Serving up Tea & Daisies

My new vintage Pyrex inspired screen-printed tea towel from Janet Morrin on Etsy looks absolutly fabulous hanging in the kitchen below my Pyrex collection!

My Pyrex is all Flamingo pink from the 1960s and Pink Daisy from 1957, mixed in with a few of the pink restaurant serving pieces!

Burger of the Week #162

Here's a fun little ampersand in Viktor Hamburger's
Coco Puff font, available for download on daFont.

Mellow Out: The SS15 Cushe Conference

We've just wrapped up another Wolverine Global Conference. This Spring / Summer 2015 launch marks the first season where I am an employee fully dedicated to Cushe Footwear. It feels great to have brand focus, and work as part of a very small, very driven product and marketing team.

Our global conference is a time for national and international sales reps, licensees and distributors for ALL 16 of Wolverine's brands to come and spend a week immersed in the product and marketing that will launch next spring. Each brand sets up a booth, not unlike a tradeshow space, within the DeVos convention center.

Cushe's booth is made from a re-purposed shipping container. We can close the doors and literally ship it to the next show. It opens up in the back for meeting and "mellow" rooms. The Cushe brand is Wolverine's smallest brand, and was a UK-based brand that was acquired in 2008—this year is Cushe's 10-year anniversary.

This year, the Cushe product is featuring a new footbed called mellow, that provides exceptional underfoot comfort. To promote this concept, we created a mellow space in the back of the booth, where you could sit, recharge your devices and have a beer. Below you can see some mellow pillows we made for the booth. #cushemellow

From the newbie perspective, the show seemed to go quite well. New product seemed to be received with a bit of enthusiasm.

Wednesday evening, after our main presentation, we bused everyone out to Camp Blodgett to share our amazing Lake Michigan with them. It was a chilly evening, and the fog rolled in fast and thick, but the Cushe crowd was happy.  #happinesshunting

 

A look at Spain... as we Countdown to Ireland...

As I sit mere HOURS from my departure for Ireland, it's fun to reflect back on past trips in anticipation of the ones to come. 

I very, very recently (finally) finished my Spain book for my 2011 trip abroad. This was my biggest book yet, 178 pages, printed on Blurb (per usual). I love the print quality of Blurb pieces and have had amazing assistance from their customer service staff.This is an 11 x 8, hardcover, image wrap book.

The hardest part of making these books is sorting through the thousands of picture my friends and I take when we travel. I also have a tendency to get obsessive about writing descriptions for what we saw, making it a very thorough guidebook of our trip. I usually learn more about the place I've just been, once I'm back and working on the book, than I do when I'm there! 

Can't wait to build my travel book collection. Next up... Ireland.... 16 hours to go! 

 

Burger of the Week #161

I love a good analogy! This one is from bobbobmac on tumblr.

Read on, I'm hungry.

When I first saw this, I thought it was kind of silly. But the more I looked at it, the more I appreciated it and began to realize what a lovely concept this is. 

I love reading, and I love books, and I love the characters within those books. A lot can be learned about a character from the meals they eat.  Designer Dinah Fried has published a book of photography called Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature's Most Memorable Meals which recreates meals from 50 novels.   

The project began while Fried was a student, but she quickly became captivated and she now has a collection of images that spans over two centuries of fiction.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951):
Swiss cheese sandwich and malted milk.

The images in-and-of-themselves are captivating, but they also throw me right into the setting of the novel. The settings are mesmerizing. Many of these are just as I pictured them. 

On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957): Apple pie and ice cream.

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851): Clam chowder.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911):
Roasted eggs and potatoes with salt.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (1971):
Grapefruit and tequila.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865): tea.

This was originally seen on AdWeek, but you can see more on brainpickings.org.

Burger of the Week #160

Was treated to this delightful burger number as my files uploaded to WeTransfer this afternoon. I think my computer knows me.

Super Beer

This is what happen when designers have free time.... the surrender to the nerd within. Graphic designer Marcelo Rizzetto has taken two passions... beer and superheroes... and combined them into one of the sexiest Justice Leagues I've ever seen.

Checkout the newly designed and refined Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and  Flash, all paired with the appropriate Brew.  

As seen on adweek.com. You can see all 6 on behance.

Now you see it

Typography is beautiful and amazing. And when done well it can be truly inspiring. 

These typographical elements are design treats–when you discover the visual wordplay it's pure glee!

But wait! There's more. Check them out at 9gag.

Burger of the Week #159

Gotta admire this chic. Vanessa over at the Queen of Swag has outdone herself with this s'more burger. Just because I haven't satisfied that chocolate marshmallow gooey craving yet!

Burger of the Week #158

In honor this weeks amazing marshmallow s'more concoction... it's a mallow burger. A delightfully disgusting product from Kandy Kastle.