THIS THIS THIS

Pine Cone Love

2012-01-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

Nothing says "Be Mine" like a pine cone. We all love pine cones! Well, I do. And you probably love someone, or something, so why not give him or her some sweet, woodsy love for the V Day?! Now through Valentine's Day, this Pine Cone Love card is FREE...

any time you get one of these:

The card is printed on real woodgrain paper, so it's extra woodsy. Clearly, this is the perfect

Valentine's Day gift for the woodsman, animal lover, nature lover, or just plain lover in your life. Buy them at Assemble Shop & Gallery in Seattle, or click HERE to buy online.

I'm a hound dog.

2012-01-28T20:34:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Valentines Day! A little something for the fox, or hound dog, in your life...

You can get these puppies at Assemble Shop & Gallery here in Seattle for $3. I'm pretty sure those are two of the worst pictures ever taken of anything. Sorry! I have been at odds with technology all week. This blog post will probably self-destruct. You probably can't even tell how pretty the dark brown envelope with metallic gold flecks is. Believe me. It's REALLY pretty. It looks like this:

Here is the digital file for the art:

And the inspiration for it:

Because you reeeeeeeeeally can't watch that too many times.

More pattern design!

2012-01-17T17:48:00.000-08:00

Christina Malecka Identity

2012-01-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, (quite a few, actually...) Christina Malecka got in touch with me via mutual friends and former clients about creating an identity for her counseling practice. Christina likes to work outside the mainstream. Her clients do not like to be pathologized and are often involved in creative professions and endeavors. I immediately liked her and her approach to people's brains. One thing resonated with me in particular: the concept of patterns and repetition, the idea that we get stuck in the same behaviors. The consequences of their repetition is where much of her work lies. Identifying mental patterns that are created by these repeated behaviors is a key component to a person's experience with counseling (with Christina, anyway) and, ultimately, self-awareness. I immediately thought of the Spirograph, a much-loved toy from my childhood. I could see young Jessie sitting on my light-blue-shag-carpeted bedroom floor inserting various tips of my multi-colored click pen into various holes in a simple plastic gear, and then repeatedly drawing circles. Only circles, over and over, until the floor of my bedroom was covered with sheets of paper, each with a unique pattern on it. And so, Christina Melacka's identity was born:

Christina had chosen the periwinkle from the start. I paired it with a warm brown rather than black for an earthier, more holistic feel, and accented with magenta for the collateral. The font is a clean sans-serif with playful, girthy curves for a lighthearted openness that alleviates any fear of pathologization. (NOT a word.) Plus, Christina also specializes in adoptive family counseling for parents and children.

For more awesome circle repetition, to the tune of Philip Glass, CLICK HERE IMMEDIATELY.

Patterns!

2012-01-03T13:59:00.000-08:00

It just seemed obvious that I should take a whole bunch of animals and make them into patterns, so that's what I'm doing. Here's my first attempt, dragonflies.

Actias Luna - Luna Moth

2012-01-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

Luna moths are all over the place around my parents' house in the woods of Maine, and my parents are pretty into them. So, I made this one for my mum for Christmas.

To You + Yours

2011-12-22T09:42:00.000-08:00

Santa Claus is from Middle Earth

2011-12-21T11:49:00.000-08:00

Again: Martins. Love. Christmas. And my brother and I LOVED all the Christmas specials on TV as kids. Let's be serious: they were way cooler back then, and the following is irrefutable confirmation of that fact. (Although, I do like Disney's Prep & Landing specials. They're good.)

The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus was (IS) our absolute favorite, but it only ran for like 3 years around the time I was 5, and then it disappeared into Rankin & Bass' version of the Disney vault (you know, where Disney keeps things that are racist and everything awesome that Tim Burton did while he worked there. Look it up.) It's apparently the red-headed stepchild of the Rankin & Bass clan. I've met very few people who know what I'm talking about when I yammer on about the magic that is the Rankin & Bass interpretation of L. Frank Baum's Life & Adventures of Santa Claus. However, it resurfaced during my junior year of college when ABC Family started its 25 Days of Christmas and, much like the 24-hour "news" networks, was hard-pressed for content.

It will be immediately clear why this woodsy wonder was a Martin favorite, what with all its forest worship, etc. And if the name L. Frank Baum rings a bell, it's because he wrote all the Oz stories, which are far more weird than Judy Garland would have you believe.

And now, without further ado...

This Week's Stuffs

2011-12-15T10:24:00.000-08:00

Coming to you on Thursday, because I am gone for the weekend!

KNITTING

I've been knitting a lot of Christmas gifts this week and remembering how much I love it.

LENA HORNE

Who doesn't love Lena Horne?! If you would like to have the greatest afternoon ever, set up a Pandora station based on Lena Horne holiday. Then "Add Variety" with Ray Charles holiday and Ella Fitzgerald holiday. Then make some tea or coffee and maybe add a little kick to your beverage, and knit up some Christmas presents or do some cooking.

DILL

Fresh dill is quite possibly my favorite herb. I've used a lot of it this week.

THIS PRINT

I must have this, though I do take issue with some of these selections.

STARDREAM PAPER

Ok, the name is RIDICULOUS, but I have been working with this metallic paper this week, and it's really beautiful. You can definitely produce some fantastic pieces with this, and it's so fun to print on. The metal in the paper affects how it takes ink in some interesting ways. I do not usually go for sparkle, but this...this I like.

CANDLES THAT SMELL LIKE BAKED GOODS

I've never gotten down with the whole sugar cookie or vanilla or apple pie candle business, but I have been loving me a Gingerbread candle from Anthropologie and the Vanilla Bourbon candle from WoodWicks this holiday season.

ELF

Duh. Every time I watch this movie I am blown away by how fantastic and just really well done it is.

Have a great weekend! Watch Elf! Light some sweet smelling candles! Put booze in your coffee! And listen to Lena Horne.

Don't Call Her Tammy

2011-12-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

TAMIASCIURUS - The Pine Squirrel genus, containing three species native to North America. You cannot own an actual pine squirrel, because it is illegal to own a native species of wild animal. But apparently you can own non-native species of wild animal. This is what my friend Brian of Clone Press tells me. He's the proud papa of Rodney, a rescue squirrel, not native. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of Rodney, but I assure you he is very cute and squirrel-like. Rodney's gonna live to be like 20 years old or something. That's the life expectancy of a squirrel who lives inside a human's house. The life expectancy of a squirrel outside a human's house: about three years. Leading cause of death: Michelins. That's another science fact from Brian. Brian printed THIS and THIS. He's also the person who, a few years ago, told me about this:

Zardoz, pioneer of the futuristic man onesie craze. Fashion tour de force.

The moral of this story is clear. If you want to own a pine squirrel, you need to do the right thing and buy this one. This squirrel has a life expectancy of 100+ years. (Take that, all other squirrels! Native, non-native, captive, or otherwise.) Buy it for yourself. Buy it for your niece. Buy it for a loved one for Christmas. You can even Like her on Facebook! Come on, now. It's only $25. Treat yo'self.

Carol of the (weird, clay) Bells

2011-12-13T10:20:00.000-08:00

Here's a little follow-up to yesterday' s Christmas claymation funtimes. I always felt so conflicted about this one as a kid. The whole Quasimodo bit was lost on my 5 year old brain, and I could not figure out why that guy who was so clearly from a Halloween special was leading this choir of Christmas bells. But how can you not love this?

The only raisins I ever liked

2011-12-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

From the 1987 Christmas special by the Pacific Northwest's own Will Vinton, who also work on this little gem:

And now for something completely different!

2011-12-09T09:26:00.001-08:00

Welcome to a new feature on this here blog! Every Friday, (except when I forget or am too busy or out of town, in the woods, etc.) I'm going to throw 7 things up here that I have been liking all week. I shall call this feature: This Week's Stuffs, in honor of Gob Bluth.

SNOWSHOEING

My dad actually still goes out on these puppies. He calls them Bear Paws, and swears they are better than the aluminum or composite business we all use now. Snowshoeing was a lot easier back in Maine. You literally just walk out the door and off into the woods. Here, you have to drive out to the mountains and try not to die in an avalanche. That's why I went to an Avalanche Awareness workshop at REI last night. Snowshoeing is incredible, and I am pretty excited to get out there this season.

CRANBERRY QUINOA BREAKFAST PORRIDGE

I can't stop eating this, and I don't really see why I should. You just cook up some quinoa with vanilla soy milk, cinnamon, cardamom, coconut butter, and cranberries. Then you top it with more soy milk and maybe some sliced almonds or chopped pecans. Delicious. And so good for you!

THESE AMAZING MOON SLIPPERS

Photo from ing00te's etsy page.

These are just incredible. Handmade with Lithuanian felted wool and then delivered to your door, straight from Lithuania. If anyone is still looking for a Christmas present for me...these would work.

WHITEPOD, SWITZERLAND

One of our favorite things to do in the snow as kids was build forts and snow caves. We would even bring giant plastic Coke cups (that we won at Quoggy Jo ski races) filled with water outside with us, so we could carefully spread it around with our mittens like little snow masons, and then wait for the whole thing to freeze solid. This typically took place while we went and changed our mittens. These little camping pods in Switzerland are like that, only just slightly more awesome.

