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I just realised today is the Feast of St.Nuke.
Paper app on iPad. Click to enlarge.

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I’m very excited to hear of Unit Editions latest release – Manuals 1: Design & Identity Guidelines. The book is the first comprehensive study of corporate identity design manuals, and features 21 examples from the 1960s to early 1980s. Included are manuals created for NASA, Lufthansa, British Steel and the Cana­dian Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion.

Pre-order a copy at Unit Editions.

 

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Also worth viewing…

Herb Lubalin Book
Adrian Shaugnessy: Scratching the Surface
FHK Henrion: Design Coordination and Corporate Identity

Not signed up for the Grain Edit RSS Feed yet? Give it a try. Its free and yummy.

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Thanks to Mister Retro: Machine Wash Deluxe for being this week's sponsor.

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Signazon.com is the first design-friendly, design-file ready online print company. Transform your designs from computer creations to real life pieces of art with ease. The company allows you to upload your files in multiple formats from vector-based files to raster files. The technology used by Signazon is able to work with .PS, .EPS. PDF, .AI, .PNG, .JPG, .TIF, .GIF, .BMP, .DOCX/.DOC (Word), .PUB, and .XPS files. Customers have the choice to upload a finished design file, upload and design using the online design tool, or choose from thousands of templates. As an added bonus, all file upload and editing services are free of charge.

Signazon.com’s industry leading, full-color print quality can capture your artwork off the screen like no other printer has before. Use the exclusive “grain edit” readers’ discount code GRAINEDIT15 at checkout for 15% off of your first purchase.

Still a student? Design and compete in Signazon’s 4th Annual “Design-A-Sign” Scholarship Contest for your chance to win $1,000 toward your education.

A Huge thanks to Signazon for sponsoring this week’s RSS Feed! Interested in sponsoring the Grain Edit Feed? Visit our sponsorship page for more info.

 

 

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Thanks to Mister Retro: Machine Wash Deluxe for being this week's sponsor.

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What seems like forever ago, I started working on creating an illustrated map for the Oklahoma City Zoo. It was a fun project, certainly, but time consuming. Very... time consuming. One of the tougher jobs I've had, really. But, thank Odin for the internet, iPhones and Google Maps.

I started by doing a lot of research of what was already out there as far as these kinds of maps go. See what works, what doesn't.

Seemed straight forward enough. But when it came right down to it, even though I'd been to the zoo a million times, I kept needing more and more references. So me and my iPhone took a LOT of photos and short movies. The panorama feature was especially helpful.


That's only a very small sampling. I have hundreds of photos. Did I mention it's a big honkin' zoo?


Yeah. It's freaking huge. (And there's more to come in the near future...) Anyway, like a fat man at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, I slowly made my way through the whole thing.


One of the hardest things to do was throw reality out the window. Because some areas are fairly compact and others are pretty spread out, you have to tweak the spacing, and so one. You also spend a lot of time trying to decide what's important and what you can leave out. Here are some close-ups...



And no, I most certainly did not sit and draw every single tree and bush. If I were working in Illustrator I probably would have made use of symbols and the symbol sprayer tool, but alas, my stoopid style requires me to work in Photoshop. So I made just a handful of trees and bushes that I just duplicated. If experience is any guide, now that I'm finished, someone will probably tell me a much simpler way I could have gone about it.



Before I ever started working on this, I got an itch to see what it would look like if I recreated the zoo logo in 3 dimensions, as if made of natural materials. Turned out to be handy, cause I used it on the cover of the map.


All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.

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It seems like yesterday I was shipping out art for Bear and Bird, and now it's a book! To celebrate the upcoming release in a few weeks I'm hosting a giveaway of three copies. Click on over to take a look!

Also, I was interviewed on Kathy Temean's blog this past weekend for her Illustrator Saturday series. Kathy's blog is a wealth of publishing information– I highly recommend it. Here's the link:

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Christopher Myers is an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books. In 1998, Myers won a Caldecott Honor for his illustrations in Harlem, written by Walter Dean Myers. The following year, he wrote and illustrated Black Cat, a book that received a Coretta Scott King Award (2000). In addition to writing and illustrating his own stories, Myers often illustrates books written by his father, award-winning author Walter Dean Myers. Christopher’s books also include lies and other tall tales.

H.O.R.S.E.: A Game of Basketball and Imagination (EgmontUSA), written and illustrated by Myers, won a Coretta Scott King Honor award in 2013.

Source: Wikipedia

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     I wonder if aliens have books, do you think? What we call science fiction might be their classics!
     CLICK HERE for more coloring pages and be sure to share your creations in my gallery so I can put them in my upcoming newsletters! (They don't have to be cards - I love scribbly kids art too!)
     Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and... Please check out my books! Especially...

my debut historical fiction mid-grade, A BIRD ON WATER STREET, available NOW in eversions! Click the cover to learn more!
     When the birds return to Water Street, will anyone be left to hear them sing? A miner's strike allows green and growing things to return to the Red Hills, but that same strike may force residents to seek new homes and livelihoods elsewhere. Follow the story of Jack Hicks as he struggles to hold onto everything he loves most.

