On that IG : Wanderlust

Saying something like "I LOOOVE Instagram!" is stalker language for "I'm a little lot obsessed with secretly creeping around the lives of total strangers + I spend too much time doing it."

sianricho : Hokiang Harbour, NZ

But dang it, I LOVE Instagram. Scrolling though my feed isn't the most productive part of my day, but you better believe it gets done on the daily.

I get that many/most/all images have been set up, styled + aren't actually candid or in the moment, including some of my own. People spend a lot of time on IG and for good reason : fame + fortune + Rihanna + procrastination!

Plus, throwing a filter over that otherwise mundane pic of your din has to be the easiest way to show how freaking rad your life is - Do you see the way the light hits the chicken? So good! #nomnom.

maraserene : somewhere in the Redwood forest / thethriftstorecowboy : Horseshoe Springs, UT

As narcissistic + inconsequential as IG can be it's also pretty inspirational.  And getting to see the world through others' eyes makes me so overwhelmingly wanderlust-y, that I'll hop on AirBnB while simultaneously pricing out flights for my next imaginary vaca. It's fun + someday I'll pull the trigger and book that swanky flat in Cape Town. Either way, I love the accessibility of sharing images + how excited it makes me to see the world.

Who are your favorites on that IG?

Font Friday

from the top: Miss Ellen, Prism, REMARK

There is such thing as the perfect font and searching the internet for the perfect font / inspiration for a project is one of the most nerdy things I love to do.  dafont.com is my first stop because it's simple and easy to peruse. But, I usually end up downloading a bunch, only forget that I ever did and never use them -- and a perfect font is something I want to be able to go back to whenever I need it. To make things a little easier, I figured I'd compile my coolest font finds as a reoccurring post.  That way I always have access to them and you can peep them too : )

I N - T H I S - M O M E N T / 02

I am...

inspired by these beaded West African (Bemileke) Elephant Masks.  I snapped a picture of this one last week when I was at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  The beautiful beadwork got me.  It's so damn intricate! Just imagine how much thought and effort goes into all of thoes details...  I always wonder WHY?  What the hell did someone do all that for?  Don't you love how art invites you to be curious and ask questions and learn more?  It is such a powerful vehicle for communication and thought.  Plus, it's usually super weird and that's always fun.

taking a hand lettering class through Skillshare.com. Have you guys ever tried an online class like this?  It was only $20 dollars, so not much of an investment and definitely worth it if I can learn a thing or two about creating more illustrative text.  "Live well and rebel" is the phrase I'm working with and I'll report back when it's over!

looking forward to... like everyone else... SPRINGTIME.  And sunshine!  And bike adventures! Did you hear that weather? It's Spring.  So, man up and act like it.

preparing for a shop update in the next few weeks, a craft show in Cincinnati at the end of April and being a featured artist for the Tremont Art Walk in May!  There's a lot on my plate.  Lucky for me, I am one hell of an eater :)

Heyo, it's almost the weekend!  Happy Thursday!

all photos taken with iPhone / via instagram (on_the_lookout) / edited with AfterLight, Diptic and Over photography apps. 

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!

Collection: Wood You Rather?

[...a collection of wooden finds.  And a terrible, nonsensical pun, but yeah, I went there.]

As soon as I saw Alicia's pictures from her kitchen renovation, I instantly fell in love with their expansive, butcher-block counter. Dang, it looks so warm and pretty!

That got me thinking about one of my favorite materials to work with: wood.  Wood, people.  With all of its antiquated charm, wonderful scents, general abundance and raw unwillingness to be anything other than what it is -- Ever try to stain something exactly the color you want it, to only get a better (or worse) turn out?  You know what I mean.  

So, I put together a few of my favorite wooden finds right here for you!

one - Handcrafted, reclaimed wood headboard by Ariele Alasko, recently featured on The Makers Project.
two - Hand carved, oak rope swing.
three - DIY painted wooden platter.
four - Pretty, painted wooden bowl set.
five - Wooden handled bread spoons (Each spoon measures out the exact amount of each ingredient to make homemade bread.  Awesome.)
six - A handy guide for the practical folks.
seven - Mora tree branch wooden sling shot (I may or may not have climbed trees in my youth and shot acorns and rocks out of a device such as this. #dennisthemenacewannabe)
eight - Handcrafted, natural wood chest.
nine - Wooden nugget necklace.
ten - The stacked wedges of my dreams.

(Someday, I will have a wood shop in my studio/home - right across from the metal fabrication area and laser cutter.  And I'll play with the likes of power tools and hammers, tool belt slug around my waist and nails in hangin' out of my mouth.  I'll bang around, measure twice, cut once, get lots of splinters and rescue wooden pieces and parts to turn what was once waterlogged and damp/ dry and brittle/ trashed and forgotten into pretty pieces to be loved again.  #dreamvivid)

SMITH/GREY Jewelry - Processes

Some snapshots of the duo at SMITH/GREY doing what they do best - creating cool and unique wares.  Oh lord, this sure makes me want to get my metalsmithing and lost-wax casting game on!

via.

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.

Ira Glass on the Creative Process...

[Wise words for all of us creative types out there, who have lovely dreams of eventually getting it just right...]

via Rennes.

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.)

White Walls?

[interior space crisis...]

This fireplace is perfection.

 above images via A Merry Mishap.

 above images via the DwellStudio Blog.

 image from fellow fellow.

images via design*sponge.

swiped from oh joy! -- image by unison home.

For someone who demanded that they be the final judge in wall colors for our new house, I'm awfully surprised that I'm even thinking what I'm thinking right now...

I kind of hate dislike our walls.  They were colorfully painted less than two years ago, all of them laboriously scrapped, mudded, primed and painted by Z and I am already sick of them.  I think it's the failed attempts at daily photography (all I want is a SIMPLE backdrop, people!) or the abundance of grey cloud coverage in Ohio.  Or maybe it's the fab interior inspiration I've been seeing everywhere.  But, I love how light, airy, bright and new a space with white walls looks.  And it seems as though colorful decor, prints and dark wooden floors then become more of the spotlight, no?  Either way, white walls seem to be calling and I have a bedroom that I'm allowed to re-decorate soon, so I might take the jump with that.  What do you think?  Or maybe something a bit less drastic, like a super-pale, mint-grey hue?    I'm going to go ahead and say if you're going to make anything white, it might as well be the walls.  The thought of having to (successfully) clean white furniture will forever give me the creeps...

So Insipred // Supakitch and Koralie

They done did it again and I'm still drooling over the fabulousness that is this pair.   I can't get over how beautiful their creative process is.  Ugh, this is probably one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen and I freaking love it.

swiped from Honestly, WTF.

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.

Jill Stuart Spring 2012

Plush colors, feminine silhouettes and bold shapes have me obsessing over the 2012 Spring/Summer RTW line by Jill Stuart.  The whole collection seems to be a nod to Candy Land (aka the best game ever for ages 4-10 and 28), the working woman and fairy tale princesses all in one.  Great color inspiration and it goes to show that juicy pastels DO have a place in the land of fashion.  Not my usual style, but I enjoy it!