EARL GREY TEA + LAVENDER

I'm drinking at least two cups of this a day, with milk. Sometimes regular milk, sometimes vanilla soy milk. Both so tasty.

CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT

One of the great old Christmas movies. Barbara Stanwyck is one of my all time favorites. Barbara Stanwyck in a sweet old Christmas movie from the silver screen era is pretty much my dream flick. Watch it if you get a chance.

WOODOURS

I got this for my sweet niece Olivia for her first birthday, and I just love it. It's by a French company, and Woodours literally means "Wood Bear." Papa Bear is strong as an oak, and with this play set, he and Baby Bear are all geared up with soft and crinkly fishing tackle. I'd say this is the best Baby + Daddy toy I've seen. But my family is quite partial to bears, the woods, and fishing. And we're pretty Frenchie.

These should be sufficient goodies to keep you fully entertained and well fed over the weekend. I am off until Monday!

Jessie gets her craft on for Christmas

2011-12-07T11:31:00.001-08:00

I love Christmas. Everyone who knows me knows this about me. There is a looooooong line of Christmas-loving in my family, on both my mum's (Irish/French) side and my dad's (Scottish/French) side. And I guess we're a pretty creative bunch, too. My Dad used to play guitar for a band of nuns. My mum is a highly sought after cake decorator...and a bit of a Martha-esque house-decorator when it comes to the holidays. My brother and I both spent hours drawing the animals that we read about in our little golden-spined Funk & Wagnall's. And I spent even more hours writing and illustrating my own little books.

And then there is my dad's mum, Annie. She puts us all to shame. She paints, draws, quilts, sews, and crafts. I think "the poors" are basically just a highly resourceful bunch, but she takes it to new levels. She instilled a deep desire to make Christmas decorations in me and my cousin Angie at a very early age. And one year we repaid her with a completely ridiculous tape of us singing Christmas carols. That's right. My first album dropped when I was like 6. On cassette. Oh, how the hipsters would love it!

Anyhoo, I hosted a HOLY BALLS party on Monday, where a spread of shiny Christmas balls lay before the tree for hanging, and a spread of tasty holiday balls covered the dining room table for eating. As usual, I forgot to take pictures. But I did take pictures of my homemade snow globe that I made specifically for the HOLY BALLS party. A little felt, some short pins, twiggy bits, faux snow, an empty Bonne Mama jam jar, some crazy glue, and VOILA! Homemade snow globe.

It should be noted that I was watching Love Actually and drinking a bottle of wine while I made this, and in true Grammie Martin fashion, I stitched up a felt star to top the tree with while I was at it. I told you. I REALLY like Christmas.

Don't Call Him Woody (Just kidding. You can totally call him Woody. He likes it.)

2011-12-06T11:15:00.001-08:00

PICIDAE PRINT - $25

Picidae - Family, includes woodpeckers, piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers

I have always loved woodpeckers. Spotting a Pileated Woodpecker was always an especially huge deal as a kid. They were such giants to us, compared to the little tiny varieties that seemed more common but were probably just less exciting to me and my brother. The woodpeckers that lived in the woods around our house had an interesting MO. They consistently chose to utterly disregard the bazillion lovely trees as far as the eye could see and instead set up shop on the telephone pole at the end of our driveway. And their nonsense did not stop there. Not only did they choose this one bastion of modern life in the middle of the woods, (well, other than our house...) but they would peck solely in one spot on it: a metal tube about 1 inch in diamater. Every morning the unmistakeable-once-you've-heard-it but incomprehensible-if-you-haven't sound of a tiny woodpecker wailing away on a piece of metal tubing would resound around the Martin homestead. Those tiny beaks got nowhere, and no grubs were to be found courtesy of Maine Public Utilities.

We also loved Woody Woodpecker. We watched him on our Capacitance Electronic Disc Player. That's right. Oh, you haven't heard of such a disc player?

Developed in 1964 and then stalled by various corporate stalling mechanisms for 17 years, its 1981 release was a bit of a bust considering that laser discs and VHS had burst onto the scene in the meantime, in all their futuristic, high-tech glory. However, a simple family of happy Luddites in Northern Maine had one, and we used to rent discs for it at Gary's Home Appliance on Main Street, while the fancy kids, (the ones who lived "in town") rented VHS tapes at Grave's Shop 'n' Save. There were a few discs we actually owned, like Tour of Duty, The Last Unicorn, Mighty Mouse, and Woody Woodpecker. I'm sure every kid in America at one point thought it was hilarious to imitate Woody's signature sound. I'm sure every adult in earshot completely disagreed.

Here's one of the earliest Woody cartoons, from 1941, when he still looked like a REALLY bad trip with fat carrot legs. This is a classic cartoon case of two animals trying to slaughter and eat each other. It's a good one.

And here is a New York Times article about a clever Woody Woodpecker animator who liked to sneak in cells of fine art imagery.

image used by New York Times courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing

Now, hop on over HERE and buy this Picidae Print before the nostalgia wears off! If not for yourself, than for someone else. Christmas is a coming, and who doesn't want a woodpecker under the tree?!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2011-11-23T15:39:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday, Mr. Grant

2011-11-15T10:10:00.001-08:00

Today is Ed Asner's 82nd birthday. He's been in some of my all-time favorite things:

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Roseanne

(It's a Mary Tyler Moor dream sequence, and he comes in about a minute into this clip. Unfortunately, this is also the episode that started the Roseanne show's spiral straight to hell.)

Elf

And he's still going...

Vulpes vulpes

2011-11-04T11:06:00.000-07:00

This little red fox friend became part of the THIS THIS THIS vernacular eons ago, when I was working on the HOME series. She was hidden in the dark forest of Maine, my one true home. People often say that the Pacific Northwest reminds them of Maine, but this is a bit of malarkey...even though I think I might have said it myself a time or two. But I was drunk on nostalgia and the missing of Maine. No place is like Maine. This is a fact. And the woods there are so unlike those here...

While Pacific Northwest forests are filled with towering, ancient, breathtakingly magnificent beasts of trees, and the floor, storeys below the soaring canopy, is covered with the greenest, most beautiful dinosaur ferns, Maine forests top out at about 20 feet, and the floor is, as my mother would sometimes call my hair after being out in the woods too long, a rat's nest. Yes, Virginia, twenty feet is bit of an exaggeration, but compared to PNW woods, Maine woods are real shorties, and there are a lot more deciduous trees, which stand naked all through the 11.75-month-long winter. So, the gluttonous undergrowth gets a lot of light, and it reeeeeally takes over. "A walk in the woods" is not so much a thing. It's more like a fight to the death between you and whipping branches of wiry bushes, burdocks that leave prickly traces of themselves everywhere for weeks after contact, thorns that big brothers will sometimes stab you with, and the catchall "puckerbrush." This was a battle we waged daily with the woods surrounding our home, because the woods were where we always wanted to be.

The first time I saw a forest that you could casually stroll through was in Westwood, Massachusetts, where my college boyfriend lived. While those trees don't compare to the behemoths out here, I was blown away by these woods that were so different from the wild and scraggly ones I had grown up in 10 hours north. I think wild and scraggly is a good way to describe many things about Maine. Including people.

Wait, I'm supposed to be talking about a fox.

So, foxy here became quite popular. Someone even said she looks like me, and she was sort of adopted as part of my logo. For my aunt's birthday, (on Halloween!) I made her the fall fox illustration at the top of this post, with a full fall moon and purple night sky. Stay tuned for your chance to have your very own copy, when I finally get my print store up this month. Until then, go play in the woods. I will be on a final fall foliage hike this weekend out on the peninsula, and a little bit missing Maine.

Long Dogs

2011-10-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

Before I moved to Seattle, I lived in New York and worked as the Outreach Coordinator for Bide-A-Wee, a private, no-kill dog and cat shelter in Manhattan, and one of the oldest humane organizations in the country. While working at Bide-A-Wee, I did such glamorous things as handle the cats that everyone else was afraid of, get filmed talking all about dog training for an episode of the Martha Stewart version of the Apprentice, (only to land on the cutting room floor so she could include more footage of her own dog. It's ok. I still love Martha Stewart.) teach puppies to walk on busy Manhattan sidewalks, and clean lots of poop off of lots of things. I also designed an ad campaign based on personal ads that promised Bide-A-Wee could "make a match" for you, that was cancelled when some people called in thinking these were ads for human lovers. Despite the photos of dogs and cats, and the clever copy about long walks in the park and yarn fetishes. This really happened.

