Let It Snow, Let It Snow... Let It Snow

A few months ago I had to pleasure of working with a dear friend of mine, Karine, on a project for the North South Institute - they are an amazing Canadian organization that is dedicated to international development through research. Karine has asked me to design a postcard for the Institute back in October, and with the Holiday season fast approaching she has summoned me up once again to design an e-card to be sent out with warm wishes for the new year. Needles to say, I jumped at the chance to work with Karine again.

It was a fun project to work on and a great way to get me into the Holiday spirit. I wanted to create something whimsical and a bit traditional in feel, since to me that is what the winter holidays are all about, but at the same time sticking to my clean and modern design esthetics. I presented a few options of the e-card to the client, and they have decided to go with one of my favourites... a background of beautiful snow covered pine tree branches.

Happy Holidays Everyone, and hope to see you all more often here in 2011! Bonnes fêtes!

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Tulips in the City

The beginning of Summer in Ottawa is always marked my the Tulip Festival. Every year the city springs to life as the colourfull blooms wake up the landscape with their vibrancy. This year the tulips were spectacular, ranging in all shapes and colours, some even resembled roses with their multitude of petals.

My hubby and I took an afternoon stroll and checked out the rows upon rows of the beautiful tulips this Friday. The skies were a bit overcast which made for perfect picture taking conditions, and I took full advantage of that! Spending hours crouched down snapping at the blooms as my extremely patient and wonderful hubby held an umbrella over my head whenever it drizzled.

It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon and got me all geared up to all the great things that our beautiful city has to offer during the summer season!

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Inspirations - Emma Cook

This week I have once again collaborated with the wonderful Stylish Goose to create an inspiration collage* for the illustration of a look from Emma Cook's Spring/Summer 2010 collection. You can see Genya's beautiful illustration here.
I love this little dress by Emma Cook because of it's whimsical and fun nature, and it's 70's vibe. It reminded me of a Russian forest of birch trees and fields of flowers. Plus, the little fox on the dress is just wonderful!



*Please refer to the Stylish Goose post for image credits.

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Nellleo and the Crepes

This past week I had the honour of working with the talented and beautiful Nelly on a logo for her photography and blog brand Nellleo. I have met Nelly at her recent photography exhibit and I was amazed by her talent, spirit of adventure, and outgoing nature. Nellleo's photography captures these things and so much more. A short time after our meeting, Nelly had approached me about designing a logo for Nellleo and I happily agreed.

We met over crepes and coffee to chitchat and briefly discussed some concepts for the Nellleo logo.



Nelly was a dream client and has left all the creative control of the design to me. Her only major requirements were these: "1. somehow capture an element of myself or the work I do, if possible and 2. for the love of everything holy, show the existence of 3 “L”s in nellleo". Over the next week, I sent Nelly a number of very diverse logo options to see what would catch her eye...



Out of everything I sent her, one little logo in particular pulled at Nelly's heart strings. She felt that this logo conveyed her and her photography perfectly, and I completely agree with that. It's elegant, playful, and has a natural element to it ~ totally Nellleo.




The logo is already being used on Nelly's blog and website, and I'm looking forward to seeing it as a watermark on her photography!
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Coy Week in Links - 03.19.10

Receiving a Post Carden in the mail is sure to bring a smile to anyone's face this Spring:
www.postcarden.com

The international jury of the 53rd annual World Press Photo Contest have selected the 2010 winners:

www.lensculture.com/worldpress2010.html

Typography playing cards appealed to my love of text:
www.hat-trickdesign.co.uk

Over the past 20 years National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore recorded North American species facing extinction:
www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/tragic-portraits-of-americas

A fresh look of light denim, white, and a loose side braid was captured on the streets by Mr.Newton:
mrnewton.net/a-mystery-on-howard-street/

35 beautiful and creative business card designs to inspire:
www.tutorart.com/index.php/35-beautiful-creative-business-card-designs/

Colour rubik cube for the blind design:
www.yankodesign.com/2010/03/17/color-rubik-cube-for-the-blind/

A line of soap packaging design that turns into origami animals... neat :):
lovelypackage.com/la-compagnie-de-provence-soap/#more-12141

Pete Dungey's public installation of Pothole Gardens:
www.petedungey.com/2009_02/project_pages/pothole_gardens.php

This weeks' space photos - including an Absinthe-green Auroras:
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/photogalleries/100316-best-space-pictures/#space86-aurora-star-trails_16962_600x450.jpg


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MUSE is my muse

Last week I was finally lucky enough to catch MUSE on their tour in Montreal. They were incredible and have exceeded any expectations that I had. MUSE sounded just as good (if not better!) as their records, and they played all of my favorites. And despite the large venue they were able to captivate and keep the audience entertained with a continuously changing stage and light show.

I could not resist and had to sneak in some pictures of the phenomenal show so I could share it will all of you!

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Fashion in Spring Colours

I am officially tired of wearing my standard winter uniform of black and gray, so I looked to the Spring/Summer 2010 Ready-to-Wear runways for a breath of fresh colour air. The SS10 runways definitely did not disappoint as they were filled with every possible colour possible ~ from bright corals and greens to soft blues and creams. Just thinking of all the colour possibilities that spring and summer creates makes me giddy with excitement!

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REFERENCED SS10 COLLECTIONS

3.1 Phillip Lim

ADAM

Akris

Alberta Ferretti

Aquailano.Rimondi

Burberry Prorsum

Bottega Veneta

Chris Benz

Christian Dior

Doo.Ri

Emanuel Ungaro

J.Mendel

Ralph Lauren

Marchesa

Missoni

Valentino

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Fun Packaging - Super Lemon

My sister Genya was sweet enough to think of me when seeing this fun candy packaging at the local Asian superstore. And knowing my love for all prettily packaged, she picked it up for me. I appreciate the fun comic book inspired colours and design of this candy. As for the candy itself? It was waaaaay too sour for me to eat. It is SUPER lemon indeed!