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"Steamboat Willie" (1928) was Walt Disney's first sound cartoon, and the first star vehicle for Mickey Mouse. Now, it has been remastered in digital animation—made hideous on purpose as a joke.
(Video link to digital satire)
(Watch the original Steamboat Willie)
via Cartoon Brew

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This morning my French class met at a local cafe instead of at Tristam's school because there is yet another school break. The ladies in the class may not know this, but just knowing that there are other expats going through the ups and down of adjusting to life here is a great comfort. Our French teacher was not at this gathering, so all of us guiltily admitted to not having done our homework and just chatted. It was nice.


You would think that a place of which Mark Twain said in 1896 (quoting and islander)"Mauritius was made first and then heaven; and heaven was copied after Mauritius" - would be easy to adjust to. I have friends who are expats in places like Bangladesh and my experience here is nothing like theirs. I have all of the convinces here- internet, electricity (although that can be spotty) , internet (although the bandwidth is low), there are grocery stores with products from all over the world and there is a definite western footprint here.  But, I do miss home. Especially Bikram (hot) yoga, my friends,  my garden, the smell of the Pacific Ocean, sushi (!!!!) organic produce and privacy- and mobility (freedom). 

Gosh- this really seems like I'm bitching about things- there are so many great things here. First, the opportunity to reinvent and to see the world through a different lens. Challenging old habits and routines, assumptions... see another part of the world- and it is gorgeous. See a very different culture- the Indian-Mauritians- I am constantly confused and surprised by interpretations of events and daily things as seen through this culture. I am making lots of new friends here- all very different from so many places on the globe. Mostly Franco-Mauritians, but many expats who have adopted the world as their home and have a nomadic life style.  

At the moment California is still very much home, but I'll be back there to visit soon enough and often enough. Life is good. 

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The Indigo Paris design show opens today and many fabulous studios will be selling their prints to clients from all over Europe and beyond. Here are a few of the flyers I received for the show. Paper & Cloth (above) will be on stand 5V35 and B'o Bei Co will be in 5U44. Below : La Fabrique will be on stand 5U37. Below : Look out for the Believe Creative Studio in Booth U51 where Creative

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Donna Wilson created these cute new 'best friend' prints in time for valentine's day but they are perfect for giving to friends at any time of year. Available as art prints and tea towels. Here also are a few of the other new arrivals for SS14 at Donna Wilson. Donna has also collaborated on an exclusive range for John Lewis designed to promote sewing, knitting and other craft

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Also new for Spring Summer 2014 are these cute new designs from House of Rym. Called 'Oh what a lovely face' these little beakers were designed by Elisabeth Dunker & Cecilia Pettersson. See the full collection online here. and here are some more new arrivals created by Anna Backlund, Elisabeth Dunker, and Cecilia Pettersson.... Read the rest of this post

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For every runner athlete who’s gone shopping for jeans and wound up wanting to punch someone in the face.

I can’t take sole credit for this one. The AWESOME quip that gave me the inspiration for this cartoon came from Sally Bergesen, founder of Oiselle, a kickbutt running apparel company. Yesterday a few of us were tweeting on the frustrations of trying to find jeans that FIT when you’re an athlete, muscle-clad, kickbutt female. Usually you wind up with some problems:

* The jeans WOULD fit in the waist but you can’t get them above your quads. Literally.can’t.raise.them.
* Go up to a size that doesn’t cause your quads to hulk-out but the waist is super saggy. We have six packs, not kegs.
* There’s also an issue with the cut of the butt. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but for whatever reason any size that fits my legs causes this funky pooch in the back; I think it’s because the waist/butt/quad ratio is off and you wind up with extra denim at the waist, so when you sit it’s like a sideways tepee.

I’ve not worn jeans for years…now, to be totally fair I work from home and literally live in running clothes. Like, live in them. #SweatsandtheCity

AAAAND, I will also argue that running clothes can be quite fashionable, I mean just take a gander at my awesome shirts:

and we ALL love Oiselle who are keeping us clothed from our rundies out to our hoodies.

But that’s not the point. Runnerchicks DESERVER to be able to go to the store and find a pair of jeans that fit without winding up a mess of frustration and wanting to punch someone in the face.

Wise up, World. We are runners, we are women, we are STRONG…we have muscles. And we look d**n good with them.

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More cartoons HERE!!
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1) What’s been an issue you’ve had with finding a pair of jeans, or any article of clothing that clearly didn’t account for your runner bod?
2) What is your ‘normal people’ fashion like?
3) What’s another vent you’d just like to get off your chest so you don’t punch someone in the face??

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After several years on Blogger, I'm moving to a different site.  If you'd like to follow what's going on in my illustration life, you'll have to go HERE instead.  Thanks...

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Football Girl LOVEs this event!

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Go for it Football Girl~

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