I also spoke a lot of the Spanish. Knowing how to speak Spanish is a good idea for any resident of NYC, but it was pretty crucial at my job, because a lot of our clients spoke no other language. So, I spoke Spanish on nearly a daily basis, but I was never comfortable speaking it on the phone. I don't know why, but it was just really hard for me, and I hated doing it. I would usually hand the phone to my Puerto Rican co-worker, Coco Petrone, when the person on the other line was speaking Spanish. But, one day, Coco was not there, and a woman called to ask the same question that 99% of people asked us on the phone, in person, in any language: "Do you have any small dogs?" Small dogs are a hot commodity in NYC, so the answer was usually no. When it came to this simple exchange, you'd think I would have no problem answering the woman, in Spanish, "Lo siento. Solamente tenemos perros grandes." I'm sorry, we only have large dogs. However, my spanish-over-the-phone phobia kicked in, and I answered, "Lo siento. Solamente tenemos perros largos." I'm sorry, we only have long dogs. Oops.

Then I got to thinking about how hilarious a shelter full of long dogs would be. (Not that shelters are hilarious. They are not funny at all.) And recently I got to thinking about how awesome the term "Long Dogs" is. And then I got to thinking about all the cute and funny-looking breeds of dogs that are long, or seem so because they have very short little leg stubs. And then I wanted to draw some of them. So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Long Dogs.

Welsh Corgi

Basset Hound

Dachshund

Skye Terrier

Dandie Dinmont (or, as I call it, The Tammy Faye Baker of Dogs)

Lhasa Apso

I'm huge in Iceland.

2011-10-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed Seattle's blooming love affair with Iceland. Reykjavik is our sister city, and the arts community in particular is enamored with it as of late. KEXP was just there, broadcasting live from Iceland Airwaves music festival. The Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard is currently housing a fashion exhibit curated by Shoplifter, aka Bjork's hair sculptor.

The work currently in Ballard was also part of DesignMarch, which I attended in Reykjavik last March. (Admittedly, I didn't see it, because I don't really do fashion.) It's also part of the Nordic Fashion Biennale, which concludes this week with a performance at Neumo's by musicians from Seattle and Iceland playing together. Including my friend Tomo, of Grand Hallway and Gold Leaves! So, yes, it is difficult not to notice what appears to be the beginnings of a beautiful relationship between these two lovely sister cities.

If you happen to cruise the Iceland Design Center site, (and speak Icelandic) you may have also noticed that they link to my blog. That's right. This blog right here. Iceland loves it. Aren't you glad you are finally reading it? Click HERE to jump to the posts that everyone in Iceland is so hot on.

Centennial: The Lovely & Talented Mary Blair

2011-10-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

If you use Google, and pay attention to the doodles, then you may already know that today marks the 100th anniversary of a true pioneer among women in the commercial arts. Mary Blair joined Disney studios in 1940 and made major contributions to classics like Alice and Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Song of the South (oops...). Hailed for her mastery of color and brilliant use of pattern, she also designed sets and murals for rides and exhibits at Disneyland. She left Disney after Peter Pan to become a freelance designer and illustrator for advertisements and children's books, but was asked by Walt himself to return as a contractor for Disneyland projects. A prolific and utterly brilliant artist for the span of her career, Mary Blair continued to produce beautiful works until her death in the 70s. Here is some if it now. Enjoy.

Designing an Argument: The unsuccessful semantics of the design community

2011-10-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

I'd like to think that the topic of Alice Rawsthorn's October 2nd New York Times article Can Anybody Be a Designer? is simply an issue of semantics, but it's not. It's part of a much larger issue and ongoing conversation among members of the design community about how we should be presenting ourselves. The idea of "open design"as portrayed in this article feels a lot like another example of the design community stripping away its own professional legitimacy in its consistently non-unified attempts to elevate it.

Isn't the notion that anybody can be a designer something we have to fight against almost every day? This doesn't seem all that unlike the client who says "My husband is really creative, and he likes lime green, so we're going with lime green." If I can't explain to that client exactly why her husband's personal preference for the color lime green is not actually relevant to the efficacy of the design of her new logo, and why orange, in fact, is a much smarter choice that will elicit the appropriate responses from the vast majority of consumers, then she shouldn't be paying me the hourly fee I invoice her for. I know these things, because I am a designer. Not everyone knows these things, because not everyone is. I do not know how to perform an appendectomy, because I am not a surgeon. Neither cutting out a splinter nor successfully removing my own stitches makes me one. How many scientists do you know who would say that anybody who solves a problem using the scientific method is a scientist? Probably none.

Granted, I'm well aware that there are a few differences between the client whose creative husband likes lime green and the person who turned a basketball into a bucket. Unfortunately, the phrase anybody can be a designer does not recognize these differences. Pointing out that design is happening all the time, sometimes in unexpected places, frequently in ways that are brilliant for their simplicity, and often alongside significant innovation is certainly both valid and valuable, and could very likely succeed in casting new light on the design profession and perhaps even elevating it. However, attempting to impart these ideas with language like anybody can be a designer will surely backfire. If what we want is for people to think that what we do can change the world, we shouldn't imply that it could be done by accident.

Part of the problem may simply be that design is a loaded term that applies to many things outside the profession of design. Even within the design profession, it covers a lot of ground. I am a graphic designer. I do not design buildings, or furniture, or water purification fixtures. Here's one way Oxford defines design:

Well then, yes, anybody can be a "designer." There certainly seems to be room for almost anyone within that definition. So, I guess maybe this is an issue of semantics, after all. But then isn't semantics also an issue of design? If a goal of the design profession is to assign ourselves a level of specialization, proven by the outcomes of our works, that warrants the titles we hold and the awards we receive and the fees we charge, then isn't capitalizing on the vagueness of the term "design" a rather poorly designed argument?

ICELAND: The Blue Lagoon, sustainability, and the like

2011-08-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

As I was washing all the Icelandic white silica out of a swimsuit for scuba class, I realized I never posted anything about the Blue Lagoon. So, here you have it: my final Iceland post...5 months after I returned from Iceland.

On my final day in Iceland, I went to the Blue Lagoon. This is not uncommon, as it is on the way to the airport in Keflavik from Reykjavik. My first day in Iceland, bleary-eyed from 36 hours sans sleep, was spent in a stupor at the Blue Lagoon Spa in Reykjavik. I am not the type to pay people to rub me, and I do not like beauty products. They are toxic, and parfum is a tad corrosive to my delicate system. I generally don't put anything on my skin that I would not put in my mouth, and swallow. But spa culture is a big deal in Iceland, so I figured I might as well get in on that. Also, 36 hours without sleep is not that unlike drunkeness. ALSO, I spent the first two days in Iceland using a pretend exchange rate, so I did not even realize I was paying these people $200+ so I could sip orange water and wear a one-size-fits-all paper thong while a very muscle-y Icelandic fellow rubbed things all over my nude self. As you can imagine, one size certainly does not fit all, and paper is not a great choice for thongs. Point is, Day 1 in Iceland was spent at the Blue Lagoon Spa, in Reykjavik, and Day The Last was spent at the actual Blue Lagoon. Bookends!

Day 1: A large man rubbed everything from salt to mud to hot oil all over me while I wore what amounted to a triangular surgical mask on my nethers. I don't actually see the point of this absurdly flimsy, highly mobile garment, unless perhaps it is the only thing that legally separates what they do from sex work.

Day The Last: I swam around a geothermal pool of magical mineral water that people from all over the world flock to for its healing and rejuvenating powers.

The pool itself is the biproduct of a geothermal power plant, which is considerably less magical than a naturally existing pool of this sort would be, but still. Also, the geothermal power system is pretty magical in and of itself, if you're into that sort of thing. Iceland is an entirely self-sufficient island nation whose power is 99% renewable. They eat sheep's heads and puffin cheeks and yogurt and fruits + vegetables that they grow in greenhouses. I visited a greenhouse while I was there and saw, among other things, the first bananas to ever grow in Iceland. Here they are now:

Basically, Iceland is holdin' it down pretty hard on the sustainability front. So the fact that this pool formed when a geothermal power plant was built is actually pretty rad. Here are some pictures of that plant that I took from the window of a moving vehicle:

And here are some more pictures of the Blue Lagoon's shores. Keep in mind, these are quite bad. I am not a photographer, and my camera is a little point-and-shoot number that I got for Christmas a few years ago. Someone asked me what camera I used to take one of my other Iceland photos, and I had to scrape some gum off it to find out. The actual color of the Blue Lagoon is kind of like this:

But my camera made it look like this:

LINES

2011-08-02T09:35:00.001-07:00

Here are some lines I am working with these days.

Playscool Hipsters

2011-08-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

I finally updated my site, so now it will stop fighting with smartphones! Also, for the first time ever, I added actual photos of some of my work (by the lovely and talented Chelsea Fisher of cfisherphotography.) AND, I posted some new work, including Playscool Hipsters.

These little buddies came about after I was working on some illustrations for a work/life app aimed at the infamous Millenials. I like how Millenial behavior in the workplace has become something of serious ethnographic consideration rather than the brunt of hilarious jokes like the ones they make about them on 30 Rock. I also like how I capitalize Millenial. Am I supposed to do that? Seems a tad excessive.

Anyway, I was making a lot of brightly colored, hip little young people in the Playskool-esque fashion that is my way. It was yet another project where I sat around cracking myself up all day. (This work/life project was a massive collaboration, so I'm pretty sure that me sitting around laughing to myself is at least slightly less weird than it would normally be here in the lonely THIS THIS THIS offices. And anyone who has shared an office with me will confirm that its essentially par for the course.) When that project was done, I decided to take it a couple steps further, and the official Playscool Hipster series was born.

