Congratulations, President Obama!

There are few better ways to celebrate than with baked goods and this Obama cupcake mosaic, really, er, sorry, but it, takes the cake.

Check out the artist/baker at work:

Originally via Serious Eats

Posters by Jason Munn

Sometimes I send myself links as a reminder to blog about something I like and then I totally forget: a) where the link originally came from, b) why I wanted to blog about it.

I still don’t remember where this link came from, but as soon as I opened it up I remembered why I liked it. I have always been inspired by poster designs, and that trend continues with, Jason Munn’s work. He creates some amazing posters for clients like Patagonia and Death Cab for Cutie. Here are some of my favorites:

A book that makes me want some apres ski

I’ve always thought snowboard designs are a great source of inspiration as a graphic designer, so when I recently spotted the book The Art of Skiing: Vintage Posters from the Golden Age of Winter Sport, I thought this book would add a different layer of wintery inspiration from the generally modern designs I often find on boards. Not to mention that the book makes you want to curl up with a beer or seven while wearing a bright red parka, sitting in front of a fire in a ski lodge.

Keep calm and carry on throughout the year

I am loving this Keep Calm and Carry On spoof calendar for sale on Etsy. It also happens to be recession friendly. They are selling these calendars as PDFs for $5, so you can print out as many as you like for those coworkers who you know will re-gift someting to you this year.

Mad Men Illustrated

At this point, you’ve probably realized I am slightly obsessed with AMC’s Mad Men. The moment when Betty Draper guns down the pigeons with a rifle and a cigarette hanging from her mouth is visually one of my all time favorite tv scenes and is amazingly iulltsrated by Dyna Moe above. Check out the rest of her incredible Mad Men work here.

Originally via Editor Lisa

Always a work in progress

I started this blog back in the fall and have been slowly working out the details for it, specifically the design. So if you happen to stumble upon this blog in the next several weeks, first of all, welcome! But second, please don’t give the generic design much consideration as the site is still under works. However, please do stop by again as I’ll be updating the site more often in the coming year.

Cuckoo for Cuckoo!

On our first wedding anniversary I tried to find a cuckoo clock to give Alex, as clocks are listed as the modern gift for a first anniversary, instead of the traditional paper gift. I searched around for a bit and didn’t find anything that suited the job, so he ended up with a plane ticket to Spain instead. But recently my mother-in-law, who is a super shopper, found this wonderfully modern take on the traditional cuckoo clock and emailed it to me. “Remember the Cuckoo?” she asked and linked to this lovely little guy:

It’s a nice twist if you don’t want the classical ornate cuckoo clock design. The clock is called Albero and can be purchased on momentoitalia.com.

Originally via NYT by MoCo Loco.

Happy Halloween!

I’ve always been a sucker for all things Halloween, which may explain why I ended up at Ohio University for undergrad (where they happen to have one of the biggest halloween parades). I haven’t dressed up in years, but I still love seeing all the little kids in our neighborhood in their costumes. That’s why I am loving Mrs. Limestone’s excellent stoop party invitation:

The inverted image of her home gives this invitation a nice spooky feel and I love the idea of a stoop party in Brooklyn where the trick or treaters parade for candy in mass.

I’ll take mine milky

My first job as a teenager was working at a mini-golf course where I would ring people up and hand out golf clubs and balls (you have no idea how many times I heard blue balls jokes). The owner of the golf course and his wife would hang out at the course during the day and sometimes I would offer to get the owner’s wife coffee at the local 7-11 when I was headed out to grab a Slurpee (hey, I was 15 and I lived in Long Island). She would usually say yes and then we needed to discuss what color she wanted her coffee, which meant we needed to look at knots of wood on the panelled walls and find one that matched a color that suited her coffee tastes.

Had she just had one of these color matching My Cuppa coffee mugs I wouldn’t have spent so much time discussing wood knots and milk with her. As someone who looks at Pantone chips several times a day, it makes so much sense to me to have a coffee cup that lets you consistently match your milk amount visually everyday.

Business cards design

With my upcoming notecard and business card letterpress class mere weeks away, I’ve been checking out some letterpress samples on flickr. Alex passed along this set of business card designs on flickr a few months ago, where one can find all sorts of wonderful inspirations, like:

Melissa Nosal. I am loving that red gilded edge.

Koichi Sato. Hello monotone awesomeness!

Ellen Jackson. Such a great look for a portrait photographer.

Graphik Boutique. I am totally sucker for metallic ink these days.

Each card in this letterpress set is unique.

Mine SF. Simple when flat, but holding it up to the light to reveals the name. It’s almost magical!