CustomUSB

Vadim was very helpful recently as we were trying to order USB drives for an upcoming event. Their drives are VERY affordable. CustomUSB produces some incredible stuff.

Famous Letterheads

This site is a little screwy, but cool.

Too many Suds

The Great American Soap Overdose, by The Wall Street Journal. Yuch. This article was very interesting and beneficial, and also includes a neat interactive illustration (which they also printed) by Jason Schneider.

Be sure to read the comments! One guy mentioned how in Europe, when the efficiency washers first came out, they told everyone there was enough soap residue in their clothes that they didn't need to add any to their laundry loads the first couple washes. ich.

peep peep

The woman who created these is my idol. They are hilarious! TeNeues prints them as cards. You can purchase them at most bookshops and order online.

great advertising

the sign in front of the Swiss Haus Bakery today. deeeeeeelish!

XX

Really into the XX right now, an alternative band from london. Check 'em out.

in the news

A friend of mine saw this on the news the other nite, and told me "Kate, you are the reason this man can't find a job." This guy blames his inability to find a job as a graphic designer on the younger competition. I was curious since the guy was a designer and all. I do agree that as you get older, this field is more challenging. To me, the biggest reason is that you probably want to sleep more, and don't have as much time to dedicate to ridiculously tedious projects. But I did a little research on this guy, and well, i don't think age is the reason he's not getting jobs. He refuses to adapt. Take a look at his site.

Timeless design.

The other day I was paying the rent, and while waiting for my receipt, I glanced around my landlord's office and noticed a letter from the Community Legal Services of Philadelphia. I admired the logo, thought the designer had done a nice job with the type. I'm pretty sure its Helvetica. I think its strong, really embodies the no-nonsense style a legal organization should. Then I glanced at the bottom of the letter...... and realized it was from 1975! My initial thought was, wow, could this logo be considered timeless? To me it still looks great, its effective, powerful....

I took a picture with my phone and went home to research. Unfortunately, Community Legal Services has redesigned it's identity since 1975. Although the new one is much more friendly, I prefer the old version.
Then I thought some more about what a timeless design means.....Jacob Cass calls the CocaCola logo timeless. Some more internet research led me to this. Seems what it all comes down to is to avoid design trends when creating your logo. Utility over beauty.

idle hands.....

.....make sweater-shaped cookies.

Tonite!

Mail Chimp to my heart.

A friend and I are planning an ugly sweater party and wished to send a creative invitation to our guests. We decided to create an email using HTML, and as I was searching for directions on how to do so, I came across MailChimp. MailChimp is a GREAT resource, and totally FREE. Of course you can pay them as well, and I'm sure a ton of additional resources come with that, but the free version is pretty sweet. MailChimp helps you format and track your email. Here is a preview of my invitation.

MailChimp lets you schedule the time to send your message, save lists of friends/addresses/cohorts/enemies to send repeated 'mail campaigns', add images, change colors, fonts, sizing, etc. For those of you who aren't too familiar with CSS, MailChimp makes it very easy to customize by offering lots of palettes, templates and video instructions.

Once the email is sent, MailChimp, will track who opened the email, clicked on the links, or unsubscribed (Mike). Zero complaints, phew! It even shows you in what part of the globe your readers clicked!

Apparently MailChimp has some competition. I've heard from other designers/marketing folk that they've used Constant Contact before. Here's what the Chimp has to say about that:

They boast 200,000 clients globally, including power clients such as Firefox, Mercedes, Canon, Intel, Staples, Dwell Magazine, the Penguin Group, Georgia Tech and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Of course, to make a truly unique email, you should code it yourself. This will just save you valuable time and energy.

friend in film

Be sure to check out Patrick Smith's new short film. I see a great improvement since he started studying at Temple. I really enjoy the giant mouth. This kid is always taping something. Its kind of amazing.