A couple disclaimers: First, of course I know how trite it is to poke fun at hipsters. This is not really my goal here. They are just really fun to draw, and, as one friend put it: "their brightly colored, ridiculous clothing" really suits my style of illustration. Second, these are strictly fictitious hipsters! Any resemblance to actual hipsters is definitely unintentional, and probably unavoidable.

Enjoy.

ICELAND: Spelunking in a Lava Tube

2011-06-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

So, a couple months ago, I went to Iceland for DesignMarch, and I apparently still haven't finished blogging about it. So, here is another Iceland post! This one is about spelunking. (I am telling you what the post is about instead of just writing the post. That's weird.) Anyway, on my second to last day in Iceland, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to go caving in some lava tubes up in the mountains! I am a bit of a claustrophobic person, or so I thought, but I figured I would leave this experience either permanently cured, or horribly embarrassed in front of some people I would never see again.

Turns out, when you are inside a lava tube, even when you are in the narrowest parts, shimmying along on your stomach for hundred-foot stretches where the distance between "floor" and "ceiling" is only about two feet, the whole thing is just way too awesome to even consider being claustrophobic. I was inside planet earth. In it! Following paths that were carved out by lava. Lava! At one point, we turned off our headlamps and experienced complete, true darkness. This is actually a pretty, pretty amazing thing. In fact, it was all so mindblowing that I have decided I am un-claustrophobic enough to go scuba diving, so I'm going to get certified next month. The idea is that next winter I'll head down to New Zealand/Australia and do the Great Barrier Reef...a tad warmer than Iceland, and even more Hobbit-y! Win win!

Clearly, I do not have photos of the tightest passages, because there was no room for camera holding, pointing, shooting, etc. But I do have some pictures of my lava-tube-spelunking-adventure, and here they are:

INSIDE

The entrance.

The unknown. (Spooky)

A minor shimmy. Seriously. Very minor. This is practically standing upright compared to some other positions we assumed.

A dead sheep. This poor bugger is believed to have wandered into the mountains and fallen into some unknown hole, because there is allegedly no way it could have walked in. Seriously, sheep are literally EVERYWHERE in Iceland.

Orange.

According to the guide, this is "where the lava flowed." I have no idea what that means, because I thought the lava done had flowed everywhere up in there, but I figured I should photograph it.

Ice. And mist. (see Spooky)

Ice and the unknown.

A room with an icy ceiling.

A different icy ceiling.

A knobby ceiling.

OUTSIDE

The exit, for those of us who chose to do the 20 minute EXTREME EXTENSION* during which you were on your stomach the whole time. The other people came back out through the entrance.

*Not its actual name

I bought a plant like this, only yellower, at the Ballard Farmer's Market on Sunday. I think the snails have already sniffed it out and begun to have at it with their radulas. Curses!

Magic. Pretty sure. I wanted to take a hundred naps in this moss. Magical, magical moss naps.

see Magic

Again, see Magic

Clouds! I got sick of saying magic.*

*But it is.

And back to the "truck," because "van" sounds wussy! These people look so important, in a National Geographic, hazmat moment kind of way.

ICELAND: Random Reykjavik photo montage

2011-05-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

I am somewhat notorious for never having my camera and never letting anyone take pictures of me, so I'll start this post with a warning that this bunch of images of Reykjavik is moderately to completely senseless. At one point I actually realized I had not taken any pictures around the city itself, so I just snapped like 15 and called it a day. So, in this series, you will see utterly meaningless things like a café that is apparently famous rather than the one I went to about 15 times while there, (You can see that one here.) a logo that looks just like one in Fremont, and a random street.

I did not go here. Not one time, but apparently a lot of people do, because it was in a movie about Reykjavik, or it is owned by someone who was in a movie about Reykjavik, or both, or something.

This sure looks like this. And they both look like this.

A street.

My paltry and uninformed photo documentation of it aside, Reykjavik is a great city. I spent a lot of time just wandering around. I do feel a tad ridiculous calling it a city, because it feels super, super tiny, and it is super, super cute. At one point, I took a picture of a tall building, just to prove there are a few. That picture is incredibly boring, and will not be included below. So, in no particular order, here is a slough of pictures of things of no particular importance in Reykjavik.

SWANS

Some swans standing in a row.

A swan fight breaks out.

A swan leaves the scene of the fight. Later bullies duck.

THE HARBOR

Solfar, a sculpture of the bones of a Viking ship.

Solfar again.

Reykjavik had some pretty sweet graffiti.

And this awesome sign. Please click this image to enlarge, so you can read it. Also, as you can see in the reflection, it matches the hat I was wearing that day.

There is a huge flea market down at the harbor every Saturday, where you can buy things like these.

And these. Notice the little creep in the lower left looking directly at me/the camera/you.

More weird Santas and mannequin heads, and an armless, faux concrete torso in a sombrero.

Some little Icelandic girl has outgrown her Barbie Christmas DVD.

THIS THING

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

That's me, Room 211.

This awesome-looking church is kind of a big deal, and I don't really know its story. It was about 2 blocks from my hotel, and it has a viewing deck at the top that I somehow did not know about until I was already back in Seattle.

A blue building with a red door, next to a red building with a white door. This was very close to my hotel, so I took a picture of it. The neighborhood I stayed in was actually incredibly charming, with cobblestone streets, (or maybe just sidewalks...) cute shops, great restaurants, a couple book stores, fantastic little cafés, a couple galleries, etc. A better photographer/traveler/person would have done it justice. But, there you have it, my scattered, hodgepodge of pics from Reykjavik!

ICELAND: Siggi Eggertsson at DesignMarch

2011-04-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the thing I was most looking forward to at DesignMarch was seeing the work of Icelandic illustrator Siggi Eggertsson. Eggertsson was born in Iceland in 1984 and now lives and works in Berlin. Considered a bit of a rising star in illustration among industry types, he has done work for everyone from Nike to Coke to Gnarls Barkley. Spend a few minutes, or hours, on his site, and it should be pretty clear why I am among the many who admire his work so much.

His series Polyfonia was on display at DesignMarch, and it was fantastic, far and away the best work I saw at the festival. Polyfonia is a set of crests that Eggertsson designed for an album by Icelandic band Apparat Organ Quartet. The series includes a crest for each song on it, one for each band member, and a cover design that combines them all. The entire series was created by cutting and stacking meticulously cut layers of vinyl foil. These photos don't come close to doing the work justice, but here they are, in no particular order:

My past life as a cupcake junky

2011-04-27T10:05:00.001-07:00

You have probably heard of cupcakes. They are rather popular. If you live in Seattle, you have definitely heard of Cupcake Royale, our local mega cupcakerie. Seattle has who-knows-how-many cupcake shops at this point, but Cupcake Royale is the original, the biggest, and by far the best branded. Branding and marketing have always been one of its major strengths. Everyone in the Emerald City has seen a shirt or sticker that says Legalize Frostitution (or its spin-off, Legalize Gay Cupcakes), or Rock Out With Your Cupcake Out, or These Cupcakes Are Taken, etc. And you've seen their cakes and schwag at weddings, parties, or as the donated dessert at non-profit events all over the city.

Before I struck out on my own and started THIS THIS THIS a little over a year ago, I worked for nearly 4 years at Cupcake Royale as their in-house creative department. I did design, copy, blogging and social media, photo styling, marketing, donations, outreach, etc. In 4 years time, I designed their website (twice), online ordering form (twice), ads, merchandise, packaging, signage & environmental, and the infamous Deathcake Royale logo. It was a brilliant place to cut my teeth and learn about every possible kind of design (as well as marketing and business), and they had the keen advantage of being a small business with great in-house work, if I do say so myself. Win win.

I recently saw a Tweet from quite literally the mother of all cupcake blogs, Cupcakes Take the Cake about a recent visit to Seattle in which they decided that Cupcake Royale wins Best Cupcake Box. I was pretty, pretty stoked, because I designed that box! Along with all of Cupcake Royale's other cutie pink and brown boxes, bags, cups, plates, etc. You can read the full post, wherein she says this thing should "win some kind of design award," ahem, HERE, and here are some of her pics of my work:

(CTTC photo)

The little pink box in question.

(CTTC photo)

You can't go wrong with a diagram. The kids love them.

(CTTC photo)

Aw, how I love this little guy. Brings a tear to my eye! The much-loved Deathcake Royale logo was pretty much the very first thing I did at Cupcake Royale, waaaaaaaay back in 2006. I was still just a young thing, and had not yet taken on a CR project on my own. At that point, my job had mainly consisted of editing and updating the existing creative, which had been done by the utterly brilliant, wildly talented, and effortlessly hilarious Jason Sutherland (who did both the Cupcake Royale and Vérité Coffee logos.) Let me tell you, I came up with some ass-ugly drafts for this mother. One was likened to a circus tent, and somehow, this was an apt comparison. Others were just creepy looking. Some were too Che Guevara, others too Jack Sparrow. Finally, I replaced all the skullface business that was weirding this thing out with a heart, cleaned it up, and the logo for what is probably still Cupcake Royale's most popular, sensationalized product was born.

