Mid-day menu from Dobbs Ferry in Hayes Valley on 03/03/2012.

Retro Taco Train on magazine

Lately I’ve been experimenting with taking my personal work from the digital realm to the physical. The irony of this strikes me because the work I’ve been exploring handwriting (human typography) and dealing with it as imagery rather than written representation.

Lonely Creepy Private Comfortable Train on magazine

It bothers me that someone can only look at my work – I want people to interact with, touch, and be able to look at my work from different perspectives. As a designer who has made a career out of creating things digitally, I understand what a complete cynic I sound like when I say that digital design feels empty when it isn’t paired with some sort of tangible design.

More on this another time. I’m heading back to my sketchpad and cutting board.

Word poem #1: An experiment in human typography

These word poems are part of my Human Typography Experiment. An effort to revitalize appreciation for the ordinary.

Pardon the silence but it’s been difficult to find motivation over the past couple of months. I’ve decided to start posting work I find interesting in order to help spark some inspiration. If you know me, you know I love weird and quirky. You’ve been warned:

I’ve got a secret. I kind of like ugly design.

Shockingly (or not), I don’t seem to be the only person in the design community who harbors this secret. In fact, a few months ago, Design Observer posted an article on How To Be Ugly. It was a controversial article that included 84 comments with varied responses.

You may laugh, but there is a definite difference between bad and ugly design. Bad design typically means the designer failed. Ugly design is intentional.

I’ve collected a few ugly sites that I love and want to hear feedback. Do you secretly love ugly too?

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Base Design
Let’s start off with an easy one. Base doesn’t classify as completely ugly. The structure and visual impact of the site is great but they’ve got a great start on ugly with the navigation.

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Toormix
I’m a sucker for yellow and black, so combine a little ugly with those colors and Toormix has me swooning. The hovers and navigation interaction on this site are genius.

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Irregular Choice
I gasped when I first saw this site, and it wasn’t just because of these shoes. Irregular Choice, a fairly high-end online store, took ugly to an entirely new level. Can you imagine trying to get something like this approved at Nine West? A totally different target market, but I digress.

Even though it’s a short week, it’s been a busy one for me at B’stro. And while I could be riding the train home in the evenings, my husband has been kind enough to pick me up from work the past two nights. Isn’t he great!?

That being said, in lieu of my commute design project, I wanted to share a very cool, informative new website. I’m absolutely in love with Say100, a site that features one of my favorite bloggers, Swiss Miss, along with 9 other experts. The goal of the site? Identify 100 voices that matter.

Check it out – you’ll love it!

Lately, Erin over at Design for Mankind has been encouraging her followers to create a Life List. While I don’t know that I’m ready to share mine yet, I do have a few items to tackle for 2011.

1. Find my style
While I’ve always been proud to have grown up in Kansas, and have lived in small midwest towns for all of my 27 years, I admit, it doesn’t do much for your selection of clothing. I tend to flip flop back and forth between Forever 21, LOFT, and Banana Republic. With an abundance of styles and fashion choices just a month away, I’ve decided this is the year. I’m gonna find it.
Photo from Rachel Larraine Headpieces

2.  Learn letterpress
I once read that if you write your goals down you are more likely to accomplish them, and I’ve always wanted to learn letterpress. So there. Done. Plus, I secretly hope to find a job in San Francisco at a design / letterpress shop.
Photo from HotBedPress.org

3. Apply to grad school (recycled)
This one is recycled from last year’s to do list and I’ve already got a good start. I had all of my schools picked out and was in the process of applying when we learned that we would be moving, so it was pushed to the back burner. Well back burner no more! Grad school, here I come.
Photo from RISD.edu

Three seems like a good number of goals (I have a thing for odd numbers) but I have a fourth goal which is really more of a challenge.

4. Learn something new about myself
I’m not typically the type of person who thinks about who I am or what I want to be. In fact, I’m the type of personal who tends to do things on a whim (which can be really, really good, or really, really bad). So this year, while it may seem like an odd goal to some of you, I challenge myself to take some time to learn just one new thing about who I am. Can I do it? We’ll see in 2012.
Photo from Tina Tyrell

Last year I was asked lead the capstone course required by all Visual Communication and Design majors at IPFW (Indiana-University Purdue-University, Fort Wayne). As you might guess it was an amazing opportunity that I did not decline.

The course runs for two semesters, so my first class is preparing to exhibit this Friday, December 10 at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. We’ll be kicking things off at 6:30pm with an awards ceremony and exhibition opening to follow from 7:00 – 9:00pm.

We’re honored that Carla Tedeschi, Communication Design coordinator at Texas Tech University, has agreed to juror the show and will be presenting the awards during the ceremony. I’m proud of all the hard work that has been put into the show and would love to see you there!

* The exhibition opening will be catered by Chops Wine Bar if that’s any incentive

In the meantime, check out the students’ website at or visit the teaser show at IPFW.

This thanksgiving, don’t just eat those yummy vegetables – play them. Happy Thanksgiving to all of my U.S. friends!

Thanks to Base Design for the link

After working directly with clients for over two years, I’ve realized that it only satisfies a part of my need to create.