lazy dreams

yes people it is time that i tell you a little something about my love for the virgin suicides.

ok number 1 – sophia coopala is a genius, everything she touches is magic, im not exaggerating, ive seen all of her films and each one is the perfect blend of image and feel. they all have this vibe that makes you wanna lay in a bed with lots of blankets and pillows. its a sense of mundane life or something… anyway they rock but specifically the virgin suicides. i read the book last summer and it is pretty close to the movie.

number 2 – i love the interaction that the boys have that are obsessed with the lisbon girls. they are real, curious, boys trying to figure out the great mystery of the female.

number 3-  Kristen dunst is so great.

number 4 – i think another reason why im so obsessed with this film is the dreamy aesthetic mixed with the super dark tones of the events. there is something about their airy white dresses and the fact that it always feels like sundown, a lazy summer feeling.

number 5- i love the roll of the parents and how intense and passive they are at the same time, every line delivered in a quite tone yet they are so conservative and strict

number 6 – this is the ultimate source for design inspiration. the colors are always perfect to choose a color pallet from, each scene is set up so beautifully.

i love this movie… go see it now!

oh also the sound track is amazing! done by the band air… check them out kids!

chanel & why i want to be a witch

so lately i have been obsessed with being a witch, ok that sounds a little intense, i have been really into the mysterious ghostly creepy aesthetic of witches! i mean just tell me there isnt a super awesome vibe to these pictures…

ha, just what i thought! you love it too! i knew you would :). so now that we are all sitting in an imaginary circle with candles and sheets and beads, let us draw our attention to this lovely piece of darky witchy fashion magic oh man karl you know the way to my heart. so i have a long history with chanel… no really i do. i have loved it since the beginning and let me tell you, every morning when i sprits my chanel mademoiselle perfume i get this beautiful feeling that the world is good, or at least it smells good! and i have this thing where i wont let myself step into a chanel store until i can actually purchase something from it, it is like this great treat that im saving until i can truly cherish it! i have mad respect for chanel, you know there just isnt any other fashion house with as much, oh whats the word… richness. its the tradition of the name, how ground breaking miss coco was with her invention of the little black dress, or heaven forbid women wearing pants! and the quality, and the brand that is always true but never stops reviving and reinventing the same aesthetic every season! it just doesnt get any better than chanel.

LUSH

hermes fall 2011—one word LUSH

photos via scott
oh you didnt know we are on a first name basis? we met twice… dont believe me? ill tell ya about it next post 🙂

as if i needed another reason to miss paris

i feel like everything i have been soaking up inspiration wise the past few weeks has been involved with video… i love video, but let me tell you it is really hard to work with moving images. i took this visual media class a few semesters ago and had the hardest time coming up with ideas. i think if i took the class now i would kick some major ass, but cest la vie, hind sight is 20/20 (how’s that for two cliché phrases back to back?) but all this is to say how much i love/respect a good video… so here you have it ladies and gentlemen awesome type/video/paris magic

now dont you wanna know who made it? well a few people, gustav johansson was the director and albin holmqvist was responsible for the type. pure beauty these guys came up with. it kind of has the same romantic creative quality of these google commercials… makes me cry every time… i just love it when advertising is good, and thoughtful and not just a quick stab using prefabricated ideas that are guaranteed a specific reaction. it is so less and less that i really think advertising is unique so when something is… ill tell you about it! but go check out albin and gustav, they both have some really awesome stuff, just quality work ya know! oh and thanks to jessica svendsen for the links… so who wants to go to paris?

why flickr rulz/arian behzadi/full circle

ok flickr is awesome… we all know this by now. it is endless place for inspiration, actual resources (flickr commons anyone?) and i love seeing how different people utilize it as a social media platform or just a place to showcase their work. one of my favorite aspects of flickr is that you can see someones work and also, if they keep up with it, thier actual inspiration from flickr… so you are inspired by someone and you also get to be inspired by what they are inspired by and it just goes on and on and maybe eventually it could get back to you…ahhh full circle!

ok geek out over

let me introduce my latest inspiration circle starter arian behzadi
i will give you a moment to take it in….

the vintage images… mix of cut and paste and paint, and dont get me started on the pastel colors… so good! so as i was jumping around arians page, i saw his inspiration set, which is equally delicious. and just at that moment i got a little taste of the full circle effect, well kinda.

my friend catharine and i have this blog, well actually it is more of a visual virtual dialog where we just post and colaborate on different stuff, layer tennis style but instead of lasting an hour… it will last forever 🙂
ok so cat just posted this and low and behold look what i found in arians favorites folder… it’s not the exact same thing but still how rad! i just love the internets sometimes, don’t you?