One day soon, when I stop being a mega slacker and get my new website up, my favorite pieces of Royale packaging, merchandise, etc. will be on it for all to see, but for now, here are a couple of the last projects I did for them.

The Royale gang teamed up with local greenthumb sweetheart Amy Pennington last summer for Pantry Royale, a series of preserving workshops held in the Capitol Hill café. This is a design I did for a 3-color screen printed poster on kraft.

Cupcakes went mobile last fall, and I had the pleasure of designing a super fun, bitty little pink van and a tricked out hotdog cart to roll behind it. Unfortunately, the chopper flames did not make the final cut, but such is the life of a designer, and I still see them every time I see that bright pink van cruisin' around town.

Cupcake Royale recently printed up these sweet bags to carry all your goodies in. This was one of my last Royale projects. They were really fun to do, and the final product looks fantastic, a great complement to the cupcake boxes themselves, and really fun branding for CR as these make their way around Seattle. It's definitely the kind of shopper that people will keep and re-use.

And yes, I ate a cupcake every day, Monday - Friday, for nearly four years. And sometimes on weekends. RIP Vanilla MoFro. You were good to me.

John James Audubon

2011-04-26T12:36:00.001-07:00

It should come as no surprise that I am a big fan of the man's work, and today would have been his 226th birthday. Audubon is most famous for "Birds of America," in which he painted nearly 500 bird species in incredible, unprecedented detail. The illustrations are life-sized, creating a challenge for birds that stand taller than what could fit on a 39.5" by 28.5" print. Because of this, his tall birds, like the heron and flamingo, are my favorites. While some find them conspicuously awkwardly positioned, I've always thought being bent in half actually captures these birds more appropriately than the standard long and lean look. He was also intent on capturing birds in flight, and in a very Da Vinci-esque manner. Audobon actually shot a lot of the birds he illustrated and went to great lengths to pin his models up in what appeared to be their natural positions of diving and flight. "Birds of America" recently became the most expensive book ever, when a copy sold for about 11.5 million dollars at auction. Audobon also painted (and shot) other animals, as well.

via The Mirror

ICELAND: The Golden Circle, Geology, Seismology & Middle Earth

2011-04-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

Iceland is seemingly far too often described in the following clichéd, trite terms:

Surreal
Otherworldy
Like landing on the moon

Turns out, none of these is an exaggeration. Iceland's landscape is truly and profoundly beautiful, and it was far more inspiring than anything I saw at DesignMarch. You hear very quickly, probably even before arriving in Iceland, that the thing everyone must do while in Iceland is the Golden Circle Tour. The people who say this are correct. Everyone, in fact, really must do this. If it doesn't rank near the top of the list of things that have blown your mind, you probably need to stop doing enormous piles of drugs.

Iceland and its people are virtually synonymous with mysticism. Known for, amongst other things, a widespread and unwavering belief in elves, Icelanders are a superstitious, fantastical bunch, and there is really no question why. Pitch black lava rock formations, spongey mounds of emerald moss, multiple active volcanoes, bubbling hot springs, steaming sulfur fields, explosive geysers, roaring waterfalls, and unearthly blue geothermal pools are bound to affect your perspective and inform any ideas you have about your place in the universe. Much to many a tourist's chagrin, you can literally smell the inside of the earth throughout much of Iceland. You can see it bubbling up, wafting away, and blasting into the air. You cannot escape the realization that you are a tiny, tiny, little thing compared to all of this, and to almost everything else. And, of course, if you were a Viking who landed in the midst of all this a thousand years ago, you'd probably start believing in elves and the like tout de suite.

Some humans walking between the North American and Eurasian plates.

Gulfoss, a gigantic waterfall.

Strokkur, an extremely active geyser, doing what it does approximately every ten minutes.

Strokkur having some down time.

That little boardwalk is there, because these two beautiful pools are surrounded by boiling mud. Boiling mud that will boil your feet.

Steaming red mud, bright green patches of moss, and snow that was gone two days later.

Again with the steaming, bubbling, wafting, and general geologic wonder.

I am 99% sure that something a lot like a Hobbitt lives in that bitty little house.

ICELAND: The DesignMarch menagerie

2011-04-18T14:34:00.000-07:00

It doesn't take much time in Iceland to realize the importance of wool and fish. Fish is the country's chief export, (If you don't count the multiplayer online roleplaying sensation that is EVE, which was hosting a convention at the same time as DesignMarch. I feel fortunate, yet oddly disappointed, to have not witnessed any LARPing on my trip.) and Iceland is known for its particular type of patterned wool sweater made from the thick, itchy wool of Icelandic sheep. Everywhere you go you see sweaters, blankets, hats, mittens, and assorted woolen goodies for sale, and every menu is choking with fishy dishes, like the country's national dish of fermented shark. (Another national dish is boiled sheep's head.) So, it came as no surprise that each of these cultural and economic strongholds was featured in DesignMarch. (In case anyone forgot, DesignMarch is the official reason I went to Iceland.) From fancy new pottery to boil your sheep's head in, to glowing fish carcasses to light your home with, Icelanders showed that even within the realm of innovation, they are almost stubbornly true to their heritage. You kind of have to love this about them.

FISH

Near the end of my visit, I had the great fortune, after a long day of spelunking in a lava tube, to visit this olfactory wonder:

Alongside the road up in the mountains, racks and racks of fish hang to dry. General curiosity for all things animal aside, the thing that struck me about this scene was how much it made me appreciate these:

I had seen these lamps a couple days prior as part of a group show, and they were by far the most interesting pieces there. There is something oddly beautiful about them, even for a vegetarian. And there is something that is somehow subtly heavy-handed or just outright oxymoronic about a warm, glowing light inside a dried, shriveled carcass. Knowing that these crispy, hanging, fish shapes are a somewhat ubiquitous part of the Icelandic landscape and cultural history gave these lamps a far greater significance, and, for me, elevated them from mere objects that look really cool, to an example of really good, smart, and meaningful design.

SHEEP

Wool clearly seems like a more logical fit for a design festival than dead fish do. Textile design has long been a treasured bit of Icelandic heritage, and wool is the medium of choice. The Icelandic sheep, like seemingly every Icelandic thing, is peculiar. Not only is its wool exceptionally long and shaggy, but it is comprised of two types of hair, one long and one short. This makes it particularly warm, and particularly itchy. But Icelanders love their wool, and they do exceedingly beautiful things with it.

Please read the adorable tote bag.

As part of DesignMarch, I had the opportunity to see these things being done firsthand when the knitwear company Vík Prjónsdóttir set up a working scarf factory in a storefront on the main commercial street of Reykjavik. The thing that struck me most about these was not the signature organic shapes or the hugeness of each individual scarf, but the colors. Most Icelandic textile design, particularly of the woolen sort, adheres to the sauðalitir palette of greys, blacks, white, tans, browns, etc. The natural colors of the sheep themselves. The melon and chartreuse were so uncharacteristic of typical Iceland textile design, but in such a smartly measured and truly beautiful way.

Icelanders are an industrious lot, as are most people who enjoy such a climate. While one studio was busy weaving cozy woolen treasures, another was hammering ramhorns into the wall to hang them from. International sheeplovers Gibba Gibb hosted a show upstairs from the fish lamps that featured a new line of ramhorn hooks. The unfinished horns on the pristine white base form simple, beautiful objects. Clearly suggestive of bone, the whole thing has a very Georgia O'Keefe feel, but somehow does not come off as trite. The brightly colored, molded hooks are fun, if less interesting.

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of boiled sheeps' heads to show you. But, if you're really dying for one, I'm sure Google can oblige.

ICELAND: Ride Them Viking Ponies

2011-04-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

Handsome devil. Horsey heartbreaker.

I met Freddy on my second day in Iceland, and I immediately fell in love with him. Freddy is an Icelandic horse, and the first thing he did was bite me. Well played, Freddy. I'd take you over some weenie, subservient creature any day. I should point out that his name was not really Freddy. I believe it was Freditljnlkjnaijsxhhgvbmmzjshlureuuoollrkll, or something like that. Freddy made it clear from the get-go that I was not really the boss of him, and, even though this is clearly true, I was determined to be the boss of him for the next 3 hours.

A stalwart of a horse. Worthy of the Vikings, for sure.

Icelandic horses are an interesting breed. They are short and sturdy with very thick coats. They are relatively disease-free, as horse imports are illegal, and any horse unfortunate enough to leave Iceland is never allowed back. (And, I assure you, leaving Iceland is truly unfortunate.) They have long lifespans, living well into their 30s. They are particularly sure-footed and renowned for their breed-specific fifth gait called a tölt. Despite the fact that I grew up in a horse-racing family, (FACT) I really don't have the vocabulary or interest level to explain this gait. All I will say is that, in addition to the exceptional sure-footedness of it, it is "known for its explosive acceleration and speed." Keep this in mind as you read ahead.

