Katie Kirk

Katie Kirk is a graphic designer and illustrator living and working in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With a love of vector art and patterns, Katie is always in the mood to scheme, collaborate and create. Together with her husband, Nathan Strandberg, they started EightHourDay, a multi-disciplinary, multi-talented design boutique. integrated organically. Most often found either at the studio, the dog park or an antique shop they aspire for the designed life(style), a place where work, life and inspiration are all equal and integrated organically. Via Graphic-Exchange.

Keep Gmail Clean

In Russian word "email" translates as "мылo" - it means "soap". Our main benefit is Spam protection, and our message is "clean email". Physical Gmail soap can be distributed in universities dormitories (students are in need of washing), as a viral giveaway.
By irinablok.

MoMA Store Products

As you may or may not know, I am in New York at the moment. One of the first things I wanted to see was the famous Museum of Modern Art. Every Thursday afternoon the museum has a free admission and it attracts a great deal of people (otherwise the tickets are $20). The art lovers (those with empty wallets) start forming a queue an hour or so earlier, sitting at the pavement (sidewalk for the American readers!), reading, chatting, drinking their ice coffee from Starbucks. After 4 o'clock they go in to feast their eyes on five floors of amazing art collection. I'm going to post a couple of things from the exhibitions, but for now here's a few products from the MoMA store. I have to go back there one of these days and buy something to take home with me.
Chat Plates, Ikuko Nakazawa
Quirky and charming, these plates were designed to resemble conversation bubbles from manga, or Japanese comics. This set of three plates features one large plate and two smaller plates and is perfect for serving small meals and snacks. Made of porcelain.




Bate-Papo Stool, Flavia Pagotti Silva Inspired by stools used in the Brazilian countryside, designer Flavia Pagotti Silva created this contemporary seat. In Portuguese, "bate-papo" refers to an informal conversation between friends. This low, comfortable stool, made of four plywood disks attached to the chair's frame through ball joints is meant to be used casually and as additional seating in informal settings. Made of plywood, ball joints, recycled rubber, and metal tubing.

Palette Serving Set,Takeshi Asai. A creative way to serve appetizers or other food, this white porcelain plate is designed like an artist's palette with a hole to grip it for easy carrying. It has a rimmed edge and comes with three colorful stoneware dipping bowls.

A Cat And A Knife

OK, this might be pretty scary... I'm not sure I would like to look at that poor stabbed kitten everyday, while preparing breakfast in my kitchen.

By Robert Knight.

Yulia Brodskaya's PAPERgraphics

Yulia Brodskaya is a Russian designer living in the UK. She's mostly known for her incredible "papergraphic" designs - illustrations cut out of paper. She loves to "experiment and explore ways of bringing together all the things she likes most: typography, paper, and highly detailed hand-made craft objects". Her work is full of intricate details, beautiful colours and somehow always puts me in a better mood. I hope it works the same for you.

Book Covers by Megan Wilson

These two black beauties come from The Book Cover Archive, designed by Megan Wilson.
"Breakfast at Tiffany's", Truman Capote Publisher: Vintage, photographer: Horst P. Horst, Typefaces: Futura , hand lettered; "Selected Poems", W.H. Auden, Publisher: Vintage, photographer: Cecil Beaton Typefaces: Handsome , Sackers Gothic

Thorsten Van Elten - Bird Lamp

Beautiful bird lamp, coming in variety of colours. We have so (sooooo)  many pigeons in Krakow, this could easily become a design symbol of the city. Designed by Ed Carpenter, produced by Thorsten Van Elten.

Christian Vivanco's Outdoor Sofa

Just one single outline to create a sofa that follows the idea of a mixture between outdoor and indoor furniture.
The concept started with the search for an all-together furniture, but at the same time looking for a new expression for this kind of piece, a steel wireframe structure that support a comfortable but slim couch.

By Christian Vivanco. Via My Urban Garden Deco Style.

Holidays, here I come

And so it is. Today I am finally going on vacations. Holidays at last! I'm boarding a plane to New York and ...we'll see what happens. I'm hoping to Say Hi! to beautiful design and get truly inspired.
These photos probably don't reflect the destination I'm headed to, but I thought they might get you in a holiday mood at least for a moment. By Alexandra Grablewski.

Typefont t-shits

For all you font lovers! You can wear your favourites everyday.