old photos are awesomeee

ok lets make one thing clear…. i love vintage photography. actually i don’t love it, im obsessed. im always on the look out for old magazines from the 60’s or 70’s and once i find one you can see me devouring it, photocopying it, and using it as soon as possible in my next art project. i just started this book using old photos from my grandparents house that is quite possibly my favorite project ever. old photos and family members yesss! but you know what is even better than old family photos… old family photos reenacted years later. double yesssss! i would like to introduce buenos aires photographer irina werning. she started this awesome project called back to the future

‘I love old photos. I admit being a nosy photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today… A few months ago, I decided to actually do this. So, with my camera, I started inviting people to go back to their future.’

i want to do it sooo badly sooo sooo badly… who’s with me… lets go back to the future!

s’ marvelous pretty baby

ok so we all know i love the 1950’s and 60’s. you didnt… well i do and just with a little time with me you will too! there is just something about the style and the colors and patterns that were popular then that never ceses to inspire me. it’s the simplicity, the class, the bright colors and poka dots that are just so perfect! so combine some vintage imagery and patterns and almost any thrift store and what do you get? vintage album covers! today i spent a few hours at my favorite walmart size thrift store americas thrift store and like always i found some major inspiration! these images are from flickr, but this is the kind of stuff that is all over the thrift store. the imagery of course is beautiful, but the thing that always gets me is the typography. typefaces from back in the day were a lot less available and a lot better. you only had a few options but those options were on par! quality vs quantity people. and the color schemes! its like they had no boundaries they just did what they wanted. take the smavelous cover… i dont know if i would ever feel comfortable using rainbow typography, but there it just works. so lets take a note from these classics, use rainbow typography and wear fancy ball gowns.

summer light

before this post starts (dang it has already started) but before we get too far watch this video or at the very least watch a few sec and listen to the song… ill wait till you get back.

how do you feel eh? lovely, lazy, warm? in the mood for an iced drink? yes thats how i feel all the time because i cant stop listening to this music.

we all know it’s winter and we dont want to be cold anymore, i mean yeah its fun to bundle and wear layers and play with colors, for heavens sake i went to paris for three weeks and spent the majority of it looking like this

i know layers are fun but i need summer and i need it now!

this is where music and videos save the day. for the past 2 weeks i have be playing nonstop happy summer music and it has really affected my mood. it doesnt hurt that there are awesome videos like the one above oh and this guy…

seriously watch it! it’s more magical than the first even! so yeah cool lillie you like summer music we all do what is the point? well i think i am realizing how much affect what you are looking at and listening to has on your day to day. which is totally important considering im a graphic designer. it is my job to make sure what you people have to see is atleast worth your brain space. i feel happy and inspired… not just because of the lovely music, but because i have a fesh perspective on my job…. im going to make happy things all the time forever… ok well maybe not forever but at any chance i get its gonna be goooood 🙂

friends and fashion

recently we have been talking in class about making your work relative to what you love, more than  just design what makes you tick, the thing that drives your life and makes what you create special and not something anyone else in the world can come up with. we have also discussed the simple pleasures in life and what is it that  i fall back on when i hit a creative block? i  usually find having a real deep conversation with the people in my life i respect so rewarding. i love investing in people and getting to that level of intimacy where you can just open up and talk about all the confusing stuff… not that i dont have it all figured out already i mean come on im almost 21years old! hello ive got it all together people… not really 🙂 and on a totally different note i find the simple pleasure in putting on a perfect outfit for the day. i love being creative and controlling a little bit of how i portray myself to the world. i get the chance everyday to put together colors or patterns in a way most people who see me would never think to do, in a way i like to think im a little inspiration sometimes to the math people or business people on campus. woah that sounds a bit conceited but realy i love sharing the creative juices outward through my clothing. if you dont know what i mean just look here…

via the saritorialist

banners ya’ll

banners are a very prevalent thing here on the internet, i never really noticed them that much till we were assigned to go find some intersting ones… hehe yea a bit harder than you would imagine, i mean just go to any site and you will see flashy ugly crowded adds trying to get you to click, but i dont click ugly things… im a visual snob you see. here is a perfect example of a bad banner…

the images are just floating there is a glow around the text, it’s just super generic . my classmates and i decided that to make a good banner it needs to be clean and simple, not filled with blinking lights to get your attention. a good banner should clearly portray what you are trying to tempt the viewer to get to by clicking, but still have that something that makes it stand out from the rest. here are two i particularly liked the 3 similar images transitioned, which is an easy way to use movement to attract the eye.

im always attracted by abstract photography so this one really caught my eye, the contrast of the type could have been handled a bit better, but it gets my attention, is super simple and tells me exactly what it is about, both textually and visually through the image, it actually makes me say huh? so final thoughts on banners, they should not be exempt in the design world, they are just as important as any other design piece and should be delt with carefully, for such a small plane its important to treat it with care… got it, good now go make pretty stuff or i wont click it… i warned you 🙂