Want it: Micaela Greg Knitwear

[It's supposed to be a lot getting colder out... eventually.  I think.  So, in order to divert any cold-weather complaints (sadly, for which I am known) I'll be using the impending chill as an excuse to stock pile some handmade, layering pieces to my otherwise barren, fall wardrobe.  The Micaela Greg A/W 2012 Collection has just the right amount of geometric patterning and neutral knits to empty my already-almost-empty) wallet quite quickly.

Sisters Marie and Karen Protesta and have an extensive/life-long background in fashion and design and use their know-how to create 'visually bold knitwear, both with an artful quality and boyishly cool aesthetic.'  I'm loving every little bit!  See the rest of the collection here.]

via Blog Milk.

Crave // FALCONWRIGHT

[Hey cute clutch, HEY.]

all images via falconwright.

The handmade accessory line, FALCONWRIGHT epitomizes everything I love about the whole creative and crafty movement that is booming right now: Fun, artistic collabs with friends; adorable, quality goods; little peeks at the handmade process; and faces to go along with the things you buy and love.  I'm a big fan of what these ladies do, both together and on their own (here and here).  Plus, they have me jonesing for a weekend trip to Toronto ASAP, a fine (close-ish) city that somehow never really got any blips on my radar previously.

I'm pumped that they've seen so much success and still turn out a fabulous collection of goodies that are literally flying off the internet.  And since I just got my first ever, official on-the-lookout business cards done, I better snatch up a cute, patterned card holder before everything is sold out!  Shop the newest additions to their store and check out the FALCONWRIGHT blog for some laughs and serious, screen printing know-how.

otl Branding // Mood Board & Logo Design

I see a lot of graphic designers throwing up mood boards, like and this and this, to help with them with design projects and branding, so I thought I might just do one for the onthelookout as well! #fakeittilyoumakeit.

Coming up with a logo and overall feel for this brand is something that I've been wanting to take on for a while, but haven't necessarily thought I was ready to do.  There are just so many options out there!  Color schemes, fonts, packaging, mission statements, etc etc.  When you have complete creative freedom, it can be hard to narrow down just what you like, no?  Pinterest has been a great resource for helping me compile all of the visually inspiring stuff out there, so I used that to pull together this first mood board.  I gave myself 10 minutes to look through and select all of the pins that reminded me of my vision for onthelookout.  I think the time limit was helpful, lest I spend hours on something that is supposed to be pretty quick and organic.  I hope that studies like this will help me narrow down the goods and edits out the "unnecessaries."  Plus, I am dying to get a some business cards and a custom stamp made for packaging.  At the very least, it was fun to do!

Colors and shapes are pretty consistent here: Pink, blue-grey, black, and gold appear everywhere on my Pinterest boards and in the colors around my house.  Oh and I love me some triangles and geometric, deco-inspired shapes.  However, I'm still on the fence about the logo... I can't decide if I like the blocky text or hand-written script look.  Thoughts?

I'd love to see any mood boards that you've done!

Decorate Your Space // DIY Paper Pennant

Life in my new apartment is finally running smoothly with all of the needed (read: boring) items purchased: Light bulbs, cleaning stuffs, paper towels, utensils, etc.  Now, it's time to get a jump on the FUN decorations and cheer up the place!  I'm only planning on staying in this space for the next year, so easy-to-make decorations that are inexpensive, that can be moved easily and that don't require much planning are key.  And since I always want my life to feel like a good party, I decided that stringing up a few garlands would be the way to get it did.

This paper, pennant garland was SO easy to make and I tacked it up with just a bit of tape and I was good to go!  Plus, you gotta admit, it looks like a giant, toothy grin and how can that not put a smile on your lovely face?

You will need:

• Colored card stock or construction paper
• Glue (Tacky or wood)
• A pencil
• Scissors or an exacto knife
• String (I used a neon pink shoelace) 
• Ruler

(Neatly assemble your supplies.)

(Measure out an isosceles or equilateral triangle on a piece of paper and cut it out.  Use that as a template to trace out 10-15 triangles on the rest of your paper.  Then, cut them bad boys out.)

(Squeeze out a bead of glue at the top of your triangles and stick them onto the string.  Use your ruler to space them equally - mine are 2 inches apart.  Both tacky glue and wood glue dry super fast, which means your triangles shouldn't fall off when you try to hang this without letting the glue dry completely. #impatient)

(Hang, admire and SMILE.)

Pattern & Lettering : Sasha Prood

How cool are the patterns and hand-letting created by artist Sasha Prood?  Check out her online portfolio, she has a lot of neat pen, pencil, and watercolor illustrations and digital logo designs as well!

via Behance.

Brianna Fano Spring 2012 Collection

[Phenomenal pieces of beautiful, geometric jewelry...]

 (It looks like the rope-as-jewelry trend is sticking around, AWESOME.)

( Loving these tiny little hinges, an idea for jewelry I would have never thought of!)

Images and designs by Brianna Fano.

Happy Weekend

These photos by Angela Hardison are brillz.  And now I have a craving to go hot air ballooning and photag'ing like no other.  They just evoke a feeling of happiness and hope and play that I will definitely carry into a sure-to-be-fabulous weekend; I hope you do as well!  (And be sure to check out her beautiful blog too.)

Ilona Kohn

I'm having a major crisis of the I WANTS right now, spurred on by the creations of another amazing designer and blogger.  Someone, please give me the strength to not buy beautiful things that deserve to be bought'n.  Suede ankle booties, I'm talking to you too.

Color Shock : Maya Huyak

Image dump and  video of extreme awesomeness by muralist, painter, photographer and overall badass, Maya Huyak.  'Bright, massive, intricate and joyful' is how he describes her work.  I could not agree more.

via.

The Daily Draw (Collage)

This is my most recently project for the Visual Design class I'm taking.  The idea was to create a collage that simultaneously showed unity and disunity.  Naturally I choose to use cut outs of triangles only (unity), but of differing colors and orientation (disunity). I quite like the outcome and the cat was amused...until he realized that all shapes were firmly affixed with wood glue.  Cat-chaos plan, FOILED!


...And while we're on the subject of cats, I bring to you some neat cat-themed prints via LPP.

Bark Decor

In love.  With everything.

Selling my own, handmade accessories, screen printed t-shirts, and original illustrations = my ULTIMATE dream job.  One step at a time...

Stop It Right Now

Seriously?  Fantastic prints (Celine Spring 2011 RTW Collection)  screened onto skateboards?  And a cute pup outfit to match?  Stop it right now, this is so freaking cool.

via.