Celebrating all your favorite Sans-Serif typefaces including Helvetica, Meta, Avenir, Frutiger, Officina, Optima, Gotham, Akzidenz Grotesk, Univers, Trade Gothic, Din, Agenda, Interstate, News Gothic, Myriad, Eurostile, Futura, and Gill Sans. (and NOT Arial)

Book Covers by Bogna Sroka

Book covers by a Polish illustrator Bogna Sroka, specializing in illustrations for magazines.

Mugs With Vitamins

Radish, Cucumber, onion, sweetcorn, pepper and asparagus are now available on fine bone china. The iconic design from 1975 looks great on white crockery, every meal will taste that little bit better but unfortunately it won’t count as one of your 5-a-day.
Designed by Graziela, produced by Thorsten Van Elten.

Kathleen Hills Ceramics

I ♥ the "two-headed" milk containers by a British designer Kathleen Hills. You can have the full fat and the skimmed milk in one container at the same time. One for the girlfriend and one for the boyfriend. A perfect breakfast for a perfect couple.

Book Covers with Alexandra Grablewski's photos

Collection of book covers using photographs by Alexandra Grablewski. I have a feeling I could spend hours just looking at the photos inside them...

Carafes By Etienne Meneau

We all know the French could not survive without their wine.The drinking process is even more enjoyable, if the wine is served in a classy (or interesting) decanter. These intricate beauties were designed by Etienne Meneau. His carafes resemble the veins system in the human body. They look like one especially when the carafe is filled with rich coloured red wine. It looks amazing. You may say they look like tree roots too, then it may imply that wine is somehow enrooted in you.

Etienne's carafes come in series, you can see all of them at his blog The Strange Carafes.

Make Bowls Not War

Bowl made from high-quality melted plastic toy soldiers. Each colour is made of figures from two opposing armies during a particular conflict.

Designed by Dominic Wilcox, produced by Thorsten Van Elten.

Yaroslav Rassadin's Saltshakers

These lime coloured salt and pepper shakers are shaped as Russian matrioshka's and come from a collection of kitchen ceramics by a Russian designer Yaroslav Rassadin.

'Famously perfected by Faberge in the late 1800’s the craft lives on today with Russian Designer Yar Rassadin whose Pantone Matryoshka collection takes inspiration from both the Pantone color matching system and a minimalist UFO style, making for a uniquely modern twist on the nearly 120 year old art form.' - Josh Spear

Russel Peters by Jordan Domont

Another great illustration by Jordan Domont.
I had the pleasure of painting the portrait of Canadian comedian Russell Peters for Toronto Life Magazine. It was part of a larger spread called “12 Reasons to Love Toronto”. I love getting the chance to paint comedians, they seem to lend themselves perfectly to my sense of color and the playfulness of my work. Featured in Toronto Life.

Gratitude Notes

You don't really have to wait for Thanksgiving, to realise what you should thank the destiny for. Thanks to Kindred, every day may be your Thanksgiving Day.

Simply print these out (...) and try to write down at least 3-5 things each day that you are grateful for. Perhaps you witnessed a random act of kindness. Someone let you go ahead of them in the check-out aisle. A good friend told you about her engagement. A special bouquet arrived in the mail. You saw a beautiful butterfly during your afternoon walk. Take note of these little happy moments.

Download the printable cards right here.

Do What You ♥ To Do

A world where everyone does what they love? Now that's a place I want to live!Over the years I have had many jobs to pay the bills. Most of which I didn't love. I've come to learn through hard experience that true happiness is forever tied in with doing what you love. It takes courage to do what you love so I've created this daily reminder. By theloveshop, via decor8.

Right here, writing this post, I'm doing exactly what I ♥ to do.

Lisa's Baby Girl

Beautiful pictures by Lisa Rupp. These photographs are part of a book I'm working on about my baby's first year. The idea is to capture moments and details of her life in a more artistic sort of way. I've been taking photos of her clothes, her favorite toys, the nursery, special events and her of course!

Bugs In A Blanket

Even if the thought of any kind of bed bugs completely freaks you out, we think your kids will be charmed by this story of little insects that live in and old blanket. Plus, the book evokes the coziness of the bugs' texture-rich world through the mixture of a felted wool technique and an amalgam of appliqué, fabrics, and stitching.

From Cookie.

Mary Had A Little Lamb

Tired of just following Mary to school, this lamb got a job as a fourth grade teacher's aid. The children still laugh and play when they see him, but the novelty has worn off a bit...especially on the days he gives them homework.

This lovely lady put on her best pearls just for you! Meet Victoria Swann, Crafty Cat. She enjoys knitting (she knitted this nice yellow sweater) and she also makes furniture out of salvaged materials. At the end of the day she likes to curl up with a good book and a cup of tea. I think it says it all. By Berkley Illustration.