There were ten of us out riding that day, plus two guides. There was a couple from Sweden, two middle-aged ladies from the UK, an older couple from the UK, (P.S. It would appear that everyone from the UK rides horses) a young couple that didn't talk, and a young guy who also did not talk and was by himself and I just assumed was American. Because he was staying at the Hilton. And I'm a little judgey. Anyhoo, as we started out away from the farm and off into the snowy Icelandic countryside, Freddy decided we should be at the head of the herd. So, he took off running. Two things to note here: 1.) I am not a horseback rider; this was my first time. 2.) That bit about the "explosive acceleration and speed" from above.

I calmly, yet firmly, let Freddy know that we were definitely not going to sprint for the next 3 hours of our lives. This did not please Freddy, and he continued to use it against me for the rest of the ride. His pace got slower, and slower, and slower, until we were at the back of the line. Still, Freddy went slower. I didn't so much care, because I was taking in the view, and this was clearly a game that Freddy and I were playing, so I let him think he was the boss while I enjoyed the snow-covered scenery. All was fine, exceedingly pleasant even, and, in my head, I was winning the mental battle between woman and small horse, until one of the middle-aged British ladies shouted: 'Scuse me, but could you kick your horse, so we can catch up with the others?" Mildly embarrassed, and surprised that a.) there was anyone behind me and b.) she couldn't just pass me, I gave Freddy a little jab, and he obliged.

Some of that snow-covered scenery I was enjoying at Freddy's leisure.

For the next three hours, this is how we co-existed. Freddy would lag and lag and laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag behind the group, and then, out of nowhere, get it in his head to sprint to the front. He almost always decided to sprint to the front when there was ABSOLUTELY NO ROOM to do so, so I spent a good part of 3 hours trying to keep my stubborn little horse on the trail. Turns out, this uses absolutely every muscle in your body. Want to work on your core? Go ride a smartass little horse in the snow.

Crazy idyllic.

Clearly, I loved absolutely everything about this first Icelandic adventure of mine. Riding a pig-headed horse through the snow-covered countryside, up and down hills, through babbling brooks and rippling streams, and then back to the farm for a home-cooked lunch of soup and bread, with plenty of beer, coffee, and whiskey to wash it down, was quite the idyllic intro to Iceland. And, I think Freddy and I formed a very special bond that day. Mostly because, when no one was looking, I bit him back.

Unadulterated horsey joy. When we got back from our ride, and our horses were all let out together, this was the general scene.

A somewhat more compromising view.

Google, you sly devil

2011-03-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

I finally started using Chrome. I like a lot of things about Chrome, but the thing I like most, because I appreciate this kind of thinking behind a product, is that it has already trained me to hate all other browsers. Despise them, even. Making the address bar a dual-function field that also accepts search terms is a stroke of monumental genius. This is where I instinctively type search terms now. Always. If I stray from Chrome for a moment and go slummin' it with Firefox, or *GASP* Safari, I am immediately infuriated by the address bar that is just an address bar. Because of this one simple function, I am now incapable of using another browser.

Sheer genius.

Spiders III

2011-03-04T10:41:00.000-08:00

There's another spider on the blog! And it's one of those weird white ones.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SEUSS

2011-03-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

I LOVE Theodor Geisel. One of my favorite things I have ever done in my whole life is literally stumble (I am somewhat clumsy and refuse to wear my glasses) upon an exhibit of his work a few years ago at a gallery in Victoria, BC when I was there for a Mogwai show. From his ad work, to his political cartoons, to his U.S. Army training videos starring Private SNAFU, to his amazingly, fantastically, beautifully bizarre Unorthodox Taxidermy sculptures, to his beloved children's stories as Dr. Seuss, I just love him and his wonderful brain. Please enjoy these images, some YouTube clips of sneetches and zaxes and truffulas and such, and go read at least one of his books today.

One of his famous ads for Flit insecticide. "Quick, Henry, the FLIT!" became quite a big deal.

A political cartoon.

Another political cartoon. I cunningly selected two that are not racist.

Private SNAFU was a character Geisel developed when he was hired by the U.S. Army to train its WWII soldiers. They were finding that these 18-20 year old men had impressively short attention spans, and were often asleep when the lights came on at the end of the existing army training videos. Ted Geisel, and Private SNAFU, to the rescue!

Oh yes, and boobs. SNAFU had quite a weakness for the dames. Geisel was a marketing man. He knew his audience. There would be no sleeping through explosive boob cartoons. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how we won the war!

Nazi boobs!? Stay away from those...

Spy boobs. (Read: NAZI BOOBS)

Geisel with some pieces from his Unorthodox Taxidermy series. I promise you, in person these things will blow your mind. Right out of your skull.

Here's one. Still pretty mind-blowing, even on the internets.

You all know the Lorax, speaking on behalf of the trees, and whatnot.

Oh look, the Grinch book is an iPhone App now. Goody!

I love Max. Way too much.

One of the greats, for sure.

Spiders II

2011-03-02T10:12:00.001-08:00

Oh look! Another spider.

A monumentally asinine commercial about womens and their mysterious lady parts

2011-03-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

This little number started popping up on Hulu a few weeks ago, and I was mostly just hoping that an immediate stop would be put to it due to deafening public outcry, or mass public confusion at the very least. Apparently, that did not happen, because every time I watch Rhoda, I have to see these silly women talking about their own presumably healthy bodies as though they were oozing a thick slime of the deadliest contagions.

I am baffled.

What is the thing that we women do not want to talk about (or get on our delicate ladyhands)? Is it poop? Pee? Or...*GASP*...menses?!?! This is the most idiotic attempt by a corporation to relate to the daily lives of average Americans (read: PLEBES) that I have seen in a long time. And it kinda makes me think of this.

Also, the woman at the end who kind of waggles her fingers around and says, "And it's still soft," in a baby voice, just sounds like a big pervert.

I would not relish being tasked with marketing toilet paper, but this is even worse than those stupid Quilted Northern spokesbears whose primary concern in life was bits of toilet paper (that they presumably stole from the humans they mauled) getting stuck in their butthairs. I have NO IDEA what brand of toilet paper is in my bathroom right now. It is whatever was on sale. But I might just go ahead and make the effort to NEVER buy Quilted Northern. Ever. Even if it's only like $.35 for a 12 pack at Grocery Outlet. And even if they are 12 double rolls, meaning it's really 24 rolls for $.35. Still no dice.

Spiders I

2011-02-28T12:19:00.000-08:00

I'm done with CITIES for awhile and have moved on to spiders. Here's one now:

The One That Never Sleeps

2011-02-24T09:48:00.001-08:00

If you know me here in Seattle, you have heard of New York Jessie. Unless you are one of the large guys that was pushing my small friend around at the Girl Talk show at Block Party about 4 years ago, you have never met her. If you are part of the Martin family, you may have been surprised when she showed up to Dani's wedding last summer at around 10 pm...exactly 7 hours after the bar opened. If you are from NYC, you likely do not remember her, because you were on coke, or you are too self-involved to perceive other people in a way that would have you remember them, or because she really wasn't all that memorable to begin with. Anyhoo, of all the interesting decisions that New York Jessie made, there is a hands-down winner for the worst: ziti pizza. Don't do it. Just don't ever do it. And please, please, talk to your children early about ziti pizza, and tell them not to do it.

I stole this photo from Flickr, because it is the only photo on the entire World Wide Web that is accurate. Thanks, drtchock.

Speaking of giant spoons...

2011-02-22T17:07:00.000-08:00

I still love this.

So much.

The One Where The Mary Tyler Moore Show Was Set

2011-02-22T09:49:00.001-08:00

Known for its apparently endless stream of single, fawning men.

The One on a Hill

2011-02-11T14:36:00.000-08:00

Here's the little city that started this whole series of illustrations, Boston.

Known for sports, yelling (see sports), angry driving (see yelling), history, pilgrims, patriotism (see history, sports), being Irish (see yelling), being Catholic (see being Irish), a tea party, swan boats, duck boats, Charles Street (see being Irish), academia (see sports).

The One by the Bay

2011-02-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

Known for its fog, bridge(s), palm trees, parrots, burritos, hippies, Indian pizzas, lucuma ice cream, dwarf cuttlefish, and an assortment of festivals centered around public sex acts.

The Emerald One

2011-02-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

As part of my HOME series, which I'm sure you all remember and likely talk about more often than not when issues of taste, design, illustration, or general awesomeness arise in your conversations, I illustrated the places I have considered home. That little exercise has sparked a new series: CITIES.

The backstory: I lived in Boston. Twice. But I never really felt like it was home, so it did not make the cut for the HOME series. However, I felt a little guilty for omitting it. Like I was being a big fat liar. I couldn't handle the guilt anymore, (Thanks, Calvinist Mum and Catholic Dad!) so I started working on a Boston illustration, and then other city illustrations, and the series was born. I'll be posting some new pieces from the series, so just hold your damn horses, but I'm starting with a re-run from the HOME series: Seattle.

Click me. Watch me grow.

