About apples and trees

Hey Audrey!

Your granddaughter has just become famous, and all because of you. Of course you never knew your son Sean's daughter, Emma Ferrer, she was born after you had already passed away. Harper's Bazaar put her on a special front cover, and featured her in a fashion shoot where she poses in similar outfits than some of your most famous photographs. The photographer was the grandson of Richard Avedon. See what they did there? Well, Emma has been invited to sit in the front seat of shows at Paris Fashion Week, and is looking very stylish and composed for a 20-year old. You'll be pleased to know that she wears your turtleneck jerseys.

Mad about Mad Men

Hey Audrey!

I just received a mail from a colleague that starts: "Sooo word on the street is that you have most of the Mad Men episodes." Yes, I do. Yes,  I'm a fan. And yes, I even use episode clips to teach my students about advertising. But I don't love Mad Men because it's about advertising. I love it because it's so beautiful. The art direction, the fashion, the set, the shots and especially the lighting. They must have a lighting genius working on that show. And it's well-written and intelligent. So here are some moments from one of my favourite episodes, Season 3 Episode 8: Don and Betty Draper in Rome. And you know how hot that can get.

PS. January Jones is great on Instagram.

Elegantissima

Hey Audrey!

What a treat! I'm referring to designer Louise Fili's book "Elegantissima" which features her beautifully crafted and often vintage-inspired identity and packaging designs over the years. My favourite pages so far are the ones showing the development of the Tiffany and Co logo, and the stunning chocolate box for the School of Visual Arts, containing their annual catalogue/brochure, disguised as a box of chocolates. I wish my design college sold me as a praline, but as far as I remember I was sold as a sharp pencil (that was the theme for our showcase the year I graduated). The foreword to the book is written by her husband Steven Heller. What a designer power couple! Somehow I think they wear paisley pajamas to bed, bought at Bloomingdales of course.

In the Limelight

Hey Audrey!

Didn't you just love the 1950's? I was delighted when I was asked to design this poster advertising a ballet performance in a 1950's style. I loved researching the exact colour schemes and typefaces. The typeface used for Limelight is a favourite of mine: 'Ed Script', a face designed by famous American type designer Ed Benguiat and House Industries. The photo used is by Warren Williams Photography.

Opposites attract

Hey Audrey!

I know a lovely couple, he is an accountant, and she is an art and music therapist. Actually they both used to be musicians, but that is not the point. I designed an identity for both of their businesses. His logo is about the precise business of ticking and turning, her flowing note logo was placed on four business card variations, and apparently even the process of picking one can be therapeutic! The only thing I insisted the two identities have in common was to be printed on environmentally sound paper. I also helped lovely Diane with her website, and used the site Weebly to do it, I was very impressed by how easy it was to use their templates (except that I couldn't control paragraph lengths) and with their good customer service. Well done over there in the USA! In the end I'm happy that they're happy.

My mom made more...

Hey Audrey!

As you know, my mother has a thing for sewing handbags, but only for people she really really likes. These three handbags she made for a a friends and her two daughters, she has never met them, but they feed me and my cat regularly, therefore she likes them. She tried a new pattern for the green and brown one, she says it was really difficult to make those three-dimensional side pockets. Personally I like the denim sling bag most because she used embroidered strips from my favourite skirt when I was small on it.

For friends

Hey Audrey!

It was so special to be able to design my friends Candy and Stan's wedding stationery. Lucky for me, the groom, (even though a doctor) has an artistic flair. His beautiful piece of calligraphy of their names became the focal point on both the 'save the date' and the printed invitation. He also hand illustrated the map to the venue, and it is his beautiful calligraphy on the outside of the envelopes. We used The Letterpress Company for printing, and Candy, her mom and myself spent a happy afternoon with them selecting paper, debossing stamps, and the exact right tissue lining for the inside of the envelopes. We were thrilled with the end result. The wedding day was absolute perfection, and I wish them both a long and happy life journey together.

Photographs courtesy of the happy couple.

My cup of tea

Hey Audrey!