Jamie Keenan Covers

Two book covers by Jamie Keenan. Ying and Yang. Black and White.
The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead by David Shields (publisher: Vintage) and Bang Crunch by Neil Smith (publisher: Vintage).

Speaking of hand-writing. I'd love to find something as gorgeous as this, in my mailbox...

From top: an amazing calligrapher Jenna Hein from Brooklyn, NY (which is where I'm headed next week!), hand-made jewlery from Etsy and a photo by Alexandra Grablewski.

The Lost Art of Sending Postcards

I used to love a song by Queens of the Stone Age called "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret". These days someone should wirte one about "The Lost Art of Sending Poscards", or letters, for that matter. Spending days on countless emails and text messages, typing on the keyboard - I get tired after hand-writing a single page.

Miaw Miaw

I imagine this has something to do with cats... Hard to say though, if you don't speak Japanese. By Antenna Studio.

Illustrations by Jordan Domont

Jordan Domont is an illustrator from Portland. Here's a short description of his style: To infuse depth and iluminosity into his work, Jordan employs a palette of punchy hues. Experimenting, he discovered that when inks layer heavily onto Mylar, it creates a rich, almost melted effect. Pigments become slightly volatile, even mercurial, and their behavior enlivens the entire process. His portfolio is also presented at The Loud Cloud.

Oh, in case you haven't recognised, from top: Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's War, Conan O'Brien, Joaquin Phoenix as Andy Kaufman's Tony Clifton character and Tina Fey.

Orla Kiley's Lookbook - Spring/Summer 2009

Let me qoute Orla Kiely's website, instead of developing my own theory on her design: "The world of Orla Kiely is one where colour, pattern, graphic control, texture and rhythm continually work and rework together. Orla has a unique, immediately recognisable design language, developed through graphic patterns that celebrate her optimistic spirit."
I might try to buy one of these, during an upcoming trip to New York...

Harajuku Lovers

Harajuku is a district in Tokyo, apparenly well know for its unique street style and fun atmosphere. There are numerous blogs about it and now Gwen Stefani's perfumes - Harajuku Lovers - are also named after the district. Their packaging comes with little dolls, representing the Harajuku street style.

Bake yourself ...a boyfriend.

Really, wouldn't it be easier to bake them...? Time-saving idea by Flipflop Design.

Book Covers by Hanna Backman

Hanna Backman is a member of Lula, "a multi-disciplinary art and design partnership based in Sweden". I stumbled upon her profile while searching for package design for The Dieline (I posted her wine packaging for Mont Tauch). Here's a collection of her book covers.

Mouse Graphics - print portfolio

Mouse Graphics, a design studio from Greece, happens to be one of my all time favourites. I post their packaging design to The Dieline, but there's more to their genius than that. Here's a few things from their print portfolio.

Eliza Logan

Eliza Logan is an old friend of mine. We met a long time ago, back in the days when she worked in the Polish branch of EMI. She was our door to the world of interviews with our favourite bands. I still remember the day we met Chumbawamba, in their days of biggest glory, after the release of Tubthumping. Or the Blur party for their 10th anniversary in London, or meeting Dandy Warhols... She now lives in L.A and is known by the name Francis Poland. I would ♥ to own this painting of hers...

The Book Cover Archive

If I had to choose the one type of design I could do in my life, it would deifinitely be the book cover designing. I only designed two covers myself, and they were not spectacular, but I love the process of trying to fit the essence of literature in a picture, combining two arts in one. Check out The Book Cover Archive for an amazing dose of inspiration.

Love Birds

Lovely love-birds by Death By Colour, from UK. Check out their design for Lunar Vine at The Dieline, it's spectacular.

Espuna Tapas

I think the packaging for Espuna Tapas, with the design imitating chalk writing on a blackboard,
is simply cute.

One O'Clock Gun on your desktop

Great pictures for your computer desktop. The top one served me as one for months. By One O'Clock Gun from Scotland.

Lucy In The Sky (with a book)

Painted with acrylic paint, ink, gel pen, pencil and marker on a vintage book page from 1892.Mounted on white acid free textured cardboard. Ready to get framed. By Annette Mangseth.

Lilly Pullitzer

Great summery outfits by Lilly Pulitzer. Love both colours and patterns.

Funky Milk

Milk packaging by Jacek Spyrczyński (from Myways) for LemonBlue. It's just a design concept, as the idea was rejected by the client beacause it was "too funky"! What's wrong with funky though? Wouldn't you like to have it on the table, while reaching for milk for your coffee?