Seattle is my current home, and it's by far the homiest of all the homes where I was not actually born. Seattle is awesome. I say this every day. I especially like rubbing it in to all my friends back east every weekday afternoon at 3:00 when I decide to exit my office, which is actually my super awesome apartment, and just go walk around the lake. Because I live by a lake. And I am the boss of me. Because Seattle is awesome. And my rent is less than a good night out in NYC.

It's a plane

2011-02-04T12:02:00.000-08:00

From the IVPDA Winter 2011 Show

I love this.

Decuria Cygnus

2011-02-01T12:51:00.000-08:00

For the record, these were inspired by the swan boats in Boston's Public Gardens, not the movie. I have not seen Black Swan, but I do believe the best film of 2010, maybe even the last 3 years, was Winter's Bone. Seattle represent.

Winter Green

2011-01-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

Picadae

2011-01-13T10:37:00.001-08:00

Picadae

Dryocopus pileatus

Plieated Woodpecker

Meet the martens.

2011-01-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

Mustelidae, Martes martes

The Pine Marten

I first found out about the other "Martins" on a Sunday morning when I was about 5. While the children of non-heathen parents were off at Sunday school learning about how God gave us animals to lord over, my brother and I would build card houses and blanket forts on Sunday mornings while we watched Nature and Wild America. Wild America was our favorite. We loved us a furry-faced Marty Stouffer. Our week officially began after those two Bighorns smashed their brains together and Marty said, "This...is Wild America," in a way you can only understand if you watched the show. In the episode I remember most clearly, likely due to a uniquely human sense of self-importance not unlike the one that sent other kids to church, Marty and his daughter, Hannah, were nursing some marten kits in their home. Finding out there was an adorable, minky little critter with almost my name was truly a revelation. Finding out we had martens right there in Northern Maine mostly made my head explode.

Leporidae

2011-01-11T10:40:00.000-08:00

I have lots of new animal illustration work to share, and seeing as this is way easier than updating my website, this is where I will be doing that. Plus, then I can stop feeling guilty about not updating my blog. And, no, I don't think guilt is too strong a word. I went to Catholic school.

Please enjoy these non-denominational leporids.

Yet another great use for trees.

2010-11-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

As much as I loathe all non-Mac keyboards, I would get this one. It would be like playing Scrabble against myself all day long. And it's just really pretty.

I am not, however, a fan of the DIY element. Marubeni is releasing the keyboards in a some-assembly-required fashion, "so that users derive pleasure in making their own stuff." Pulling off those little keys, one by one, and placing them where they need to go sounds pretty unpleasant, actually. Although, it does make it even more like Travel Scrabble.

HOME

2010-09-29T12:16:00.000-07:00

My new home page is about home, because I'm just so meta like that. Instead of a proper "About" page, I give you a four-part, scrolling, personal geographical narrative.

The farm. Northern Maine.

The woods. Everywhere. Always.

New York, New York.

Seattle.

Better Know a Clooney

2010-09-08T11:55:00.000-07:00

Enough said.

The Colors of Zardoz, or, The Time Philip Glass did Sesame Street

2010-09-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

I don't really have a lot to say about these magnificent specimens. They speak for themselves. Compare. Contrast. Enjoy.

But, can they fly?

2010-08-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

It seems we all know a lot of out-of-work architects these days, so it should come as a welcome surprise that there is one market for home designers that's doing better than ever...dog houses.

In homage to the Bauhaus style, German company Best Friend's Home designed the Cubix Dog Mansion from varnished wood and shatter-proof, weather-resistant glass windows.

For those with more minimalist tastes, there is the Mutt Dog Dwelling from Jesse Doquilo. Part of Modernobject's beautiful line of woody, modernist furniture, this one even matches your Yorkie.

Complete with tiny doggy deck out front, this one was designed by TAP Architecture out of Oklahoma for the My Life as a Dog Challenge, wherein the Central Oklahoma Humane Society challenged humans to live chained to environmentally friendly dog houses as part of a reality tv contest. The winner (the person who lived chained to a dog house longest) won a car.

And the piece de résistance: the doggy green roof. These houses are made with sustainable wood and wood finishes. If you prefer animals of the winged variety, the kind that do not live in your home, they have birdhouses, too. From Sustainable Pet Design in California, order your very own custom dog house with a fully planted green roof...but only if you live in California. If you and Fido are located elsewhere, you'll have to rely on this online tutorial from ReadyMade to create your very own.

All photos of real dog houses compiled from Dog Milk.

Glenn Beck & Levi's: Co-opting the Blue Collar

2010-08-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

Turns out Glenn Beck is not the only one guilty of misappropriating Americana. For the past few years, the glorification of some supposed Steinbeckian blue collar-ishness has been the hipster soup du jour. Pop into any number of über hip boutiques just dying to appear provincial and unassuming, and pick yourself up a $200 flannel shirt, or some $300 "work" boots, or an $80 candle that smells like a horse's ass. On your way out, be sure to pick up some old-timey looking candy for the kiddies that are waiting back at the homestead with Ma.

I grew up in this preciously idealized, rural America. You know, the one whose rustic fashions we love but political ideals we hate? I assure you, there is nothing fashionable about it. Men who work their hands raw from sunup to sundown in the summer and then stand, shamefully, in the winter unemployment line to help feed their families have no interest in being the fashion icons of the privileged and disillusioned. The kids who cultivated a sophisticated palette for government cheese twenty years ago are not likely to be the ones dropping $100 on long underwear for the sheer quaintness of it all. And I can tell you firsthand, it's not because we can't afford them. It's because it's asinine and uneducated. Turns out, reading that used copy of Tortilla Flat with the sweet looking cover design is not a valid education in the ways of blue collar America.

And, contrary to what they would have you think, neither is watching one of Levi's commercials about Braddock, PA. Here is the gist of Levi's new add campaign: "We are all workers. Workers wear jeans. Buy our jeans! We are going to rebuild Braddock and steal your hearts in the process." Here are some of the more obvious flaws in this concept.

1. First and foremost, we are not all workers. A lot of the hallowed 18-35 market is actually impressively lazy and entitled and would get their asses handed to them by the two dudes pictured above. This photo/tagline combo is not the icon of grit and honor Levi's aimed at. It's cheap and condescending.

2. Yes, many blue collar workers wear jeans. Zero blue collar workers wear $100 jeans. They wear $20 jeans that they bought on sale, and they use the remaining $80 to pay their bills and buy groceries...with the coupons they have been clipping for a week.

3. Giving a town a million dollars for a community center and paying a few sexy poor people for a one-off photo shoot does not constitute rebuilding it. This is basic "teach a man to fish" logic. Opening a Levi's factory with hundreds of sustainable jobs and adding disposable income to a dried up, small town, manufacturing-based economy, well, that would actually be a damn good start to rebuilding. Of course, you would have to pay your sexy (and unsexy alike) poor people of Pennsylvania much more than you pay your crew in Macau.

There really is not much difference between the premise of Levi's new campaign and the premise of the entire Glenn Beck brand. You take some hyper-American images and ideals. You co-opt them for a message that is blatantly incongruous with history, truth, etc. You fudge the history and remake the truth. People believe you, because it looks good; they are uninformed; they are too lazy to become informed; and you are very, very good at marketing. They buy your product, and you somehow come off looking like a do-gooder to your followers.

I'm not saying that doing some good isn't better than doing no good. Obviously, it is better. So, Levi's gets a gold star for not doing absolutely no good at all with their billions and billions of dollars. But can we please all muster a little self respect and call a spade a spade here? Don't get me wrong, I buy Levi's jeans, (the $40 ones, when they are on sale, and yes, the tag says "Made in Macau") but I don't in any way pretend that's a favor to anyone but myself and my 34 inch inseam. And I certainly don't do it in honor of some America that I do not understand. I have spent many a day diggin' in the dirt, worked my way through college and across the country, and abandoned my childhood penchant for government cheese a long time ago. And I count myself lucky to have started my life exactly where and how I did.

Bike the US for MS (rules)

2010-08-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

Waaaaay back in 2007, some friends of mine here in Seattle decided to ride their bikes from here back to their native Virginia to raise money for MS research and treatment. The goal was to get people to sponsor cyclists and to stop along the way at the homes of charitable individuals to do whatever work needed doin' in their area. Clearly, they needed tee shirts, stickers, and a website. So, over happy hour on the patio at the Hi-Life in Ballard one evening, they asked me to design a logo. I whipped up this little number, and the guys, pleased as punch, hopped on their bikes and took it all over the US of A.

Here they are three years later:

They've gotten themselves some super rad new jerseys to sport their sweet logo, and they raised over $98,000 in 2010. They left Virginia back on June 1st, and the shot above is of them at the finish line in San Francisco at the end of July...nearly $100,000 later. These guys just plain rule. It's not often that you get to design a logo that's part of this much awesome. Frankly, 90% of pieces designed for friends end up on some Facebook page with 3 fans, and then never see the light of day again. But Don (top photo, front row, far right, tee shirt) is just badass, and Bike the US for MS has become one impressive little organization.

To learn more about what they're doing, watch some sweet web videos, give some cash, or get involved, visit the Bike the US for MS website.

