kennedy New York will be presenting, and I'll be volunteering!

Looking for a studio or vendor to print these. 2 colors each side. I silkscreened the card shown. I hope to send these out this holiday season. Email if you know of anyone who may be interested!

I'll be attending the show at Masthead Print Studio this Saturday, featuring 30 new prints by Tim Gough and Greg Pizzoli. Go!

This is the most entertaining and interesting party invite I have ever received. Thanks Frank!

This web application has saved my butt again. It is a much needed resource. Countless times I have made deadlines and saved my mental health thanks to WhatTheFont. At CitiPrepaid, we often get files from Clients in which fonts have already been outlined, and of course the Project Manager needs it EOD! After taking a quick screenshot of a word and uploading it here, WhatTheFont will give you recommendations, often 100% accurate or very close.

Vacation in the Catskills.

Poster series for the Helio Sequence by Sean Tucker of Dog & Pony and Illustrator Karen Kurycki. These posters are absolutely gorgeous. They were featured in Print Magazine's 2009 Regional Design Annual.

The Work of Tim Gough

You should check out the work of local designer/illustrator Tim Gough. I really enjoy the simple compositions made complex through textures and hand-drawn accents. There is strong concept, humor and wit within these images.

Shout out to Fireball

Fireball Printing is a good-quality, low-cost print shop. They print and bind all my strange design projects with few questions, are readily available by phone and will ship your work back to you with fireball candies inside! They also run a project space, Pterodactyl, where they host gallery space and a studio for low-cost art classes. There you can find performances, lectures, screenings and exhibits. What's up Catherine!

Today's Grammar Lesson

I loathe poor grammar. LOATHE. Especially when used in marketing materials, where poor grammar is most commonly found. Here is a link to a fun grammar lesson by The Oatmeal.

Jobs searching is hard & Philly is small

Yesterday, a dear friend and fellow designer expressed to me his frustrations with finding a good job. My heart breaks for him, as I too know the pain of wanting to work with smart, creative people on exciting, challenging projects. Many of these jobs are coveted and hundreds apply. But I'd hate to see him lose faith and give up. We are young and motivated, now is the time to work our tiny asses off and shoot for the stars. "How can I keep him motivated?" I thunk.
This morning I purchased a t-shirt from the nice people at Print Liberation. I asked them to include a handwritten note, addressed from their team, expressing to the recipient their deepest sympathies. I'm trying really hard not to ruin the surprise right now and blurt it out. I know he never reads this blog : ), so no worries there.
While browsing their site, I realized that the t-shirt model is no other than Ada, the owner of Oma. Yet another reminder that the creative world in Philadelphia is small and rather incestuous. Philly may be barren of decent creative jobs, but the entrepreneurial opportunities seem bountiful. Its nice to see folks collaborating.

Target Payroll

The Target paycard proofs came from the printers today! I chose a layered design for this national program. Any target employee that opts in for the paycard will get paid on this crazy little piece of plastic. It's produced on clear plastic, ink and laminate on each side. The layered effect is very subtle.

Let my bloggers go

Wil Reynolds, founder of SEO/SEM group Seer Interactive, hired me to create a document illustration for a recent blog post. Wil put together the 17 Commandments of Setting SEO Expectations. You can download the document here.

Makin Screens

Screen printing at Fleisher last nite. Exposed my first screen. Almost botched it by pulling it out of the black garbage bag in the middle of the class...but it worked! The print came out great.

Pipping Hot Print

The PEAC collateral is back from the printer and it looks great. The series includes a business card, letterhead and envelope design, printed with one color on uncoated matte paper. The card is the most interesting piece: PEAC is a non-profit organization with 15 board members, one employee, a boat-load of volunteers and a small budget. Logistics were messy. Not everyone has a PEAC e-mail address nor phone number, board members come and go, and only one person actually works at their official headquarters. They wanted small volumes of each card but they needed to print on an offset press to preserve the fine lines of the type and logo. Once we received price estimates from the printers, we knew we needed a better solution. A fellow designer recommended the space for people to fill in their information. I created a mock-up and the client loved it! Now anyone associated with the organization can help promote it. The cards help any volunteer feel a strong sense of pride and belonging.

Continuing Education

Started my class at the Fleisher Art Memorial this week. Small, personal classes within intimate settings. The teacher is great. I enjoy the new-ish Fleisher identity, created by Paragraph, a Philly branding agency.

ESPN advertising campaign for the 2010 FIFA World Cup

ESPN's advertising campaign for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is a celebration of the World Cup and the host country, South Africa. The mural series includes 33 original pieces of artwork, one for each participating country and one general World Cup piece. Pictured above is the piece for the United States team. Each poster portrays the team's plight or essence as it enters the country for the World Cup. The posters mimic traditional hand-painted African signage and movie posters found in the streets and townships across South Africa. This campaign is beautiful and can be found all over Philadelphia, in sports bars, bus stops and transit. I've really enjoyed it.

To view all 33 posters, click here.

The paintings were created at AM I Collective Studios in Cape Town, South Africa.

Hot off the press

We received plastics today for two new programs: TacoBell Payroll and Comcast Payroll. Check em out! The designers at TacoBell decided to brand their card. I think this program will see a high enrollment due to the funky card. Heeeey spicey sauce packet. We convinced Comcast to use a pearl overlay, creating a shimmer effect, on both back and front. White cards turn out rather dull without it. We also chose a silver magstripe, ooooh lala!

In the News

I subscribe to NYT ad columnist Stuart Elliot's In Advertising, a free e-mail newsletter worth the read. It contains top industry stories and notable new campaigns. 160 made the news.....AGAIN!! Yeeeaaah Philly!

Must have!!

Data Flow 2 from Gestalten Books.

Presenting.......

The brand new Google Card, designed by Matt Schwartz, produced by Shawn Devlin (unfortunately, neither of these slackers have websites I can link to....shame!). This card will launch the new Google employee rewards program. Produced on clear plastic, with a double hit of the blue, green, red and yellow, topped off with a screen of white for the 'g.' The back has a silver magstripe. I'll try to take better shots of it soon. Nice job Matt & Shawn!!!