A long time ago my hobby was to collect antique tea cups. I loved the quaint designs and sizes, the gold edges, the various detailed patterns. It started off with some old pieces of crockery that I inherited from my two grandmothers, together with a dresser to display them all in. Soon my family and friends were gifting me cups and saucers on special occasions, until I had a precious collection of crockery and memories. Recently I moved into a much smaller place, and re-gifted my collection to the marvelous Meagan. I didn't share the story of each and every cup with her, but I hope she has many happy tea times and creates memories of her own.

Gifts from distant lands

Hey Audrey!

My friend Lizelle brought me these gorgeous little gifts from faraway countries. Beautiful water colour cat postcards from Japan, and his and her panda peppermints from Korea. And thanks to my oriental cellphone decoration, I can now find it in the depths of my handbag! Thank you Lizelle.

Shades of blue

Hey Audrey!

I recently had the privilege of working with renowned artist Virginia MacKenny on the catalogue for her Waymarker exhibition at David Krut. She had painted an exquisite set of blue-toned watercolours, painted during her Camino pilgrimage on France. Each postcard was painted at a different stage of the pilgrimage, and to emphasize the waymarker idea, she wanted the catalogue to be in the form of an old-fashioned postcard flipbook. The postcard flipbook was printed on 100% recycled Reviva paper.

Hey Audrey!

Today my friend Karin took me to very beautiful exhibition at A Word of Art gallery in Woodstock, Cape Town.  The exhibition is entitled "Postcards from Molotia" and the work is by The Blackheart Gang, which consists of two very talented artists called Ree Treweek and Markus Wormstrom. The work consisted of amazingly detailed and sensitive etchings, and beautifully carved and painted wooden sculptures of fantastical creatures. The work was so skilled and imaginative it took my breath away. I would buy one of those etchings in a second of I could!

Designs on Christmas

 

Hey Audrey!

Tomorrow is Christmas Day, and I'm looking forward to spending the day with my family. I wanted to show you my favourite Christmas designs. Two posters I designed for a beauty shop for my friends at Engage, using paper cut-out snowflakes as the main graphic element. The idea was that the ladies at a local empowerment centre could make these, and that they then could be sold in-store. The next design is a Christmas card for WIP Holdings that contained a set of gift tags. I designed the Christmas icons using the circles of their corporate logo. Have a happy Christmas Audrey!

Logo no yes?

Hey Audrey!

I saw a logo competition for the Ishikawa Prefecture on the Design 21 website. This 'province' in Japan is well known for its rich traditional culture and high-tech industry. The logo would certify excellent Ishikawa products as 'Premium Ishikawa Brand' and promote them to the world. It was quite a challenge to design something for a place I've never been too. But I did some research and found that the Prefecture's Bird was the Japanese Golden Eagle. I decide to combine an image of an egale with the geographical shape of the Prefecture, using a Japanese painting style, and soem hours later this logo emerged. Audrey, have you ever been to Japan? I would love to go and see a typical Japanese garden. And the cherry blossoms.

Bracelets with memories

Hey Audrey!

I love it when the things that I wear remind me of the people that I love. Like my favourite bracelets which I like to wear all at once. The colour woven one was a gift from my friend Christine, who is now living far way in Tanzania, the wooden painted one (with gold paint) was a gift form Di and Greg, which they bought in St Petersburg. The wooden one I bought on a lovely weekend away with my friend Ria in the Natal Midlands. They were made by John and Andrew Early, who make beautiful wooden vessels and furniture.

'Ons Plek' safe space

Hey Audrey!

I am so excited to just have launched my new social design company SideBySide. I look forward to doing work with clients that are making a change in the world. You can read all about our first project for Ons Plek Projects on the SideBySide blog.

Beautiful boots

Hey Audrey!

These are promotional postcards I designed for custom footwear designer Astrid of Bohéme. I told you a few posts ago how much we enjoyed the photoshoot, remember? I wanted to add a lace element to emphasize the burlesque idea, and did some ink illustrations for this, but I think the real lace overlays looked better in the end.