City Mouse Country Mouse

2010-08-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

I just designed this here pick-a-nick basket for the foodie types over at Chef's Collaborative. Each year they host an Urban Picnic. A pretty lengthy list of super fancy Seattle chefs prepare the food, and the picnic-goers buy the tickets. It's a scholarship fundraiser for Quilliscasut Farm School, where aspiring chefs learn all about regional food and preparation in order to preserve the unique flavors and culture of American regional cuisine.

This was a really fun project. It was exceptionally good timing, because I was pretty obsessed with the vintage Fisher Price Play Family Farm that week, (the one where the barn door mooed when you opened it) and I'm digging the obvious influence. I'm talking about the really sweet one from the 60s, not that bulbous, rounded-corner, you'll-poke-your-eye-out 50th anniversary commemorative edition from 2009.

The pastoral/handrawn/ugly design that is so prevalent in the locavore/slow food/etc. movements is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, so I was all too happy to change it up. Although, looking back on the project, maybe I should have gone this route:

Yeah. I would go that picnic.

Woollies, Wallies, and this guy.

2010-08-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

Last month I directed a photo shoot for the lovely gentlemen of Envy, purveyors of gorgeous urban greenery over on 15th in Capitol Hill. The photographer was Malcolm Smith, and the concept was simple: plants are pretty, and so is this guy.

So we coupled the two in a variety of positions and shot it al aire libre.

Envy isn't just about sexy manthings. They sell some of the most stylish, well-designed plants and urban garden accoutrements around. Frankly, if you're still imprisoning your plants in terra cotta pots, you're insulting them. Get thee to Envy and pick up one of these more inspired vessels.

Alternative parenting.

They are doing exactly what it looks like they're doing.

This one is just really, really pretty.

Envy also stocks the mother of all modern planters, the Woolly Pocket, pictured at top between the young gentleman's legs and in the sunbathing shot in blue. Then there is my personal favorite, the Wally. It's a Woolly Pocket wall unit for indoor or outdoor living walls. Wally is one sweet little design. Equipped with a backside water barrier and a full frontal aerator, it's a simple and elegant solution to indoor planting that goes beyond your average dirt-in-pot set up. And, by nature of its woolliness, it works to keep your plants from becoming root bound. Win win. Go get one. As part of Envy's 2nd anniversary sal e, if you buy one before the end of the month, the plants you put in it are 20% off.

I'm pretty sure you can't actually call that a book.

2010-05-26T11:00:00.001-07:00

Even if you put the ubiquitous "e" in front of it.

In Ken Auletta's piece Publish or Perish in the 4/26 issue of The New Yorker, it is suggested by those inside the worlds of both publishing and ecommerce, that publishing houses need to stop whining about ebooks and start capitalizing on them. Fair enough. It's a pretty basic tenet of our capitalist society, and I am in no way pretending that I am not a full and knowing participant in it. However, the way in which publishers are gearing up to cash in on these pretty little word delivery devices is mildly horrifying and, frankly, offensive to one who values literature or the written word in the slightest. Having once prided themselves, at least a little, on investing in talent, in the creative process, publishers are now banking on gimmicks and gadgets, just like everyone else. The problem is not, as it may seem, that I am such a precious booknerd to think my chosen form is the chosen form, insusceptible to the inevitable; it's that the current proposals to save the world of book publishing in effect rely on a product that is not actually a book at all. The form is being destroyed to save the industry.

They shoot trees, don't they? (photo via 1,000 Words)

The idea is the same as it always is: add value to the product, add profit to your business. Create an experience. Give consumers increasingly more, always more and more. They expect it, and at this point, they won't go without it. Thanks to online availability of, well, everything, they don't have to. eBooks are convenient and slick. All the cool kids read them (including Ken Auletta.) They fit so effortlessly into a culture of perpetual motion, convenience, instant gratification, and, most importantly, a permeating sense of entitlement. Give me what I want. Give it to me now. Entertain me. Blow me away. Don't you lose my attention, even for a second, or you won't get it back. Also, I'm not paying for any of this. I deserve it.

The eternally fickle and increasingly infantile (and infantilized) consumer does not have the attention span required to read a book (or, probably, this rather lengthy blog post.) We live in a country where, for many, to sit and read a book is not a privilege or a joy, but a feat of incredible self-discipline. And self-discipline is most certainly not a hallmark of modern American life. It's no secret that the publishing industry is flailing, nor is it unclear that the industry itself, like many, is fairly backwards and unsustainable. Clearly, it needs reform in order to be profitable, but the only real reform they are pursuing is of the form itself. When you add "special features" like animation and music to an e"book," how can you continue to call it a book...even with the e in front of it?

Music has gone from records to 8-tracks to cassettes to CDs to MP3s, but a song is still a song. The sound quality is different, of course, but it is still a song. It doesn't pause for a commercial break or flashy little animation before the refrain. I understand the value of a device that holds multiple books and uses no paper, and I can see myself using one, especially for travel, much as the most devout lovers of vinyl cherish their iPods on the go. However, when my "book" starts singing at me, or someone's idea of added value dances across my "page" as I am about to "turn" it, it has fundamentally changed the form of literature and the experience of reading, and that is a scary prospect.

Perhaps it is all explained in here, this real book about how to write an ebook.

Two things Seattle needs this summer

2010-05-24T18:45:00.001-07:00

via 1,000 Words

Book bike?! Frankly, Seattle, I'm surprised you don't already have these. Do you? If so, where?

also via 1,000 Words

Book mushroom!? At a public park!? Filled with free books!? Complete with adorable baby bookworm!? Seriously, Seattle, GET THESE.

All that glitters.

2010-05-06T16:11:00.000-07:00

Check out Chris Ware's rejected Fortune 500 issue cover.

Via Eye Blog. Note details such as ‘Toxic Asset Acres," the Miami "Conned O," and the "Fábrica d’exploitación."

Now check out the cover design that Fortune actually sent to press.

Isn't this the exact mentality that got us where we are right now?

Sprite corners baby robot market

2010-04-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

At least I can only assume that's what they're going for with this new logo, because flying cars do not exist, so they can't use Sprite for washer fluid. But, if I were to look at this product without knowing it's an American icon of a lemon lime soda, I would guess that it was formula for baby robots, or washer fluid for flying cars.

As Americans re-learn how to eat properly and remain opposed to living in the present, it seems like soda's best move is to capitalize on nostalgia. This "drink of the future" business is bad policy. It seemed for awhile that the major players were onto this notion, and we saw products like Pepsi Throwback hit shelves. While not as cool looking as Mexico's Pepsi Retro, (which went head-to-head with Coke by asking "What does it taste like to you?") it was a step in the right direction. However, instead of heading further down memory lane, they have made a complete U turn and gone space-age.

Make believe is fun.

It's soda. I want roller skates and poodle skirts. I want you to make me think I am living in that made up "better America" that republicans are always talking about. Seeing as it is COMPLETELY MADE UP, I look to things like Bewitched and soda to take me there (others look to Glenn Beck.) I only drink soda when I am pretending to be in pretend America, like I did this past Saturday at Red Mill on Phinney. Otherwise, what use is there for it? Dental caries and diabetes.

On the flip side, Steven Heller loves this new logo. I agree with him on two points. 1. It's better than Pepsi's new logo, and 2. The secret S between the lemon and lime wedges is smart. However, smart does not translate into appropriate, or even effective. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Brace yourselves people, I'm gonna say it: This project needed Don Draper.

We got your choice cuts.

2010-03-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

Al-Malek Faysal St 1

Of only the finest halal meats. This is just one of the brilliantly layered photos that photographer Amanda Ringstad is currently showing at Caffe Ladro in Lower Queen Anne. Taken on the streets of Damascus and consisting of images oh-so-un-American, the show moves through swirling Islamic architecture to the brightly colored inhabitants of rusty old birdcages and stops off for a thick shank of the finest halal meats. Always in the background, only not really, the people of Damascus.

Check it out, unless you hate to look at beautiful things. Or you're a racist. Or you think you know someone who can make a curtain of raw meat look prettier to a vegetarian. I don't think you do. She's also currently showing photos from this series at Vérité Coffee + Cupcake Royale in Madrona.

MORE:

Aal Al-Beit St 2

Sa'd Zagloul St 3

Speaking of Mr. Rogers...

2010-03-05T18:36:00.000-08:00

I always thought lady Elaine Fairchild looked like Bev from Roseanne. I wish I'd found a better photo of Bev, but I didn't.

Mr. Rogers + Plumbing Fixtures: A brief study in inspiration

2010-03-05T17:41:00.000-08:00

THIS

You may recognize this guy from the Land of Make Believe.

+
THIS

I've been staring at this a lot when I'm in my shower. I used to stare at the one in the house I grew up in, too.

=
THIS

And so I made this guy.

I would like to point out how his feet mimic the leaves, creating one continuous movement across the space. If you're like my boyfriend, you will not be impressed (rube!). But, if you are like me, you will think this is a stroke of genius. You may have what is known as an artistic "experience" as you ponder it. No, you won't. But I still think it's cool.